Barnaby Rudge is a historical novel set in the 1700’s by the English author Charles Dickens. The novel focuses on the Gordon Riots, a series of anti-Catholic disturbances that took place in London in 1780. The story first appeared in 1841. It was serialized in weekly parts in Master Humphrey’s Clock, a magazine founded in 1840 by Dickens himself. However, it was less successful than The Old Curiosity Shop, the novel that Dickens had written just before it.
Barnaby Rudge was the first of only two historical novels that Dickens wrote, the second being A Tale of Two Cities (1859). In Barnaby Rudge, Dickens draws a parallel between the anxieties caused by the Gordon Riots and the anxieties of the mid-1800’s about Chartism, a movement to extend suffrage (voting rights) to the working classes. The Gordon Riots caused major disturbances and damage throughout London. They were named after Lord George Gordon, a Protestant fanatic, who appears in the novel. The book contains powerful descriptions of mob violence, which ends with the burning of Newgate Prison. A new prison was completed two years after the Gordon rioters damaged the old prison in 1780. It was the site for public hangings.
One of the main characters in Barnaby Rudge is Geoffrey Haredale, a Roman Catholic and a country gentleman. He once had a brother, Reuben, who was murdered, but the culprit was never discovered. Haredale has a bitter enemy, Sir John Chester, whose son Edward has fallen in love with Haredale’s niece Emma. Despite their hatred for each other, Haredale and Chester jointly attempt to prevent the marriage. Meanwhile, Chester has helped to stir up anti-Catholic feeling, which results in the Gordon Riots. During the riots, Geoffrey Haredale’s house is set on fire and Emma is kidnapped. However, Edward Chester saves both Haredale and Emma. Out of gratitude, Haredale agrees to the marriage of Edward and Emma.
Barnaby Rudge, an intellectually disabled boy who is swept up in the rioting, is arrested and sentenced to hang, though at the last moment he is pardoned. Haredale finds an older man named Mr. Rudge, the long-sought murderer of his brother Reuben. Rudge also turns out to be the father of Barnaby. The elder Mr. Rudge is executed for the murder of Reuben Haredale. One of the central themes of the book is the demoralizing effect of capital punishment. This theme is explored through the characters of Dennis the Hangman and Hugh, the hostler (person who takes care of the horses at an inn), who is discovered to be a son of Sir John Chester. Other important characters are Mrs. Rudge, Barnaby’s mother; Gabriel Varden, the locksmith; Simon Tappertit, his apprentice; and John Willett, who runs the Maypole Inn and whose son Joe is in love with Varden’s daughter Dolly.
See also Dickens, Charles.
