Barnaby Rudge – Charles Dickens

 This is one off my Book-et List, completing the fourteen (finished) novels of Charles Dickens. I read Oliver Twist in 1975, David Copperfield in 1977, ploughed through six novels in the 1980s, two in the 1990s, two more in the noughties, and the last prior to this in 2009.

Set earlier than most of his novels, we are in the period of the Gordon Riots of the 1780s, when the mob, whipped up by Lord George Gordon, head of the Protestant Association, took to the streets to protest at the removal of official anti-Catholic discrimination that had been in place since 1698.

Dickens’ plots cannot be given justice in a precis so instead, themes and characters. Star crossed lovers across the religious divide, Edward Chester and Emma Haredale; their respective father and uncle, lifelong enemies; good-hearted Joe Willet, at odds with his innkeeper father and rebuffed by flighty locksmith’s daughter, Dolly Varden, who prefers to bask in the attention of the local dandies.

Then there is Barnaby Rudge, a simple youth eager to please and easily led. By, for example, black-hearted ‘gypsy looking’ Hugh, who sees the riots as an outlet for his violent tendencies, and apprentice locksmith Simon Tappertitt, who fancies himself as a commander of the rabble.

The action ranges between London and its hinterland. Catholic’s property is at risk from the rioters; the rioters are at risk from the military; the ladies are at risk from the villains; love is at risk of being frustrated; and poor young Barnaby Rudge, an innocent abroad amid the chaos, is at the most risk of all.

The characters may be stock rather than memorable, but the descriptions of the riots are vivid and filled with jeopardy.

So, with Dickens done with, my pick of his fourteen major works are: Great Expectations, Bleak House, and Our Mutual Friend.