Barnaby Rudge

by Charles Dickens

Overview

When Barnaby and his mother are harassed by a mysterious stranger, they flee to the capital, where they unwittingly become embroiled in an anti-Catholic protest that quickly becomes political. Swept up by events, Barnaby is imprisoned, rescued, betrayed, and sentenced to die.

Barnaby Rudge was Charles Dickens’s first historical novel. It was published serially starting in 1840 in Master Humphrey’s Clock, a weekly magazine written and edited by Dickens. The story takes place against the backdrop of the Gordon Riots, the most destructive social unrest in London in the eighteenth century.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781473372467
Publisher:	Read Books Ltd.
Publication date:	05/08/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	1112
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was one of England's greatest writers. Best known for his classic serialized novels, such as Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, and Great Expectations, Dickens wrote about the London he lived in, the conditions of the poor, and the growing tensions between the classes. He achieved critical and popular international success in his lifetime and was honored with burial in Westminster Abbey.

Date of Birth:

February 7, 1812

Date of Death:

June 18, 1870

Place of Birth:

Portsmouth, England

Place of Death:

Gad's Hill, Kent, England

Education:

Home-schooling; attended Dame School at Chatham briefly and Wellington

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

vi

Introduction

vii

Note on the Text

xxv

Note on the Illustrations

xxvi

Select Bibliography

xxx

A Chronology of Charles Dickens

xxxv

Map: London at the time of the Gordon Riots, 1780

xlviii

Preface 1841

3

Preface 1849

5

Barnaby Rudge

9

Appendix A

The Gordon Riots

662

Appendix B

Historical Sources and Contemporary Contexts

667

Appendix C

Dickens and Scott

673

Explanatory Notes

677

Editorial Reviews

"One of Dickens' most neglected, but most rewarding, novels."  —Peter Ackroyd, author, London: The Biography

"I would always prefer to go get another Dickens off the shelf than pick up a new book by someone I've not read yet."  —Donna Tartt, author, The Little Friend

From the Publisher

"One of Dickens's most neglected, but most rewarding, novels."
—Peter Ackroyd

"I would always prefer to go get another Dickens off the shelf than pick up a new book by someone I've not read yet." —Donna Tartt

"Nothing seems more quintessentially British than Charles Dickens."
—The Times

"Charles Dickens is one of the giants of English literature."
—Sunday Express

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