Having left Dickens until later in life, I just completed Barnaby Rudge as part of my attempt to go through his novels in chronological order, starting with Pickwick. Barnaby Rudge is a very different animal from the 4 prior novels, patterned after it was on the swashbuckling historical style of Scott. It's so different from Old Curiosity Shop, which he was writing at the same time as Barnaby Rudge, that it's hard to believe it's the work of the same author, except for the quality of exceptionally vivid characterizations that pervade all the books.

I knew nothing of the historical events upon which the book is based, that, at the time of original publication, were well known to most Londoners, almost as well known as 9/11 is known by contemporary New Yorkers. Dickens seemed to have anticipated this problem, as the historical recreation is so beautifully folded into the melodrama that I never felt left behind. DON'T READ THE INTRODUCTION as too many plot points were given away and spoiled some of the dramatic impact for this reader. Save the introduction for afterward.

The characters are so memorable, it is painful to have to complete the book and say goodbye to them. Especially John Willet, and his double-chin, which almost deserves billing as a character in and of itself, Sir John Chester, a poetic achievement to whom Oscar Wilde and Shaw owed enormous debts, Maypole Hugh, and Grip the Raven (from whom Poe got his idea for the poem "The Raven), are high water marks of achievement.

While I preferred some of the intensely personal, experimental style of the latter half of Oliver Twist and much of Old Curiosity Shop, the confident and bold tone of the narration in Barnaby is a shot of adrenaline in every chapter, and the power of description in Dicken's cinematic viewpoint is incredibly powerful and pulse-poundingly entertaining, while the whole time maintaing a savvy, but never cynical outlook when it comes to the socio-political themes.

Don't miss it.

Barnaby Rudge is one of Charles Dickens' lesser known and read novels--and that's a pity. The book is interesting, full of the kind of characters that Dickens is noted for, and full of action and exciting scenes. More significantly, it is one of his most thought provoking works, with a relevance that is applicable to today's world. It will leave you cheering for the good guys and grateful to see that the bad guys (and gals) get what coming to them. The book is divided cleanly into two parts, the first taking place in 1775, depicts the comings and goings of four families and their assorted relations and friends. The second occurs five years later and focuses on an historical event, the riots which shook London to oppose rights for Catholics.

The book begins at the Maypole, an inn located just outside London and presided over by John Willet, a pompous know-it-all who intimidates his friends and dominates his son, Joe, to the point that he leaves to join the army by the end of this part. Hugh, an uneducated and violent man works for Willet handling animals. Down the road is the residence of Geoffrey Haredale, a country gentleman, and his niece Emma, a beautiful and gracious girl. Her father was mysteriously killed 22 years previously and the mystery runs through the book. Haredale is a Catholic and an antagonist to John Chester, an oily, Machiavellian, highly ambitious character. The only thing the two men have in common is their mutual desire to keep Chester's son Edward from a romance with Emma. In this they succeed and Edward, too, leaves at the end of part 1. The third household contains the Varden family. Gabriel, the father, is a locksmith kindly and a moderating influence throughout the book. Ultimately he plays a hero's role. His wife, Martha, constants nags him, aided and abetted by their servant, Miss Miggs, a comical character given to hysterics. Their daughter, Dolly, is beautiful and vivacious, but flirtatious and at this point does not return the love that Joe Willet shows for her. Simon Tappertit, an apprentice to Mr. Varden, also resides there. He is a ridiculous person with an exaggerated sense of himself and the clandestine leader of a group of similar apprentices with designs on engaging in violence against their masters. Finally there is the residence of the title character, Barnaby Rudge, who is a mentally deficient but happy and charming young man. He lives in genteel poverty with his mother. Mr. Rudge, who was the steward to the murdered Mr. Haredale, was also allegedly a victim. The cast of characters interacts in typical Dickens fashion for the first 33 (of 80) chapters.

The scene and mood shifts abruptly in the second part which gives a detailed and graphic account of the so-called "anti-popery" riots that took place in London in 1780. The reader would do well to read an independent account of these events before reading Dickens' version. The above cast of characters is joined in part two by an additional group including some from actual life (Lord George Gordon, the instigator of the riots and Ned Dennis, one of the ringleaders to name but two). The riots bring out the best and the worst of all the characters. Barnaby is conned into joining the rioters and ends up in prison condemned to be hanged, the Maypole Inn is sacked and John Willet, humiliated, bound and gagged, the Haredale residence is set ablaze and Emma and Dolly taken prisoner, many houses are burned, people killed, Newgate prison is broken into, destroyed and all the prisoners released. The riots end with a harrowing scene is which dozens of people are burned to death by flaming alcohol.

The execution scene, where three of the "ringleaders" are to be hanged is one of the most powerful parts of the book. Dickens gives a vivid account of the conditions and circus atmosphere that surrounds this event. In Hugh's powerful and eloquent speech Dickens also gives a condemnation of British society that creates such persons. Hugh at this point is the most moral person in the book and goes to his death with bravery and courage. This scene alone is well worth reading the book for.

In the end, of course, everything is sorted out, justice is delayed but not denied and we have a happy ending.

If the book can be said to suffer it is from the lack of a strong central character around whom the plot revolves. There is no real hero here or even a singular villain. Joe and Edward, either of whom might have filled the former role are largely absent from much of the book and only show up again after the riots have ended. Gabriel Varden comes closest to that role but is more acted upon than actor until the closing chapters. The most likely candidate for villain, John Chester, likewise disappears at the end of part one. Hugh, Simon and Dennis emerge as a trio of rouges joined by Gashford, secretary to Lord Gordon and a blind man who cries plaintively, why must I be good just because I am blind? The murderer, of course, is also lurking around. But none of these individuals stands apart from the rest and the hero versus villain theme is muted. The book is really about events and how these events shape and change the life of the characters for better or worse.

In the end you will find yourself thinking about Barnaby Rudge for days afterward and it will leave a mark on your life. Nothing more positive can be said about any book.

This is a review of the BBC Radio dramatization version of this book.

The story is a good one, filled with politics of religion, sympathetic characters and Dicken's inimitable prose.

However, this audio version is WAY over produced, with blaring, overly-dramatic music that seemed reminiscent of the worst grade B silent films.

The actors screamed, ranted, raved and wept hysterically more than they spoke. Unless someone already knows the basic plot and characters, they may have difficulty following the action (particularly, as a previous reviewer pointed out, the thick accents will be hard for Americans to decipher.).

The entire production needed to be toned down quite a bit for Dicken's voice to be heard above the clamor.

It might be better to read the book in this case.

This is the last of all the Dickens's novels (including the five shorter Christmas Books) that I have either read or attempted. I had saved it until the last because it has not been held in very high esteem either by the critics or the reading public. I was pleasantly surprised.

Whereas there are several Dickens novels that I was unable to finish (namely, The Old Curiosity Shop, Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and Son, Little Dorrit, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and all the Christmas Books except A Christmas Carol), Barnaby Rudge never dragged even though it is one of Dickens's longer novels. Barnaby Rudge is as filled with memorable characters (especially the secondary ones - Miss Miggs, the Vardens, the Chesters, Hugh, Mr. Tappertitt, Dennis the hangman, etc.); places (the Maypole Inn, the locksmith's shop) and incident (the Gordon Riots) as any of his greater novels.

Stylistically, Barnaby Rudge is akin to Dickens's earlier picaresque novels (Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby). After those early successes of the 1830s, Dickens was struggling to find his mature style in my opinion. Most of the longer and shorter novels I was unable to finish come from the 1840s. (The Mystery of Edwin Drood is Dickens's last novel, but it was only half-finished at his death so it is really not fair to blame Dickens for my failure to respond to it.) Even though The Old Curiosity Shop comes between Nicholas Nickelby and Barnaby Rudge, Barnaby Rudge demonstrates all the strengths of Nicholas Nickelby and avoids the weaknesses of The Old Curiosity Shop. Barnaby Rudge is still early Dickens in my opinion.

G. K. Chesterton described a taste for early Dickens as similar to a taste for new potatoes as opposed to mature potatoes. Some people prefer new potatoes. Barnaby Rudge is not Dickens at his greatest. (I reserve that description for David Copperfield, Great Expectations and Bleak House. Along with the three novels of the 1830s already mentioned, I place Hard Times, A Tale of Two Cities and Our Mutual Friend and now, Barnaby Rudge, on the second tier of Dickens's novels.) We must remember, that Dickens at his worst is better than most writers at their best. If Barnaby Rudge were a newly discovered work by an otherwise unknown author, or by one of Dickens's contemporaries, it would be hailed as a masterpiece. As it is, Barnaby Rudge is an eminently enjoyable and readable effort by a great writer.

Barnaby Rudge (1841)originally appeared as a weekly serial in Dickens'
weekly newspaper Master Humphrey's Clock. The novel is the most obscure work by the master. The story is well worth reading. It is an exciting story of the Anti-Roman Catholic riots of 1780 led by the eccentric George Gordon a member of Parliament. The second half of the book focuses on the riots in a cinematic depiction of the mobs who ran amok in London during a hot summer of hatred, prejudice and murder.
Character rather than complicated Victorian plot is why we read Dickens. This book adds many memorable folks to the gallery of Dickens
characters. In this long novel we meet:
Barnaby Rudge-the title character is a feeble witted lad whose pet is the famed raven Grip. He lives with his mother. We later learn his evil father Rudge Sr. murdered Lord Haredale's brother. The father is hanged but Barnaby lives to spend time at the Maypole Inn. Years before Dostoevsky's novel "The Idiot" Dickens took a mentally ill person as his hero. Barnaby is pardoned for his participation in the Gordon riots.
Gabriel Varden, his shrewish wife and buxom daughter Dolly live in London where Mr. Varden is a locksmith. After Joe Willet leaves England to fight in the American Revolution he returns home to wed Dolly. A charming love story.
The Haredale family tells us of the love of Mr. Haredale's beautiful niece
Emma for Edward the son of John Chester. Chester is a Protestant and a sworn enemy of the Catholic Haredales.
Minor charactes such as Hugh (the illegitimate son of Chester); Dennis the hangman; Miss Miggs the man crazy maid to Mrs. Varden and others populate the pages of this fast paced tale of murder,mystery and intrigue.
Barnaby Rudge is a fine book which deserves to be better known. It is not Dickens best novel,his longest novel or his most famous novel. Yet it still appeals in its exciting look at the events of 1780. It and the much more famous Tale of Two Cities were the two historical novels the author produced.
YOu will never forget Grip the Raven (said to be the inspiration for Edgar Allen Poe's poem "The Raven") or Barnaby and his friends and enemies. Curl up with this good book and let your mind and heart wander back to the year of our Lord 1775 when the novel begins.
The book is well illustrated by George Cattermole and Hablot K. Browne
in charming art work.