Posted: July 9,2023
Barnaby Rudge
Unimportant as a historical novel, a disaster as a murder mystery, the romance subplot is stereotypical and uninteresting but because of the Dickensian prose and its sheer descriptive brilliance all is forgiven.
This is the first of two historical novels written by Dickens, the other one being A Tale of Two Cities. The historical event in these pages would be the anti-Catholic riots that happened in London and its suburbs around the year 1780 - the riots of ‘80.
This book is also about the love affair between a Catholic lady and a Protestant gentleman.
Dickens adds some mystery by introducing an unsolved murder.
Truth be told, the plotting is rather messy; the mystery subplot reminds me of the “Monks” subplot in Oliver Twist - it’s simply uninteresting as a plot device.
Thankfully this is Dickens, so there is the prose to look forward to. That wonderfully verbose, elaborate, and hypnotizing prose. And out of that prose, here are my favorite things:
The Maypole Inn. When we first encounter the Maypole Inn in the pages of Barnaby Rudge it is within the context of a stormy night. Dickens is able to effectively emphasize the coziness of the Inn with that cold and violent storm as backdrop.
Grip. Grip is a crow and a most loveable character. Every time Grip appears he becomes a scene stealer and I can’t get enough of reading about him.
Eighteenth century London and its suburbs. Dickens is able to compare the London of his time with that of half a century ago when London was greener and not as well lighted. This happens several times during the book and always makes for an interesting read.
In this narrative, Dickens does not shy away from describing violence. It is surprising to me, given the trend of the previous novels, that Barnaby Rudge contains some very violent scenes. I would say that it could very easily be interpreted to contain some violent sexual scenes related to kidnappings that happen to some ladies but here Dickens pulls his punches and avoids being overtly sexual in his descriptions.
Although this is a historical novel, the historical event it focuses on is, in retrospect, extremely minor, and, from our current attitudes towards religion, not a little ridiculous in its cause. Protestant vs. Catholic did happen at some point, and it was a serious thing when it happened but now it’s just silly.
What holds up well and what it has to recommend itself is Dickens's ability to do colorful character sketches and descriptions of minutiae.