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A review by jasonfurman
Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens
4.0
This was my second time reading Barnaby Rudge, which is probably Charles Dickens' least regarded novel. It is a historical novel set in the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots of 1780, one of the two historical novels Dickens wrote (the other, of course, being A Tale of Two Cities).
Dickens had achieved super-stardom with a series of hits (The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, and The Old Curiosity Shop) when he published Barnaby Rudge which was a comparative flop in its own time and remains so today. Most all of those other books were written rapidly under the deadline pressures of monthly installments. In contrast, Barnaby Rudge (originally provisionally titled Gabriel Vardon after another character) was written and reworked over several years as Dickens aspired to something more important than his earlier novels, something in the spirit of Walter Scott that went beyond mere entertainment.
There is, indeed, a certain amount of cringe in Barnaby Rudge--with the biggest cringe being the title character himself, an "idiot" in the words that Dickens uses who barely understands the world around him and gets swept up in a gullible fashion by whatever trickster or mob wants to use him--even if he is ultimately simple and good hearted. Also cringe are some of the absurd (and in fact unnecessary coincidences) and the heavy-handed way in which it metes out the moral fates that each character deserves.
But Barnaby Rudge also has some extraordinary historical scenes that capture the way that mobs can be instigated, grow, and the chaos that they--and their suppression--can engender. And how individuals get swept up on either side of them. It also has a number of memorable characters and comic scenes (not least Simon Tappertit, a journeyman locksmith who fancies himself a Napoleonic-like head of a group of journeymen). And some of the usual forbidden and inevitable romances that are perfectly charming.
All told, Barnaby Rudge is certainly not close to the best of Dickens but it is not the worst (sorry Hard Times) and perfectly good in its own right. But if you haven't read much Dickens there are about ten to thirteen other books you'll want to read before this one.
Dickens had achieved super-stardom with a series of hits (The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, and The Old Curiosity Shop) when he published Barnaby Rudge which was a comparative flop in its own time and remains so today. Most all of those other books were written rapidly under the deadline pressures of monthly installments. In contrast, Barnaby Rudge (originally provisionally titled Gabriel Vardon after another character) was written and reworked over several years as Dickens aspired to something more important than his earlier novels, something in the spirit of Walter Scott that went beyond mere entertainment.
There is, indeed, a certain amount of cringe in Barnaby Rudge--with the biggest cringe being the title character himself, an "idiot" in the words that Dickens uses who barely understands the world around him and gets swept up in a gullible fashion by whatever trickster or mob wants to use him--even if he is ultimately simple and good hearted. Also cringe are some of the absurd (and in fact unnecessary coincidences) and the heavy-handed way in which it metes out the moral fates that each character deserves.
But Barnaby Rudge also has some extraordinary historical scenes that capture the way that mobs can be instigated, grow, and the chaos that they--and their suppression--can engender. And how individuals get swept up on either side of them. It also has a number of memorable characters and comic scenes (not least Simon Tappertit, a journeyman locksmith who fancies himself a Napoleonic-like head of a group of journeymen). And some of the usual forbidden and inevitable romances that are perfectly charming.
All told, Barnaby Rudge is certainly not close to the best of Dickens but it is not the worst (sorry Hard Times) and perfectly good in its own right. But if you haven't read much Dickens there are about ten to thirteen other books you'll want to read before this one.