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Barnaby Rudge (1841) by Charles Dickens is his first historical novel and one of his most underrated — a story set during the Gordon Riots of 1780 (the anti-Catholic riots that burned much of London for six days in June of that year) and organized around the figure of Barnaby Rudge, a simple-minded young man who becomes caught up in the riots without understanding what he is part of. The novel has two distinct halves: the first (set five years before the riots) establishes the families and histories that the riots will destroy; the second follows the riots themselves, which Dickens renders with extraordinary imaginative power — the burning of Newgate Prison and the destruction of Lord Mansfield's house are among the most vivid crowd scenes in English fiction. Barnaby Rudge has often been overshadowed by A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens's later and more structurally assured historical novel) and by the earlier serialized novels that preceded it (The Old Curiosity Shop had just ended), but it contains some of Dickens's finest sustained writing and the most fully realized historical imagination of any of his novels.
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Barnaby Rudge (1841)
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Barnaby Rudge
Charles Dickens·1841
Barnaby Rudge — Frequently Asked Questions
What are the Gordon Riots?
The Gordon Riots of June 1780 were the most destructive episode of civil disorder in London's history before the twentieth century. They began as a Protestant demonstration against the Catholic Relief Act of 1778 (which relaxed some of the legal disabilities on Catholics) led by Lord George Gordon, president of the Protestant Association, and quickly escalated into six days of riot, arson, and looting that left at least 285 people dead (the official count) and possibly twice that. The rioters burned Catholic chapels, the homes of prominent Catholics and their supporters, and — most dramatically — the Newgate Prison, liberating about 300 prisoners. The riots were suppressed by the army and 25 rioters were hanged. They are the historical event behind Barnaby Rudge and also behind a passage in Oliver Twist. Dickens researched them carefully and rendered the crowd scenes with remarkable fidelity to contemporary accounts.
Who is Grip, Barnaby's raven?
Grip is Barnaby Rudge's pet raven — a large, garrulous, somewhat malevolent bird who accompanies Barnaby throughout the novel and who speaks in fragments ('I'm a devil, I'm a devil, I'm a devil'). Grip was based on Dickens's own pet raven, also named Grip, who died shortly before the novel was published. Dickens had Grip stuffed and kept him in his study. The raven's most famous admirer was Edgar Allan Poe, who reviewed Barnaby Rudge favorably and later acknowledged Grip as a source for the raven in his 1845 poem 'The Raven' — the raven's uncanny repetition being the direct inspiration for Poe's famous repeated 'Nevermore.'
Is Barnaby Rudge historically accurate?
Broadly accurate in its portrayal of the riots' causes, progression, and atmosphere. Dickens researched the period carefully — he read annual registers, consulted Thomas Holcroft's account of the riots, and visited the sites. Lord George Gordon is a real historical figure, rendered sympathetically (Dickens saw him as a tool of more cynical politicians). The burning of Newgate is based on actual events. The fictional families — the Vardens, the Rudges, the Chesters — are invented, but the historical context is handled responsibly. Dickens's broader interpretation of the riots — as the product of political manipulation of legitimate grievances, with the crowd as a dangerous instrument of aristocratic cynicism — reflects his own political views rather than any single historical interpretation.
How does Barnaby Rudge compare to A Tale of Two Cities?
Both are Dickens's historical novels about eighteenth-century crowd violence; A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is generally considered the more accomplished because it has a tighter structure, a more satisfying central story (Sidney Carton's sacrifice), and a clearer thematic focus. Barnaby Rudge is more diffuse — its plot is complex, its characters more numerous, and its two halves feel somewhat disconnected. But Barnaby Rudge arguably has more vivid individual scenes (the burning of Newgate is more sustained and more terrifying than anything in A Tale of Two Cities), and its portrait of Barnaby himself — simple-minded, loyal, incapable of understanding the violence he is part of — is one of Dickens's most unusual characterizations.
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