Book description
"I dreamed ... I dreamed just now that something - it was in
the shape of a man - followed me - came softly to me - wouldn't let
me be - but was always hiding and crouching, like a cat in dark
corners, waiting till I should pass; when it crept out and came
softly after me ..."
Set against the backdrop of the Gordon Riots of 1780, Charles
Dickens's novel Barnaby Rudge is a story of mystery and
suspense which begins with an unsolved double murder and goes on to
involve conspiracy, blackmail, abduction and retribution. Through the
course of the novel fathers and sons become opposed, apprentices plot
against their masters and Protestants clash with Catholics on the
streets. And, as London erupts into riot, Barnaby Rudge himself
struggles to escape the curse of his own past. With its dramatic
descriptions of public violence and private horror, its strange
secrets and ghostly doublings, Barnaby Rudge is a powerful,
disturbing blend of historical realism and Gothic melodrama.
The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in
English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the
beginning of the First World War.
Charles Dickens (1812-70) had his first, astounding success with
his first novel The Pickwick Papers and never looked back. In
an extraordinarily full life he wrote, campaigned and spoke on a huge
range of issues, and was involved in many of the key aspects of
Victorian life, by turns cajoling, moving and irritating. He completed
fourteen full-length novels and volume after volume of journalism.
Barnaby Rudge, Dickens's fifth novel, is set against the
backdrop of the violent Gordon Riots of 1780.
The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas
Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, A Christmas Carol,
Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and Son, David
Copperfield, Bleak House, Hard Times, Litte
Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations,
Our Mutual Friend and The Mystery of Edwin Drood are
also published in the Penguin English Library.
