#barnaby rudge (book)

[mxcottonsocks]

There's a very cinematic quality to the writing of the attack on Newgate... A lot of big picture description of the fire and the mob as a whole, interspersed with evocative imagery of details - the blistering of the roof lead, the staggering of the chimneys in the flickering light - and checking in with individuals within the scene... we seem to sort of soar over the prison wall along with the firebrands to see the reactions of the people inside...

[dickensdaily]

There's still time...

There's still time to sign up for our second novel, Barnaby Rudge!

If you enjoy the installments of Dracula Daily, why not try Dickens Daily? We serialise the works of Charles Dickens at the same pace as they were originally published, so you'll get to find out how the Victorians felt waiting for the next chapter!

Our next novel will start going out on the 13th of February 2024 and last until November! Read on below to learn more about the book and to sign up.

Set against the backdrop of the Gordon Riots of 1780, 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 anti-Catholic mobs rampage through the streets. 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.

[inlovewithquotes]

The shadows of our own desires stand between us and our better angels, and thus their brightness is eclipse.

-Barnaby Rudge

[aniaks]

But, the absence of the soul is far more terrible in a living man than in a dead one.

Barnaby Rudge, Charles Dickens

[siena-sevenwits]

:-)

[fangirlinglikeabus]

updated list that i keep forgetting to do for 2023 (i was a lot better at pacing these out this past year lol):

great expectations

hard times

little dorrit (i REALLY loved the supporting cast for this one. flora my beloved <3)

the old curiosity shop (no idea how this ended up so high especially since little nell embodies a fair bit of what i dislike about dickens' characterisation of women. but there you go!)

bleak house

edwin drood (realistically i couldn't justify putting it higher than this because it doesn't exist in full. the satire of social campaigners is infuriating and reactionary but the explicit engagement with race, which dickens so often uses as a metaphor for his white characters, is new and fascinating and makes me sad this book wasn't completed. helena landless i would die and kill for you)

nicholas nickleby

a christmas carol (and etc)

martin chuzzlewit

david copperfield

dombey and son (real talk i'm not 100% on the positioning of this one. one i like a lot but don't love, and it made me realise fully how often dickens relies on Quiet Uncomplaining Suffering to generate pathos for his characters....i would like more of his women to be allowed to be angry at their treatment!)

a tale of two cities (dickens is an excellent storyteller which sells this. i'm not keen on the mob stuff and i don't care about our two virtuous leads. possibly suffers from being the ur-example from which all french revolution fiction derives in its focus on the terror and revolution-as-mindless-destruction)

oliver twist

the pickwick papers (didn't dislike this one, just think it does a lot of things that later dickenses do more interestingly)

i had this grand plan last year to read 6 dickens books (outside of great expectations, which i read for uni) with the expectation that i’d get some done in the summer, and this experience would be spread out…actually what happened is i read david copperfield, NOTHING else until october, and then crammed the rest in from the tail end of that month. anyway just as a personal record this is my current Grand And Objectively True ranking of what i’ve read so far

great expectations

hard times

bleak house

nicholas nickleby

a christmas carol (and other christmas writings; i read the penguin edition, which mainly has snippets from longer works but also includes the haunted man)

martin chuzzlewit

david copperfield

oliver twist

(to be clear i don’t hate any of these; oliver twist was my lowest rating at 3.5)

[victusinveritas]

Grip was a talking raven kept as a pet by Charles Dickens. She was the basis for a character of the same name in Dickens's 1841 novel Barnaby Rudge and is generally considered to have inspired the bird from Edgar Allan Poe's 1845 poem "The Raven.”

You can see her (stuffed) in the Rare Book department at the main branch of the Philadelphia Library on Vine St.

[isobelline]

What your favourite Dickens novel says about you:

(bear in mind, most of these are severely vibes-based)

The Pickwick Papers: You're most likely gay and have a close group of friends. Your favourite hobby is prank calling your local pizza place. You miss Vine.

Oliver Twist: This is the only Dickens novel you've read or you just really like the musical. You feel extremely sorry for Nancy. You're really attached to your pet(s).

Nicholas Nickleby: You have a strong sense of justice. You either have a travel blog or want to have one. Despite everything you believe that people are fundamentally good.

The Old Curiosity Shop: You're the oldest sibling. You're interested in lost media because you're hoping to find that one cartoon that scarred you as a child. You believe that things aren't what they used to be.

Barnaby Rudge: You've watched at least one major 90s sitcom in its entirety. You love gossip. You call yourself "a little gremlin" unironically.

Martin Chuzzlewit: Oh wow, you exist? Good for you, good for you... You like nature and I mean REALLY like it. You're a completionist. You love Tom Pinch with all your heart.

Dombey and Son: You have daddy issues (duh). You're very lonely but too proud to admit it. You love gothic literature and movies about creepy children.

David Copperfield: You relate to Aunt Betsey an ungodly amount. You like listening to podcasts and imagining that the hosts are talking directly to you. You just love life, man, and all that it has to offer.

Bleak House: You're academically gifted. You know how to knit/crochet/cross stitch/all of the above. In every social situation you're the "mom friend".

Hard Times: You're not like the other girls. You had a steampunk phase. You like to read about famous shipwrecks in your spare time.

Little Dorrit: You love Downton Abbey and/or The Gilded Age. You prefer Jane Bennett to Lizzie. You are on good terms with your parents.

A Tale of Two Cities: You're a centrist. Biopic is your favourite genre of film. You don't like going to concerts because they are too loud.

Great Expectations: There's a good chance you've read this because of South Park. You think Estella deserved better (and you're right). You read a lot of fanfiction.

Our Mutual Friend: You like your characters to be actual characters and not caricatures. You call tell a Cabernet from a Merlot. You have many dating horror stories.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood: You've been on at least one ghost tour. You dislike BBC's Sherlock because it is unfaithful to the books. You strongly considered going to mortuary school at some point.

[sydney-carton-of-sour-milk]

The Many Illustrators of A Tale of Two Cities 6: Max Cowper

...& some frustration from faulty sources...

"Lucy (sic) Bids Farewell to Sydney Carton"

As we've come to see here, not all sources for these many illustrations are, put simply, all that great or reliable.

To start off, the ↑ above illustration is excellent example: A) Obviously, the name of this illustration doesn't match up with any scene in A Tale of Two Cities! My guess is that it's actually depicting Charles being taken away in "Dusk" (pretty major thing to get wrong!). Multiple online sources cite this as the name, but is that really what Max Cowper himself named it? B) I honestly didn't know until recently that this was, in fact, by Max Cowper! I've had this illustration stored in the archives for years and was only able to confirm it by - you guessed it - looking at that faint signature below the main character's feet and checking it off another color illustration by him (poetically, for Barnaby Rudge).

This is something that happens often in my research: Many illustrators for this novel will have a one-off piece not necessarily related to the work they did for the novel itself, and it's usually much more difficult to connect that piece to their book illustrations (when we get to Fred Barnard eventually...oof!). Oftentimes, the image just gets passed around over decades of republication - sometimes even traced / redrawn - and used as a cover or frontispiece without credit.

There are other forms of unreliability, though - including one I just encountered for the first time: Here are Cowper's eight 1902* illustrations for the novel. One of these is not like the others - see if you can tell which!

If you guessed the fourth ("Monsieur le Marquis"), you'd be correct!

Basically, when I originally downloaded this set from the Internet Archive, I hadn't downloaded them as individual images but rather the entire book as a PDF which I then picked the images off of - and what I hadn't realized until recently was that this compresses the images in a strange way.

Here is what the PDF compression looks like:

See how much beautiful linework and detail gets crunched?

And so, today, to make this post, I went out to that source again and downloaded each individually - only to find that this exact source no longer had the Marquis illustration! Basically, I think that someone working at the Internet Archive rescanned the exact same copy of the book - accidentally skipping one of the illustrations in the process - and then replaced the old scan with this new (honestly really nice) one. Human error strikes again, both on my part and on theirs!

Ultimately, I decided not to try to find these from any other source and to just include the one with the compression error that doesn't quite match the quality of the rest - which will tie in well with the next edition of this series anyway (you'll see)!

And regardless, I'm grateful we have access to these beautiful, humanistic character designs and illustrations at all, no matter the image quality🖼️

*To round it all out, the copy from which I downloaded these is from 1904, but I also read a source that said the first version of this edition was maybe from 1902, so, once again, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

& the standard endnote for all posts in this series:

This post is intended to act as the start of a forum on the given illustrator, so if anyone has anything to add - requests to see certain drawings in higher definition (since Tumblr compresses images), corrections to factual errors, sources for better-quality versions of the illustrations, further reading, fun facts, any questions, or just general commentary - simply do so on this post, be it in a comment/tags or the replies!💫

[renzaslasher]

today I learned charles dickens had a pet raven called grip that lived with his family, could mimic a couple phrases, sat on his shoulder while he read stories to his kids and stole things and bit people

this little rascal also got put into his book barnaby rudge and after she died of lead poisoning from drinking too much paint she inspired edgar allen poe to write his poem the raven

[mxcottonsocks]

Not me nearly crying at Barnaby's separation from the dog

[dickensdaily]

A reminder and a preface all about ravens

Master Humphrey’s Clock is ticking…

This is merely a reminder that Dickens Daily will be returning to your inboxes next month with our second novel, Barnaby Rudge. Originally serialised in 1841, instalments will be sent out from 13th February 2024 until the end of November. As with Great Expectations, chapters will be sent out either once or twice per week depending on what was included in the relevant 1841 instalment of Master Humphrey’s Clock for that week.

There is a slight complication this time, due to 2024 being a leap year when 1841 was not. This means that the weekdays for the emails will change after a couple of weeks to keep in line with the correct dates, but after that they will remain steady. Thus, Chapters 1-5 will be sent out on Tuesdays and Fridays, then from Chapter 6 (6th March) onwards they will be sent out on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

If you haven't signed up yet, you can do so at dickensdaily.substack.com!

Get excited!

To whet your appetite, we’ve included below the preface Dickens wrote for the 1849 cheap edition of Barnaby Rudge. This did not appear when originally serialised, so this is just a little extra! Get ready to learn all about ravens…

Dickens’ raven Grip, taxidermied

Preface to Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens

The late Mr Waterton having, some time ago, expressed his opinion that ravens are gradually becoming extinct in England, I offered the few following words about my experience of these birds.

The raven in this story is a compound of two great originals, of whom I was, at different times, the proud possessor. The first was in the bloom of his youth, when he was discovered in a modest retirement in London, by a friend of mine, and given to me. He had from the first, as Sir Hugh Evans says of Anne Page, ‘good gifts’, which he improved by study and attention in a most exemplary manner. He slept in a stable—generally on horseback—and so terrified a Newfoundland dog by his preternatural sagacity, that he has been known, by the mere superiority of his genius, to walk off unmolested with the dog’s dinner, from before his face. He was rapidly rising in acquirements and virtues, when, in an evil hour, his stable was newly painted. He observed the workmen closely, saw that they were careful of the paint, and immediately burned to possess it. On their going to dinner, he ate up all they had left behind, consisting of a pound or two of white lead; and this youthful indiscretion terminated in death.

While I was yet inconsolable for his loss, another friend of mine in Yorkshire discovered an older and more gifted raven at a village public-house, which he prevailed upon the landlord to part with for a consideration, and sent up to me. The first act of this Sage, was, to administer to the effects of his predecessor, by disinterring all the cheese and halfpence he had buried in the garden—a work of immense labour and research, to which he devoted all the energies of his mind. When he had achieved this task, he applied himself to the acquisition of stable language, in which he soon became such an adept, that he would perch outside my window and drive imaginary horses with great skill, all day. Perhaps even I never saw him at his best, for his former master sent his duty with him, ‘and if I wished the bird to come out very strong, would I be so good as to show him a drunken man’—which I never did, having (unfortunately) none but sober people at hand.

But I could hardly have respected him more, whatever the stimulating influences of this sight might have been. He had not the least respect, I am sorry to say, for me in return, or for anybody but the cook; to whom he was attached—but only, I fear, as a Policeman might have been. Once, I met him unexpectedly, about half-a-mile from my house, walking down the middle of a public street, attended by a pretty large crowd, and spontaneously exhibiting the whole of his accomplishments. His gravity under those trying circumstances, I can never forget, nor the extraordinary gallantry with which, refusing to be brought home, he defended himself behind a pump, until overpowered by numbers. It may have been that he was too bright a genius to live long, or it may have been that he took some pernicious substance into his bill, and thence into his maw—which is not improbable, seeing that he new-pointed the greater part of the garden-wall by digging out the mortar, broke countless squares of glass by scraping away the putty all round the frames, and tore up and swallowed, in splinters, the greater part of a wooden staircase of six steps and a landing—but after some three years he too was taken ill, and died before the kitchen fire. He kept his eye to the last upon the meat as it roasted, and suddenly turned over on his back with a sepulchral cry of ‘Cuckoo!’ Since then I have been ravenless.*

Of the story of BARNABY RUDGE itself, I do not think I can say anything here, more to the purpose than the following passages from the original Preface.

‘No account of the Gordon Riots having been to my knowledge introduced into any Work of Fiction, and the subject presenting very extraordinary and remarkable features, I was led to project this Tale.

‘It is unnecessary to say, that those shameful tumults, while they reflect indelible disgrace upon the time in which they occurred, and all who had act or part in them, teach a good lesson. That what we falsely call a religious cry is easily raised by men who have no religion, and who in their daily practice set at nought the commonest principles of right and wrong; that it is begotten of intolerance and persecution; that it is senseless, besotted, inveterate and unmerciful; all History teaches us. But perhaps we do not know it in our hearts too well, to profit by even so humble an example as the ‘No Popery’ riots of Seventeen Hundred and Eighty. ‘However imperfectly those disturbances are set forth in the following pages, they are impartially painted by one who has no sympathy with the Romish Church, though he acknowledges, as most men do, some esteemed friends among the followers of its creed. ‘It may be observed that, in the description of the principal outrages, reference has been had to the best authorities of that time, such as they are; the account given in this Tale, of all the main features of the Riots, is substantially correct. ‘It may be further remarked, that Mr Dennis’s allusions to the flourishing condition of his trade in those days, have their foundation in Truth, and not in the Author’s fancy. Any file of old Newspapers, or odd volume of the Annual Register, will prove this with terrible ease. ‘Even the case of Mary Jones, dwelt upon with so much pleasure by the same character, is no effort of invention. The facts were stated, exactly as they are stated here, in the House of Commons. Whether they afforded as much entertainment to the merry gentlemen assembled there, as some other most affecting circumstances of a similar nature mentioned by Sir Samuel Romilly, is not recorded.’

That the case of Mary Jones may speak the more emphatically for itself, I subjoin it, as related by SIR WILLIAM MEREDITH in a speech in Parliament, ‘on Frequent Executions’, made in 1777.

‘Under this act,’ the Shop-lifting Act, ‘one Mary Jones was executed, whose case I shall just mention; it was at the time when press warrants were issued, on the alarm about Falkland Islands. The woman’s husband was pressed, their goods seized for some debts of his, and she, with two small children, turned into the streets a-begging. It is a circumstance not to be forgotten, that she was very young (under nineteen), and most remarkably handsome. She went to a linen-draper’s shop, took some coarse linen off the counter, and slipped it under her cloak; the shopman saw her, and she laid it down: for this she was hanged. Her defence was (I have the trial in my pocket), “that she had lived in credit, and wanted for nothing, till a press-gang came and stole her husband from her; but since then, she had no bed to lie on; nothing to give her children to eat; and they were almost naked; and perhaps she might have done something wrong, for she hardly knew what she did.” The parish officers testified the truth of this story; but it seems, there had been a good deal of shop-lifting about Ludgate; an example was thought necessary; and this woman was hanged for the comfort and satisfaction of shopkeepers in Ludgate Street. When brought to receive sentence, she behaved in such a frantic manner, as proved her mind to be in a distracted and desponding state; and the child was sucking at her breast when she set out for Tyburn.’

LONDON, March 1849

* This was later updated to the below for the 1858 Library Edition:

After this mournful deprivation, I was, for a long time, ravenless. The kindness of another friend at length provided me with another raven; but he is not a genius. He leads the life of a hermit, in my little orchard, on the summit of SHAKESPEARE’S Gad’s Hill; he has no relish for society; he gives no evidence of ever cultivating his mind; and he has picked up nothing but meat since I have known him – except the faculty of barking like a dog.

[geoffreyharedale]

I'm not done with it yet (9 more chapters!!) but tbh Barnaby Rudge should be more popular. It's a pretty good & interesting book but so few people (even Dickens fans) talk about it

[aniaks]

[...] when I talk of eyes, the stars come out! Whose eyes are they? If they are angels’ eyes, why do they look down here and see good men hurt, and only wink and sparkle all the night?

Barnaby Rudge, Charles Dickens,

[rank-sentimentalist]

"The Bookshop" from Monty Python

Good morning (Good morning, sir can I help you?)

Uh, yes do you have a copy Of 30 Days In The Samarkand Desert With The Duchess of Kent By A e j elliot, oBE? (Uh, well, I don't know the book, sir) Er, never mind Never mind how about 101 Ways To Start a Fight? (By?) An Irish gentleman whose name eludes Me for the moment (Uhh, no, well we haven't got it in stock Sir) ah, well, not to worry, not to worry

Can you help me with David Coperfield? (Ah, yes, Dickens) no (I beg your pardon?) no, Edmund Wells (I think you'll find Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield, sir) No, no -Dickens wrote David Copperfield with two p's This is David Coperfield with one p By Edmund Wells (David Coperfield with one p?) Yes, I should have said (Well, in that case, we don't have it)

Funny, you got a lot of books here- (Yes, we do, but we don't have David Coperfield with one p By Edmund Wells) are you quite sure? (Quite) not worth just looking? (Definitely not) How about Grate Expectations? (Yes, well we have that) That's G-R-A T-E Expectations Also by Edmund Wells (Yes, well, in that case, we don't have it We don't have anything by Edmund Wells Actually he's not very popular)

Not Knickerless Nickleby? That's K-N-IC-K-E-R-L-E-S-S? (No) Christmas Karol, with a K? (No) How about A Sale Of Two Titties? (Definitely not) sorry to trouble you (Not at all) good morning (Good morning)

Oh! (Yes?) i wonder if you might have A copy of Rarnaby Budge? (No, as I say We're right out of Edmund Wells) No, not Edmund Wells, Charles Dikkens (Charles Dickens?) yes (You mean Barnaby Rudge?) No, Rarnaby Budge by Charles Dikkens That's Dikkens with two k's The well-known Dutch author (No, we don't have Rarnaby Budge By Charles Dikkens With Two-K's The Well-Known-Dutch-Author And perhaps, to save time I should add we don't have Carnaby Fudge by Darles Chickens or Farmbury Sludge By Marles Pickens Or even Stickwick Stapers by Farles Wickens with four m's and A silent q! Why don't you try W h smiths?) I did they sent me here (Did they)

I wonder- (Oh, do go on, please) I I wonder if you might have The Amazing Adventures Of Captain Gladys Stoatpamphlet And Her Intrepid Spaniel Stig Amongst The Giant Pygmies Of Beccles, volume eight (No, we don't have that, funny We got a lot of books here well, I mustn't Keep you standing here, thank you) Do- do- do you have- (Well, we really haven't) -the-the-the-there (No, we haven't sorry! It's one o'clock now We're closing up for lunch i'm sorry to) No, I s- I saw it over there! I saw it (What?)

I saw it over there -Olsen's Standard Book Of British Birds (Olsen's Standard Book Of British Birds?) Yes (O-L-S-E-N?) yes (B-IR-D-S?) Yes (Yes, well, we do have that As a matter of fact) the Expurgated Version? (sorry, I didn't quite catch that) The Expurgated version? (The Expurgated Version of Olsen's Standard Book Of British Birds?) The one without the gannet (The - one without the Gannet?! They've all got The gannet -it's a standard British bird The gannet's in all the books) Well, I don't like them they wet their nests (Alright, I'll remove it! Any other Birds you don't like?) I don't like the robin (The robin? Right The robin! There you are! Any others You don't like? Any others?) the nuthatch I can't buy that, it's torn!

I wonder of you have- (Go on, ask me anything! We got Lots of books here, you know It's a book shop) Uh, how about Biggles Combs His Hair? (No, no, we don't have that one, funny) The Gospel According To Charlie Drake? (No, no, no, try me again) uh oh I know! Ethel The Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying? (No, no, n- what? What?) Ethel The Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying (ethel The Aard- i've got it! I've seen it Somewhere! Yes! Yes! Here we Are! Ethel The Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying! There's your book!

Now buy it) i don't have enough money (I'll take deposit) i don't have any money (I'll take a check) i don't have a checkbook (I'll take a blank one) I haven't got a bank account! (Right! I'll buy it for you! Here You are! There's your change There's some money for a taxi On the way home, there's your book) Wait! Wait! (Now, now, w)

Wait! (What!? What!? What!? What!? What?) I can't read! (You can't read Right! Sit down sit! Sit! Sit there! Are you sitting comfortably? Right!

Ethel the Aardvark was hopping down the River valley one happy afternoon)