General Information
===================
 Title:                  Barnaby Rudge
 Author:                 Charles Dickens
 Read By:                Frederick Davidson (Robert Whitfield)
 Copyright:              1841
 Audiobook Copyright:    1996
 Genre:                  Speech
 Publisher:              Blackstone Audiobooks 
 Abridged:               No

Original Media Information
==========================
 Media:                  Tape
 Number:                 17
 Length each:            35 - 40 min
 Source:                 Library
 Condition:              Good



Editorial Review
                         
Barnaby Rudge dramatizes two of Dicken's major preoccupations: private murder and public violence. He plunges us into the tense atmosphere of England in 1780, just before the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots (450 people killed). Lord Gordon was a loony, but he had charisma; his mob marched on Parliament, burned down Newgate Prison and ruled London for a few days.

In his depiction of the event and its leaders -- one of them Barnaby Rudge, brain-damaged at birth -- Dickens is at his most brilliant.


Description

Dickens's first historical novel is set in 1780s England at the time of the Gordon riots. In a case of mistaken identification, Barnaby Rudge, a pale half-wit with long red hair who dresses all in green and carries a large raven named Grip in a basket on his back, is arrested as a leader of a mob of anti-Catholic rioters. He is condemned to death on the gallows but an upright locksmith named Gabriel Varden comes to his aid.

In addition to the vivid depiction of the mob storming through the streets of london to burn down Newgate prison, Dickens again succeeds in developing an unparalleled cast of characters. Among them are the dull-witted, tyrannical John willet, Dennis the Hangman and Hugh the savage ostler.