Penguin Classics give you the best possible editions of Charles Dickens's novels,
including all the original illustrations, useful and informative introductions, the
definitive, accurate text as it was meant to be published, a chronology of Dickens's life
and notes that fill in the background to the book. This Penguin Classics edition of
Barnaby Rudge also includes a map of London at the time of the riots in the novel.
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 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.
This edition is based on the first one-volume publication of Barnaby Rudge,
reproducing all the original illustrations. Appendices include a map of London at the time
of the Gordon Riots and the preface to the 1868 edition.
