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When a witless young man and his witty pet raven get swept into the furor of the Gordon "no-Popery" riots in the London of 1780, you can be sure you're reading Dickens. This is his first historical novel, and I can see how it leads the way to the other one, _A Tale of Two Cities_. Grip, the raven, caught the attention of Edgar Alan Poe and probably inspired his poem "The Raven." I suspect that _Barnaby Rudge_ also inspired Poe's "The Bells."
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A Dickens that's read fairly infrequently compared to some of his other, more popular offerings. And yet his trademark eye for wit, humour and droll characterisation is here, along with his unerring talent with villains. When I first read this years ago I was astonished at the Gordon Riots, I'd never heard of them before. On this reread I found it even more thrillingly horrifying. I'm sure I'll reread this in time and become engrossed it all over again.
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What a wonderful book. Insightful, funny, sad, profane.
Aug 04, 2010
Ibis3
rated it
really liked it
Shelves:
england,
mystery,
illustrated,
british,
historical,
canonical,
classic,
nineteenth-century,
suspense,
romance
review to come
Jan 02, 2008
Michelle
marked it as to-read
Feb 22, 2014
Patricia Stewart
marked it as to-read
