Penguin Classics: Barnaby Rudge

Set against the backdrop of the Gordon Riots of 1870, ‘Barnaby Rudge’ is a story of mystery and suspense which begins with an unsolved 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. 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 1969 edition.