This lesser-known Dickens novel was published under the longer and more formal title of Barnaby Rudge : A Tale of the Riots of Eighty, but over the years, this has been abridged to a less unwieldy Barnaby Rudge. It is an historical novel that is loosely based on political fact, and war originally published in weekly installments in Dickens' self-published weekly periodical Master Humphrey's Clock, which explains in some way why the novel often seems fragmented. The periodical also debuted the novel The Olde Curiosity Shoppe, which Dickens never intended to lengthen into a novel in its own right, but only did so when the story gained popular traction and popularity.
Dickens based Barnaby Rudge on the Gordon Riots of 1780 which took place over a period of several days. Rioters were protesting the growing influence of Catholicism in England; the riots actually began as an orderly, civilized march in London against the Papist Act, which was the first Act that gave the Pope theological sovereignty in Britain, a role previously served by the British monarch. As protests tend to do, the march degenerated quickly into rioting, looting and attacks on Newgate Gaol, London's most famous prison.
Barnaby Rudge is possibly Dickens' least popular novel, rarely adapted for big or small screens. One of the main reasons for this is that another historical novel by Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, was also set in a time of revolution and revolt, and was a great deal more popular. Barnaby Rudge was neither as readable or as well-written and so it faded from public awareness more quickly.
Charles Dickens is one of the most famous figures in British literature, although he considered himself to be more of a social commentator and critic than he did a novelist. He is thought of by some as the pre-eminent writer of the Victorian era although some find his work rather depressing and dark, written generally with the literary glass half empty than the glass half full. Unlike many writers of his generation he was very popular during his lifetime, but also maintained that popularity after his death, and his books are still read, and studied, widely today.
Dickens was born in the south-east of England, in the maritime town of Portsmouth; his home is now a tourist attraction and visited by fans of his work from all over the world.
