William Harrison Ainsworth (1805–1882)

The gunpowder plot seems like a good subject for an historical novel, but it does present the writer with a few problems. Everyone knows how the story has to end, so there isn’t much scope for keeping the reader in suspense. And there’s also the difficulty that the conspirators themselves, the most obvious centres of romantic narrative interest, were ruthless terrorists planning an attack that would have killed dozens of innocent people as well as the king, and would have plunged Britain show more into a civil war that might well have provoked intervention from France and Spain. Your typical Victorian reader is going to have trouble sympathising with people like that…

Ainsworth deals with that by distinguishing Guy Fawkes’s moral state from those of the other conspirators. In his version, Fawkes, a competent professional soldier but also a superstitious and politically naive Catholic, receives a couple of prophesies at an early stage that convince him that the plot is doomed to fail to achieve its aims and by its failure will damage the interest of Catholics in Britain, but he is unable to withdraw because he has bound himself to the other conspirators by a solemn vow. This allows him to play the ultimate British trump card and continue with the plot in a spirit of heroic failure.

Meanwhile, Ainsworth also brings in a completely fictional love plot involving Viviana, daughter of Sir William Radcliffe of Ordsall Hall outside Manchester, who finds herself in a triangle with Fawkes and (wait for it, this is where it gets really silly…) the young Manchester businessman Humphrey Chetham, who was later to embed himself into the fabric of the city through the charitable foundations he endowed.

As is only proper in an Ainsworth novel, there is endless business involving secret passages, priest-holes, sword fights in dark gardens, the sorcerer Doctor Dee, desperate chases on horseback or in rowing-boats, gruesome torture, and daring escapes from prison (one bizarrely involving Chetham on the end of a rope-ladder, the other more conventionally orchestrated by the Jailer’s Daughter). It’s all glorious nonsense, slightly too long-winded for modern tastes, lacking any hint of a sense of humour, and definitely not in the same league as Walter Scott, but quite entertaining all the same. show less

This is another engaging novel by Ainsworth, in my view a very underrated 19th century author of historical fiction. The characters are romantic stereotypes, of course, but who cares when it is this much fun. Charles II makes an appearance here, as do, briefly, Christopher Wren and Samuel Pepys. The horrors of the plague are well described, drawing heavily on Defoe's Journal of a Plague Year , though occasionally the plot does become a little repetitive and tiresome with endless disguises show more and deceptions. The final sixth of the novel deals with the Fire and is magnificently exciting and dramatic as the flames spread over the city of London and St Paul's itself finally tumbles. Great stuff. 5/5 show less

It wasn't really what I expected. I expected the protagonist to be a devout Catholic who will stop at nothing to remain true to the Church as he understands it. I'm not sure how devout he actually is, and he is willing to stop at nothing, including digging into the occult, seeking assistance of wizards and magic potions, to see that he is on the path to restore he holy religion.

Add to that the female lead Viviana, who has a THIRSTY boy running after her, even though she wants to leave show more England and go to Belgium to be a nun. At every turn even the priest tries to stop her and get her to marry Courtland instead.

Makes me thing Ainswroth is just some Protestant who wants to make the Catholic Conspirators look bad. show less

I really enjoyed this novel about the short reign, imprisonment and tragic death of Lady Jane Grey. The author has a very engaging and readable style and the novel is full of drama, action, history, great warm-hearted humour (especially in the form of the dwarf Xit and the three giants Gog, Og and Magog) and moments of horror and terror in the passages and torture chamber of the Tower. It is a novel of its time (1840) with an automatic assumption of the superiority of Protestantism, which show more cloys slightly. Great stuff. show less