William Ainsworth

Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Chaldea, and Armenia

William Harrison Ainsworth

Thomas Campbell

Thomas Hood

Samuel Carter Hall

Edward Bulwer Lytton Baron Lytton

Theodore Edward Hook

New Monthly Magazine, and Universal Register

The Lancashire Witches: A Romance of Pendle Forest

Old Saint Paul's: A Tale of the Plague and the Fire

A Personal Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition

Travels in the Track of the Ten Thousand Greeks

Or, A Logico-theological Analysis of Every Several Book of the Holy Scripture, Together with So Many English Poems, Containing the Kephalaia, Or Contents, of Every Several Chapter in Every Such Book

Medulla Bibliorum, the Marrow of the Bible

In the Track of the Ten Thousand Greeks

Observations on the Pestilential Cholera-Asphyxia Pestilenta-as it appeared at Sunderland in ... November and December, 1831, etc

The Illustrated Universal Gazetteer

An Illustrated Record of Voyages, Travels, and Adventures in All Parts of the Globe

All Around the World

Guy Fawkes first appeared as a serial in Bentley's Miscellany, between January and November 1840. The first of William Harrison Ainsworth's seven "Lancashire novels", the story is based on the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, an unsuccessful attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Ainsworth relied heavily on historical documents describing the trial and execution of the conspirators, of whom Fawkes was one, but he also embellished the known facts. He invented the character of Viviana Radcliffe, daughter of the prominent Radcliffe family of Ordsall Hall – who becomes Fawkes's wife – and introduced supernatural elements into the story, such as the ability of the alchemist, John Dee, to raise the spirits of the dead. The novel's themes deal with British politics and history, focusing on the events surrounding the 1605 plot to destroy Parliament. Ainsworth also introduced gothic elements, to add a terrifying component to the work. The novel was very popular, and marked the beginning of Ainsworth's 40-year career in historical romances, but it was not universally admired. Edgar Allan Poe described the style of writing as "turgid pretension".

Guy Fawkes (Serapis Classics)

William Ainsworth

About

Books

Join the club