Résumé
Résumé de Barnaby Rudge : récit des émeutes de 1780
Go deeper: the whole of Barnaby Rudge : récit des émeutes de 1780
About 17 h 10 min to read.À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
You will enjoy this if you love historical fiction with a crowded cast, comic figures like a pompous landlord and a talking raven, and ordinary people swept into great events.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
What would you do if a scarred stranger rode out of a stormy night, and a whole village still told the tale of a murder from twenty-two years before? That is how Barnaby Rudge opens, in an old inn called the Maypole in March 1775.
Dickens chose the Gordon Riots of 1780, when a No Popery crowd burned houses, chapels and prisons across London. You get the plot, the people and the meaning here.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A ghost story at the Maypole starts everythingFree
- 2A reckless rider and a locksmith cross paths
- 3A widow guards a secret and a gentle son
- 4Warm homes hide rivalries and wild ambitions
- 5A smiling gentleman plots to part two lovers
- 6A nervous lord and his secretary gather a following
- 7A quiet flight ends in the thick of the crowd
- 8The riots show how fear turns into hatred
- 9Parents and children shape every plot thread
- 10Comedy, symbols and a raven carry the story
Point clé 1 sur 10
A ghost story at the Maypole starts everything
The novel opens in March 1775 at the Maypole, an old inn twelve miles from London. Its landlord, John Willet, is a stout, stubborn man who thinks being slow makes him wise. His son Joe, a spirited young man of twenty, is still treated like a small boy.
Two strangers sit apart from the cronies at the fire. One is a young gentleman who means to walk to London because he is in love. The other is a rough man of sixty with a scar on his cheek. He asks pointed questions about the Warren, a red-brick mansion nearby, and Joe helps explain which house he means.
Then the parish clerk Solomon Daisy tells the inn's own story. Twenty-two years before, on the nineteenth of March, he heard a second bell ring far off while he sat in the dark church. By morning Reuben Haredale, master of the Warren, lay murdered, and his steward and gardener were gone. Tonight is that same date, and the scarred stranger listens without a word, then calls for his horse.
The old murder is the buried root of everything that follows.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
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Go deeper: the whole of Barnaby Rudge : récit des émeutes de 1780
About 17 h 10 min to read.Who’s who
- Barnaby Rudge
- A gentle, wild-haired young man who sees the world in his own way and loves his raven, his mother and the open sky.
- Grip
- Barnaby's pet raven, a sharp-eyed talker who calls himself a devil, pulls imaginary corks and wants his tea.
- Mary Rudge
- Barnaby's mother, a respected widow who guards a painful secret and wants only to keep her son safe and happy.
- Gabriel Varden
- A stout, cheerful Clerkenwell locksmith who is brave, honest and kind to everyone, though ruled at home by his wife.
- Dolly Varden
- The locksmith's pretty, teasing daughter, who is admired by many men and likes Joe Willet more than she says.
- Joe Willet
- The Maypole landlord's strong young son, tired of being treated like a child and hopelessly in love with Dolly.
- Hugh
- The wild stable hand of the Maypole, strong and sullen, with no family name and a hunger to strike back at the world.
- Sir John Chester
- A polished, smiling gentleman with no money who wants his son Edward to marry a fortune and not the girl he loves.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 260,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 17 h 20 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 13 other languages
Questions about Barnaby Rudge : récit des émeutes de 1780
What is Barnaby Rudge about?
It follows a gentle young man named Barnaby, his talking raven and the families around an English inn and a London locksmith's shop, as an old murder mystery meets the Gordon Riots of 1780.
Is Barnaby Rudge a true story?
The novel mixes fictional characters with historical figures in its account of the Gordon Riots in London in 1780. Dickens says in his preface that the main events are substantially accurate, and some details, such as Mary Jones's case, come from real records.
Who is Grip in Barnaby Rudge?
Grip is Barnaby's pet raven, a clever bird who calls himself a devil, imitates the sound of pulling corks and repeats phrases like never say die. Dickens based him on two ravens he once owned.
What were the Gordon Riots in the novel?
They were days of unrest in June 1780, led by a crowd that opposed new laws for Catholics under Lord George Gordon. Mobs burned chapels, houses and prisons across London, and the book shows the human cost.
What is the main message of Barnaby Rudge?
Dickens argues that a mob's religious cry is often stirred up by selfish people, and that fear and intolerance harm the innocent. The book also praises honest courage, kindness and loyalty in ordinary lives.
Cite this edition
Dickens, Charles. Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/barnaby-rudge-a-tale-of-the-riots-of-eighty.
Dickens, C. (2026). Barnaby Rudge: A tale of the riots of 'eighty. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/barnaby-rudge-a-tale-of-the-riots-of-eighty (Original work published 1841)
Dickens, Charles. Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/barnaby-rudge-a-tale-of-the-riots-of-eighty.
@book{dickens2026barnaby,
author = {Dickens, Charles},
title = {Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/barnaby-rudge-a-tale-of-the-riots-of-eighty},
note = {First published 1841}
}
