A Dickensian
childhood
Charles
Dickens was among the first authors I can remember reading. As a child I had an
illustrated Jaico edition of Oliver Twist and a MacMillan edition of A Tale of Two Cities (both abridged). I
also have some very vague memories of seeing a few episodes from the BBC
adaptation of Great Expectations
which was being broadcast on Doordarshan at nights on, I think, Wednesdays.
One of the
first unabridged classics I read was also by Dickens - Great Expectations. Over a period of time, the rest would follow. I
could not say, now, what it was that I liked so much about his work, or for
that matter, of Brontë, Scott, Stevenson and Co. They wrote of a different time
and place, indeed, of an environment so far removed from my middle-class life
in Bombay that I might as well have been reading fantasy.
Maybe I just
liked the classics back then because they were:
a) What I was
exposed to.
b) My father
and grandfathers, who I looked up to, said the classics were awesome, and so I convinced
myself they must be.
Whatever the
reasons, I did read a lot of Dickens over the years, aided by long school
vacations, a general lack of ability at sport and what was then a decent
attention span. I did read in isolation though; it was not until I was in my
twenties that I encountered others of my age who did enjoy reading books of
that length or from that time period. For most, the problem was easy enough to
state – apart from the length and ‘seriousness’ of the subject matter, the
language and scenes were too remote, too different from the world around, and
the characters un-relatable.
I also began
to expand my own reading to cover more modern authors across genres and more
particularly, those that try to deal with the world as it is. Good literature
is always fascinating, of course, and I like to think I enjoy it regardless of
when or by whom it was written.
But since
I’ve tried not to let outside opinions influence me too much when it comes to reading, I continued to keep a healthy
dose of reading the classics alongside more recent works, and what never
changes is the realisation that there is so much more to understand with
subsequent readings than my younger self could process. Moreover, far from
being fantasy, there is much in those two-hundred-year-old books that could be
happening today.
Parents and
Children
Barnaby Rudge, for
instance, may have been published in 1841 and relate to events taking place
some sixty years before that, but it might as well have been about what
happened in India a hundred-and-fifty years later.
The cast of
characters in Barnaby Rudge is much
smaller than what is usual for a Dickens novel and this does mean that the
writer’s control over them and the plot is tighter than is usual. The book
itself can be divided into two phases, the first half dealing with themes of
abandonment, parental neglect and loss, while the second half deals with
religious bigotry, sectarian violence and the mayhem of mobs.
The events
kick off in the Maypole, a popular
tavern not far from London, where John
Willett and his cronies discuss the murder of Reuben Haredale, who once
lived at the ‘Warren’, the nearby stately house, and his steward, Barnaby Rudge.
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| Barnaby and Grip |
The
discussion then shifts to the unfortunate son of the steward, also named Barnaby, who is a ‘simpleton’, or ‘not
quite right in the head’. Young Barnaby was born on the day of the
double-murder, and now lives with his mother Mary, on a pension from the Haredale estate in London. We discover
that Geoffrey Haredale, brother of
the deceased Reuben, and Emma, his
orphaned daughter, now occupy the Warren, and that the latter is on her way to
London at that moment to attend a dance. One of the guests in the tavern perks
up at this news and goes off after her, we discover that he is Edward Chester, the beloved of Emma.
Shortly after, another of the guests makes off after Edward, and encounters
along the way Gabriel Varden, master
locksmith, with whom he has a brief altercation before hunting down Edward and
nearly knifing him to death for his money.
 |
| Barnaby and Mary Rudge with the fallen Edward Chester |
Edward
Chester’s father, John, is a
portrait of genteel villainy, penniless but fashionable and determined his son
should marry a richer woman than Emma Haredale, a calculating prejudice he
hangs upon the shoulders of another – the fact that the Haredales are a
Catholic family, while he is Protestant. This is a distaste shared by Geoffrey
Haredale, who is an old and bitter rival of John Chester’s, and cannot
countenance the thought of his son marrying his beloved niece, religious
differences aside.
At the
Maypole, we find that the stodgy inn-keeper is a tyrant to his son Joseph, and treats him so poorly that
the lad seems to have less autonomy than the stable-boy, Hugh, who is known to be the son of a woman who was hanged shortly
after his birth.
 |
| Gabriel Varden (center) at home with his apprentice Simon and daughter Dolly. |
Back in
London, the locksmith Varden is by contrast a doting parent to his daughter,
the beautiful Dolly, and holds to
his moderate views even under assault from his deeply devout wife and her even
more devout maidservant, Miggs. But
Varden’s apprentice, Simon Tappertit,
is another matter altogether, a figure whose physical ridiculousness is
contrasted sharply by his dark and violent thoughts, especially with respect to
Joseph Willet, who is Dolly’s favourite among a score of suitors.
(Incidentally, the character of Dolly Varden was quite iconic back in the day,
having fashions named for her and even a particularly scrumptious sub-species
of trout!)
Events play
out over a relatively short period, and denouements happen. Joseph and Edward
rebel against their respective fathers, and go off to make their own fortunes,
but while Edward goes knowing Emma loves him truly, Joseph leaves with his
proposal to Dolly rejected, a broken-hearted man. Barnaby Rudge and his mother
too leave the protection of Geoffrey Haredale, as the man who attacked Edward
becomes a menacing, evil presence in their lives, and thus ends the First Act.
 |
| Dolly rejects Joseph Willet's proposal |
Mobs and
mayhem
The Second
Act finds us back at the Maypole, to find that not much has changed. Both the
prodigal sons have not returned, and Emma and Dolly remain single, finding
friendship in each other, while the Rudges have not been seen for five years.
In the midst of this, Lord George Gordon, an eccentric man but brilliant
orator, has begun to foment discontent in the country with his anti-Catholic
rhetoric. He spends a night at the Maypole, where we find his secretary, Mister Gashford is the evil genius
behind Gordon’s actions, a ruthless, conniving man who has his own agenda to
pursue. Indeed, Dickens portrays Gordon as a well-meaning but deluded,
easily-led fool, whose position and personal charisma is turned to evil purpose
by Gashford.
 |
| Lord Gordon rouses the mob. |
Gordon and
Gashford rally many to their cause, preying on the popular superstitions and
suspicions of England’s majority-Protestant population. With lies and
insinuations, they convince the people that the Government is appeasing
Catholics by withdrawing the most draconian provisions of the Popery Act of
1698. Spreading hate and bigotry across the country and especially among the
unemployed and less-educated classes, Gordon brings forth a crowd of over forty
thousand men and women to besiege Parliament.
The
characters from the First Act return to the scene as well. Gashford has tapped
into Simon Tappertit’s resentment against his master and his unrequited love
for Dolly Varden to bring him and his fellow-apprentice-revolutionaries into
the fold. John Chester, realising Hugh resents the Haredales, has pushed him
towards Gordon’s mob as well. Along with them is Dennis the hangman. Just as the mob is marching on Parliament,
Barnaby Rudge and his mother return to London and get caught up on the crowd,
with simple-minded Barnaby quite taken with the idea of the riot and coming
under Hugh’s wing. Meanwhile, Geoffrey Haredale stands tall and proud against
the mob, defiant of their anti-Catholic spouting.
 |
| The mob takes over London |
Some of
Dickens’ finest writing can be found in his recreation of the scenes to follow.
The destruction of Catholic Churches, the bringing down of businesses belonging
to them, the burning of their houses and even of Protestants who dare to defy
the rioters, the weakness of the authorities, their reluctance to bring out the
army to control the mob, are not only depicted in all their chilling,
frightening glory, but should bring back bitter memories for those who have
lived through similar incidents themselves.
The
climactic scenes rush in upon one another as Barnaby is arrested, the Maypole
is looted and the Warren burned down. Emma and Dolly are captured by the
rioters and imprisoned with a view to handing them over to the men who desire
them – Mister Gashford and Simon.
 |
| The abduction of Emma and Dolly. (L-R) Emma Haredale, Dennis the hangman, Dolly (fighting), Hugh the bastard and Simon Tappertit |
In the end,
the riots abate, and some form of justice is done. The worst of the
perpetrators are caught or shot dead in the streets. The sagas of the named
characters too draw to their inevitable conclusions – happiness for some,
misery for others.
 |
| Burning down Newgate prison |
After it was
over, though, there were still scenes that stayed with me, and will for some
time. The carnage after a vintner’s shop is set afire, when liquor flows in the
streets and the people in the mob prefer to drink than run to safety and die
drowned in the spirit as it flames up is horrific in its vividness. Barnaby
Rudge’s distracted rants have their own beauty too, and in the midst of the
darkness, and before the worst of the troubles, Miggs and Simon Tappertit
afford a fair number of laughs.
Reflecting
on a classic
For all that
is good about it, though, Barnaby Rudge
was not a commercial success by Dickens’ high standards. The reasons are not
too hard to find, I suppose – there is no one single central character, and the
first third of the book feels like a lot of events happen without any specific
end point in sight. Moreover, the romance between Edward Chester and Emma
Haredale is a mere prop, with the latter’s character barely explored at all. But
more than that, I think the book held up too clear a mirror to society. It
showed how easy it is for the unscrupulous to manipulate religious and social
dogma to bring about violence, and the savagery that simmers under the surface
of every man, ready to be ignited when the right spark is lit. That is not
something a lot of people like to read about themselves, and it is no wonder
that most of the rest of Dickens books sentimentalise or poke fun at society as
a whole rather than hold it up to such stark scrutiny.
 |
| 1992 |
But the
passage of time shows that little has changed. Demagogues still spew hatred,
the rabble is still too-easily roused with stories of appeasement and
discrimination, while the innocent often end up burning in the fires of rage,
or being washed away in the deluge of blood that follows. In our country, it
has happened too often, too recently and too easily for the message of Barnaby Rudge not to resonate strongly
with this reader.
 |
| 2002 |
In an
article I wrote for Readomania about the relevance of the classics I had spoken
about how it was not just age or even narrative excellence that anointed a book
or an author with that title – ‘Classic’. It was the universality and
applicability of their themes beyond the time and setting of the books
themselves. This is particularly true in case of Barnaby Rudge, and much as I may wish it were not so, the fact
remains that we only live to repeat the mistakes we should know better than to
make again.
Which ends
up begging the question – is Barnaby
Rudge truly the half-witted simpleton, or are we, close on two hundred
years later, but fools in motely, ignoring the truth we should be able to see?
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| Barnaby and Grip |
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