Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of Eighty, or just Barnaby Rudge, is the fifth of Charles Dickens' published novels, ad his first and only historical novel, set during the Gordon Riots of 1780.
It was originally to be the first of Charles' published novels, but was delayed by publisher changes, and in the meantime it debuted in the Clock in 1841. It has seldom been adapted to motion picture, with the latest known adaptation being a BBC TV series in 1960.
Barnaby Rudge provides examples of:
- Arranged Marriage: The reader learns this in passing:He mistrusted the honesty of all poor people who could read and write, and had a secret jealousy of his own wife (a young lady whom he had married for what his friends called "the good old English reason," that her father's property adjoined his own) for possessing these accomplishments in greater degree than himself.
- Loving Parent, Cruel Parent: Two different examples of this show up, both of which contributed to the upbringing of three different characters:
- Hugh the ostler deeply cared about his mother (a Romani woman), and part of the reason he's such a cruel man is out of anger towards a judicial system and society that hanged his Romani mother just for stealing to support herself and him. In contrast to Hugh's mother, his father, Sir John Chester, is a Faux Affably Evil, vain, hedonistic man who shows no concern for anything except maintaining his own expensive lifestyle and paying off his debtors, and he has entirely negative reasons for manipulating his legitimate son, Edward, into marrying a rich woman instead of someone he actually loves. Sir John effectively disowns Edward after the latter defies him and leaves, and he treats Hugh more like a useful tool than an actual child before knowing of their relation, and after learning of their relation, he refuses to try rescuing Hugh from the gallows. The latter leads a Defiant to the End Hugh to utter a Dying Curse upon his father. While not much is stated about Edward Chester's mother, presumably her way of raising Edward is the reason he's much more compassionate than his father.
- The titular Barnaby Rudge's parents. His mother, Mary, pushes every resource she has to the limit in taking care of her son (even more so given that
he's implied to have some kind of learning difficulty, in an age where such conditions were treated with hostility and mockery); giving him a pet raven, and teaching him how to do work around the farm to put his impressive strength to good use. His father, Barnaby Rudge Sr., is a cynical, violent, mentally unstable man who has spent twenty years absent from his son's life due to murdering two people for selfish reasons. When father and son meet again as prisoners in the same jail, any care Rudge Sr. shows to his son is merely a ploy to trick him into helping him escape, and once they get imprisoned again and are sentenced to the gallows, Rudge Sr. spends his final moments rejecting Mary's attempts to convince him to repent of his crimes, cursing his wife and his son to their faces, and wallowing in self-pity about his grim fate. Which makes it all the more appropriate when Barnaby is spared the gallows but Rudge Sr. isn't.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: The mysterious robber, murderer and general villain that has haunted the book turns out to be Barnaby's father. He even reveals this using the phrase "I am your father". If only he'd said "Barnaby, I am your father" it would be perfect. Being simple-minded, Barnaby doesn't react with the same horror as Luke.
- Shoo the Dog: Happens in possibly the earliest example of the trope. The title character must leave town, and has to say goodbye to a group of vagrant dogs that have served as his companions for several years.One of the dogs — the ugliest of them all — came bounding up, and jumping round him in the fullness of his joy. He had to bid him go back in a surly tone, and his heart smote him while he did so. The dog retreated; turned with a half-incredulous, half-imploring look; came a little back; and stopped.
It was the last appeal of an old companion and a faithful friend—cast off. Barnaby could bear no more, and as he shook his head and waved his playmate home, he burst into tears. - Sympathetic Villain, Despicable Villain: Whilst neither character is the Big Bad — that honour goes to Lord George Gordon — Mr. Geoffrey Haredale and Sir John Chester serve as antagonists to their niece Emma and son Edward, respectively, by keeping them separated, purely because Haredale and Sir John are enemies due to their different religions. However, Mr. Haredale, despite his Hair-Trigger Temper and bluntness, genuinely cares for his niece as though she were his own daughter, comes to regret separating her from Edward, along with putting his life in danger to save several innocents from the brutal Gordon riots. Additionally, he goes through a Trauma Conga Line that makes the viewer sympathize with him — the murder of his brother twenty years ago, the heartbreak and kidnapping of Emma, and his house being burnt to the ground. Sir John, on the other hand, is a Faux Affably Evil sociopath, who cares only for his own pleasures, takes pride in having kept Haredale a lifelong bachelor by stealing his fiancee, and tries to coerce Edward into marrying a rich heiress just so he can use her money to maintain his lifestyle and pay off his debts. Further proof of his moral vileness lies in the fact that he is implied to have given the rioters the idea of burning down Haredale's house and that in the past, he seduced, impregnated, and then abandoned a Hot Gypsy Woman, who was then hanged for theft, but not before giving birth to his Bastard Bastard son, Hugh the ostler. Despite happily recruiting Hugh as an agent in his mission to ruin the Haredales' lives, Sir John ultimately treats him no better than he treated his legitimate son once he discovers their relation. If anything, he treats him even worse, refusing to try rescuing him from the gallows near the climax, or even come to see him. Needless to say, Sir John is a far fouler man than Mr. Haredale, which makes it all the more appropriate that Haredale kills him in a duel by the end of the story.
