Harrison Ainsworth Rookwood :: essays research papers

In the early nineteenth century, an interest in criminals and the common despoilerarose in Europe. Many magazines in London, such as Bentley&8217s Miscellany, Fraser&8217sMagazine, and The Athenaeum featured sections that were reserved for stories about pillager and their numerous adventures. The growing interest in the subject inspired some(prenominal) authors to write about the various exploits of popular criminals and highwayman. Some prominent examples of this typewrite of tonic were Edward Bulwer&8217s Paul Clifford(1830) and Eugene Aram (1832) Charles stopcockens&8217 Oliver Twist (1838-39) and BarnabyRudge (1841) and William Harrison Ainsworth Rookwood (1834) and knave Sheppard(1839-40). several(prenominal) of these novels were based upon famous crimes and criminal careersof the past (Eugene Aram, Dick Turpin in Rookwood, and rascal Sheppard) others derivedfrom contemporary crime (Altick, 1970, p. 72). Although many authors chose to basetheir stories on criminals, Willia m Harrison Ainsworth&8217s Rookwood and Jack Sheppardare two of the best examples of the theme of &8216crime and punishment&8217 in the nineteenthcentury.Ainsworth started his writing career as a writer of black letter stories for variousmagazines. Gothic elements are included in Ainsworth&8217s novel the ancient hall, thefamily vaults, macabre burial vaults, secret union, and so forth (John, 1998, p. 30). Rookwood is a story about two half-brothers in a conflict all over the family inheritance. The English criminal who Ainsworth decides to entangle in Rookwood was Dick Turpin,a highwayman executed in 1739. However, echoing Bulwer, Ainsworth&8217s explanation forhis interest in Dick Turpin (like Bulwer&8217s explanation in his choice of Eugene Aram as asubject) is personal and familial (John, 1998, p. 31). Though the basis of the novels seemsimilar, Ainsworth treated Dick Turpin in a different way than Bulwer treated EugeneAram. Ainsworth romanticizes history, but basically stick s to the facts (as far as he knewthem). Perhaps more importantly, Ainsworth does not induce that the Turpin he inventsis the real Dick Turpin, nor does he attempt to elevate Turpin&8217s social class status (John,1998, p. 32). Ainsworth recalls lying in bed listening to the exploits of &8216Dauntless Dick&8217,as narrated by his father. Despite Ainsworth&8217s compaction with the criminal, the realTurpin was no more interesting a character than an characterless cat burglar. Besideshighway robbery, his affairs included stealing sheep and gap into farmer&8217 houses,sometimes with the aid of confederates and he took a turn at smuggling (Hollingsworth,1963, p. 99). Although Turpin appears in a considerable part of the novel, he genuinely hasno effect on the plot. He stole a marriage certificate, but the incident was not important