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| Subtitle | A Tale of the Riots of Eighty |
| First Written | 1841 |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Origin | UK |
| My Copy | audiobook! |
| First Read | August 08, 2021 |
Barnaby Rudge
It was very weird to hear a trio of villains - Dennis the hangman, Simon the apprentice who wants to murder his masters, Hugh the lowlife hostler who wants to do violence to anybody really - scope out Parliament and plan their riot. These three were all despised by society (to more or less degree), and they are ready to take their vengeance by latching on to the spurious anti-catholic cause, but it's clear they don't really give a shit. They stand around Parliament, talk about how it would be to get inside, which doors lead to the inner chambers. Then I turned my audiobook off and listened to the news investigations of the US Capitol riots. Blegh.
Noted on August 8, 2021
All good ends can be worked out by good means. Those that cannot, are bad; and may be counted so at once, and left alone.
Quoted on August 23, 2021
[just an amazing badass exchange with G. Varden, the old locksmith. The mob gathers at his door, ready to break in and do who knows what mischief. He's yelling defiantly from an upper window. The crowd yells:]
‘Burn the door!’
‘Stop!’ cried the locksmith, in a voice that made them falter—presenting, as he spoke, a gun. ‘Let an old man do that. You can spare him better.’
Quoted on August 11, 2021
Father Time is not always a hard parent, and, though he tarries for none of his children, often lays his hand lightly upon those who have used him well; making them old men and women inexorably enough, but leaving their hearts and spirits young and in full vigour. With such people the grey head is but the impression of the old fellow’s hand in giving them his blessing, and every wrinkle but a notch in the quiet calendar of a well-spent life.
Quoted on August 8, 2021
To surround anything, however monstrous or ridiculous, with an air of mystery, is to invest it with a secret charm, and power of attraction which to the crowd is irresistible. False priests, false prophets, false doctors, false patriots, false prodigies of every kind, veiling their proceedings in mystery, have always addressed themselves at an immense advantage to the popular credulity, and have been, perhaps, more indebted to that resource in gaining and keeping for a time the upper hand of Truth and Common Sense, than to any half-dozen items in the whole catalogue of imposture. Curiosity is, and has been from the creation of the world, a master-passion. To awaken it, to gratify it by slight degrees, and yet leave something always in suspense, is to establish the surest hold that can be had, in wrong, on the unthinking portion of mankind.
Quoted on August 8, 2021