Chambers's cyclopaedia of English literature : a history critical and biographical of authors in the English tongue from the earliest times till the present day, with specimens of their writing . een months. Hehad written some magazine articles prior to 1823,so that his first-l^orn was not Sir John Chiverton(1826), an anonymous novel bepraised by Scott(partly, it seems, the work of John PartingtonAston). His earliest hit was Rookwood (1834), 378 William Harrison Ainsworth with its vivid narrative of Dick Turpins ride toYork. In the interest and rapidity of his scenesand adventures, Ainsworth s
Chambers's cyclopaedia of English literature : a history critical and biographical of authors in the English tongue from the earliest times till the present day, with specimens of their writing . een months. Hehad written some magazine articles prior to 1823,so that his first-l^orn was not Sir John Chiverton(1826), an anonymous novel bepraised by Scott(partly, it seems, the work of John PartingtonAston). His earliest hit was Rookwood (1834), 378 William Harrison Ainsworth with its vivid narrative of Dick Turpins ride toYork. In the interest and rapidity of his scenesand adventures, Ainsworth showed some dramaticpower, but httle originality or felicity in humouror character. His romance, Crichton (1837), isfounded on the marvellous history of the Admir-able Scot; and later works were Jack Sheppard(1839), a sort of Newgate romance; The Towerof London, Gtiy Fawkes, Old St Paufs, WindsorCastle, The Lancashire Witches, The Star Chamber,The Flitch of Bacon, The Spendthrift, &c. Thereare rich, copious, and brilliant descriptions in someof these stories, but both their aesthetic value andtheir moral tendency were—and are now—opento much criticism ; there are certainly too many. WILLIAM HARRISON AINSWORTH. From a Print in the British Museum after the Portrait by Maclise. scenes of low but successful villainy, too manyghastly and unrelieved details of human romances, they abound in incident, and areelaborately and ingeniously constructed, but in theirstrongest situations are often frankly incredible; andthe style, especially in the conversations, is artificialand stilted to a degree. Even in the most appallingcrises his characters reply to one another in theaffirmative and call a church the sacred pile or thereverend structure. When a beautiful girl is beingroasted alive in a burning house one friend says toanother, I will ascertain how the case stands ;and having learned to his great satisfaction whathad occurred (viz., that she has been saved), heflew back
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectenglish, bookyear1901
