Radcliffe substituting an old English highwayman, for the Italian marchese, the castle, and the brigand of the great mistress of Romance." Ainsworth explained this in his preface to Rookwood: "I resolved to attempt a story in the bygone style of Mrs. However, Ainsworth did not rely on many of the clichés of gothic fiction, in addition to moving the setting of the story from medieval Europe to contemporary England. The novel follows Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto in its use of the gothic genre, an action which helped revive the gothic genre in British literature. Characters Īinsworth employs many genres within Rookwood. In the end, the only surviving family members, Ranulph Rookwood and Eleanor Mowbray marry. However, they activate a mechanism that causes the tomb to shut and imprison them together forever. Alan confronts Maud Rookwood, and the two attack each other in the Rookwood family tomb. įollowing the death of his grandson, Peter Bradley admits his true identity: he is Alan Rookwood, the brother of Reginald Rookwood, father to Piers. To avenge her death, Sybil's family poisons a lock of hair and gives it to Bradley, which results in his death. Later, Turpin reappears and tries to help Bradley win Eleanor's hand in marriage, but Bradley is fooled into marrying Sybil instead, Eleanor having been taken by the gypsies. The horse, though fast enough to keep ahead of all other horses, eventually collapses and dies under the stress of the escape. Eventually, Turpin is forced to escape on his horse, Black Bess. While there, he makes a bet with one of the guests that he can capture himself. Dick Turpin, a highwayman and thief, is introduced at the manor, under the pseudonym Palmer. At his grandfather's prompting, Bradley abandons his love, a gypsy named Sybil Lovel, to pursue and try to force Mowbray into marriage. Īs events unfold, Bradley falls in love with Eleanor Mowbray – but she is in love with her cousin, Ranulph Rookwood. ![]() Meanwhile, Rookwood's wife, Maud Rookwood, initiates her own scheme to ensure that her son, Ranulph Rookwood, is able to claim the inheritance. However, the entire incident has been orchestrated by Peter Bradley, the boy's grandfather. During the fall, it can be seen that she is wearing a wedding ring, which suggests that Bradley is not illegitimate. This knowledge comes to Bradley while he stands near his mother's coffin, which falls and opens at the moment of revelation. ![]() It is revealed to Luke Bradley that he is the son, and therefore the heir, of Piers and also that Piers had murdered Bradley's mother. After a branch does fall from the tree, Piers Rookwood, the owner, dies. At a manor called Rookwood Place, a legend claims that when a branch of an ancient tree breaks, a death will follow. The action of the novel takes place in England in 1737. The novel disappeared from bookshops after World War II and a restriction on the use of paper. The work was completed in 1834, and Rookwood, A Romance was published in three volumes by Richard Bentley with illustrations by George Cruikshank. ![]() Ainsworth used the settings in combination with his work for his previous novel, Sir John Chiverton. The locations Ainsworth refers to is the home of his cousin's wife in Chesterfield and the ancient hall belonged to a friend who lived in Cuckfield Place, Sussex. Wishing to describe, somewhat minutely, the trim gardens, the picturesque domains, the rook-haunted groves, the gloomy chambers, and gloomier galleries, of an ancient Hall with which I was acquainted." A preface to the 1849 edition of the novel discusses the origins and development of the novel: "During a visit to Chesterfield, in the autumn of the year 1831, I first conceived the notion of writing this story. By 1830, he began to work for the Fraser's Magazine and was with the magazine when he started writing Rookwood in 1831. In a letter to James Crossley during that May, Ainsworth inquired about information about Gypsies and eulogies. ![]() It is a historical and gothic romance that describes a dispute over the legitimate claim for the inheritance of Rookwood Place and the Rookwood family name.Īinsworth began to develop the idea of writing a novel in 1829. Rookwood is a novel by William Harrison Ainsworth published in 1834.
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