Rookwood

Published in 1834, this one amplifies Ann Radcliffe's Gothic-ness to eleven. I loved the story because it's fun, wild, gloomy, rogue, and riveting, like a gripping telenovela. 

The plot is all about inheritance, family drama, illegitimate sons, and revenge. It features villains, gypsies, apparitions, corpses, evil priests, murders, curses, and the famous highwayman Dick Turpin and his mare Black Bess. It recounts Turpin's midnight ride through the English countryside as he flees capture, and like it, the entire novel is a wild ride. 

Though a bit antiquated and with "songs" aplenty—which Ainsworth himself lamented had been lost in British literature… show more.

As Ainsworth’s future biographer, discovering this remarkable novel in a secondhand bookshop in the early-1990s is what started it all for me. Illustrated by George Cruikshank and originally serialised in 1834, Rookwood made its author famous overnight. His intention was to revive the gothic romance and relocate the form from Europe to England, deploying family curses, ruined castles, and corrupt aristocratic lines. The project was further enlivened by the inclusion of a raucous band of gypsies, numerous (Egan-inspired) ‘Flash’ songs, and the Georgian highwayman Dick Turpin as a primary character. All the legends the English take for granted about Turpin,… show more.