This vivid historical & political novel by Dickens is centred on the infamous No Popery riots instigated by Lord George Gordon which terrorised London in 1780. Dickens targets are prejudice intolerance religious bigotry & nationalistic fervour together with the villains who exploit these for selfish ends. His intense account of the riots is interwoven with the mysterious tale of a long-unsolved murder & with a romance involving forbidden love treachery & heroism. Barnaby Rudge abounds in memorably strange comic & grotesque characters. Furthermore recent historical events have renewed its political topicality.