Barnaby Rudge Barnaby Rudge Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of Eighty (commonly known as Barnaby Rudge) is a historical novel by British novelist Charles Dickens. "Barnaby Rudge" was one of two novels (the other was "The Old Curiosity Shop") that Dickens published in his short-lived (1840–1841) weekly serial "Master Humphrey's Clock". "Barnaby Rudge" is largely set during the Gordon Riots of 1780. "Barnaby Rudge" was the fifth of Dickens' novels to be published. It had originally been planned to appear as his first, but changes of publisher led to many delays, and it first appeared in serial form in the
Racism in the work of Charles Dickens next 179 references to him. In his later novel "Our Mutual Friend", he created the character of Riah (meaning "friend" in Hebrew), whose goodness, Vallely writes, is almost as complete as Fagin's evil. Riah says in the novel: "Men say, 'This is a bad Greek, but there are good Greeks. This is a bad Turk, but there are good Turks.' Not so with the Jews ... they take the worst of us as samples of the best ..." Davis sent Dickens a copy of the Hebrew bible in gratitude. Dickens not only toned down Fagin's Jewishness in revised editions of