Prolific early/mid-Victorian novelist and magazine editor/owner, early mentor to and influence upon the young Charles Dickens, and best known for his historical fiction and "Newgate novels" (sensationalized treatments of the lives and exploits of criminals, often housed in London's notorious Newgate Prison). As far as the Gothic is concerned, his account of English witchcraft, The Lancashire Witches [1849], is perhaps his most well-known effort, although many other works, such as Rookwood [1834], are heavily laden with Gothic motifs, images, scenarios--and rip-offs; Ainsworth wasn't above some heavy borrowing. I am inclined to see Rookwood as perhaps the last real "Gothic" work, a honor usually granted to Charles Maturin's 1820 masterpiece Melmoth the Wanderer, although it's certaily true that Rookwood has elements that suggest the sensation or Newgate novel as well.
While Ainsworth's fiction can be delightfully readable, with considerable energy and verve--as long as you're comfortable with structural lapses and melodrama--it is impossible to say he did much to advance the evolution of Gothic/post-Gothic literature. Quite popular in the 1830s and 1840s (beginning with the publication of Rookwood), Harrison Ainsworth is not much read today. One short work, "The Specter Bride" (published in 1822) is sometimes still found in anthologies and is attributed to Ainsworth, though personally I have some doubts as to Ainsworth's authorship.
Sites:
Harrison Ainsworth
Part of The Victorian Web, this site includes a chronology and a biographical essay, as well as links to contextual info.
William Harrison Ainsworth page
Includes a timeline and a few brief extracts from The Lancashire Witches. [Mitsuharu Matsuoka, Nagoya U]
Biographical note
[Literary Encyclopedia]
Biographical note
[Literary Heritage - West Midlands]
Brief biographical note
[Wikipedia]
Brief biographical note
[NNDB]
Brief biographical note
[John W. Cousins, A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, 1910]
Ainsworth Hyper-Concordance
Part of the The Victorian Literary Studies Archive, this concordance allows you to search the texts of several of Ainsworth's novels, including Windsor Castle and Old St. Paul's, among others.
Bibliography
Includes brief biographical note and some cover images from various editions of Ainsworth's works. [FantasticFiction]
Bibliography
[Guide to Supernatural Fiction, Tartarus Press]
Portraits
[National Portrait Gallery, London]
Etexts:
Auriol; or The Elixir of Life [1844]
The Lancashire Witches [1849]
"A Night in Rome" (36K) [1856]
"The Spectre Bride" [1822]
Windsor Castle
Available here in 3 (consecutive) files of 111K, 66K, and 100K, respectively.
The Lancashire Witches [1849]
"A Night in Rome" (36K) [1856]
"The Spectre Bride" [1822]
Attributed to Ainsworth, this is another variation on the "spectre bridegroom" motif.
Windsor Castle
Featuring the demonic character Herne the Hunter interacting with various historical figures from C16 England. One of Ainsworth's more highly regarded novels.
Night — midnight! is my season of delight. Nature is instinct then with secrets dark and dread. There is a language which he who sleepeth not, but will wake, and watch, may haply learn. Strange organs of speech hath the invisible world; strange language doth it talk; strange communion hold with him who would pry into its mysteries. It talks by bat and owl — by the grave-worm, and by each crawling thing — by the dust of graves, as well as by those that rot therein — but ever doth it discourse by night, and 'specially when the moon is at the full.
- from Rookwood
- from Rookwood
