Rating: 
Summary: Highly Overlooked
Review: This book is probably the most overlooked of Dickens' major efforts. It lacks the silly slapstick and joy of Pickwick Papers, and is missing the biting social commentary (at least not as biting) of Little Dorrit and Hard Times. Also, it is always listed in the "about the author" section as being somewhat of a commercial letdown at the time.
The truth is that it is a great book. It has enough silliness to let you know that it is Dickens, but is accompanied by a good bit of darkness. In fact, it's almost macabre at times.
In the end, this is a great story from a master storyteller. Isn't this the true benchmark of a classic? For all the ingenius stylism of "The Sound and the Fury" would we love it half as much (if at all) if the styling didn't accent a most captivating tale? Well, "Barnaby Rudge" is just that....a thoroughly captivating tale in the classic Dickens style.
Rating: 
Summary: One of My Favorite Dickens
Review: This book was not popular when published, the fault of "too much of a good thing" coming too quickly from the unstoppable pen of the young superstar author. But, please! Ignore the critics of the last 150 years, and just read Barnaby Rudge. I've read 11 of Dickens' major novels, working my way through the catalogue in chronological order. To my tastes, this little sleeper of a book contends well for top spot, right alongside his more famous larger brothers, like Pickwick and Dombey. When I grow up, I want to be like Gabriel Varden -- a man "terrifying in his integrity."
Rating: 
Summary: An action-packed historical novel
Review: This is a well paced and fast-moving historical novel set during the anti-popery riots in London in 1780. Although not as grippingly exciting as Dicken's other historical novel, A Tale Of Two Cities, there is plenty of drama here to sustain the reader's interest. The fictional characters are well woven into the historical setting, and the portrayal of these characters gives the book some of its best comic moments, from the suave Edward Chester, to the vengeful Simon Tappertit, to the spiteful Miss Miggs, to the devious hangman, Dennis. The hero of the book is Gabriel Varden, whom Dickens repeatedly describes, rather clumsily, as "the honest locksmith". Varden has to suffer constant friction in his own household between himself, his wife, his apprentice and his maid, and this agitation reflects the agitation of the masses in the streets. One of the best features of the book is the way it successfully carries a number of plot lines. The main one of these concerns a murder committed many years previously for which no-one has been convicted. There are several other sub-plots such as the tension between the Catholic Haredale and the Protestant Chester, Joe Willet's love for Varden's daughter, the comical scheming of the apprentice locksmith against his master and the presence of a shadowy stranger who pursues Barnaby Rudge's mother. Some elements of the plot fizzle out a bit too easily towards the end, such as the attempt to kidnap Haredale's daughter, but the overall effect of the book is very satisfying. This is one of Dicken's least remembered novels, but I think it is well worth reading and an excellent introduction to his work.
Rating: 
Summary: What a mess
Review: This recording is perhaps one of the worst I have ever encountered. I admit to having only listened to it for few minutes before giving up, but what a mess of an effort. I am sure that when this was originally broadcast there must have been a narrator. Here it is merely a series of voices and it makes things very difficult indeed. There are also some rather rural accents featured on this recording, making it extremely difficult for an American to follow. This is a well-intended, but ultimately a mess of an attempt to render one of the novels of Dickens into drama. The whole thing seems like someone brought a tape recorder down to the pub on a Friday night and hoped for magic to take place.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent read
Review: This work by Dickens takes the factual events of the "No Popery" riots of 1780's London,England and uses them as a backdrop for a dozen or so of Dicken's most colorful and well contrasted characters and combines with them a plot that includes a long unsolved murder. The reader can expect the usual thoroughly desciptive scenes, long a hallmark of his writing style, and characters that seem to come to life,jumping as it were, right from the very page. It is a pleasure,not a chore, to read Barnaby Rudge.
Rating:
Summary: Departs from Dickens' Normal Formulas, But Not His Strength
Review: To be sure, this book does not follow Dickens' normal formula. If you only want to read Dickens' finest books that show his best talents, you may do better to stick with books like "Oliver Twist," "David Copperfield," "Great Expectations," or "Our Mutual Friend." All of that aside, I can not understand why this never gained the same popularity as "A Tale of Two Cities" (which also shows a departure from Dickens' standard formula). The opening is quite captivating and the images are well painted. Right away Dickens grabs our attention with the mysterious 'dead man' (who will later prove to be a VERY significant live person). Like Dickens' other villains, Chester is very wicked, but he carries a charm that makes him more fascinating than repulsive. Geoffrey Haredale is a captivating figure who APPEARS cold, but he proves himself to be quite virtuous. Although we don't really get to know Emma and Dolly that well, they do grab our attention at times. Mary (Barnaby Rudge's mother) is memorable as a (widowed?) woman who does her best for her son and displays her fears dramatically. The 'dead man' reappears every now and then to keep us in suspense. The conversations between Ned and his father Chester are quite memorable. Varden is fine in his secondary but significant role. Barnaby is not exactly Dickens' most memorable protagonist, but he does portray someone caught in the middle fairly well. One thing Dickens does quite well is that he first draws personal disputes over religion, and then he draws civil riots over religious differences. Some memorable lines are also present: ("I arrest you in the name of God who has delivered you into my hands," "May he die a violent death as I do now and have the night wind as his only mourner."). The final fight between Chester and Haredale is a fitting conclusion for this excellent work. So we have a great combination of drama, suspense, horror, and even some comedy. My only complaints about this are that I feel some more time could have been spent on the 'dead man' in developing his character and explaining his actions, and I do miss the filial piety that is prevalent in other novels of Dickens. I do not feel that this represents Dickens' best efforts; but it is FAR from his worst creation. This is every bit as good as the popular "A Tale of Two Cities."
Rating:
Summary: Dickens' Other Historical Novel
Review: When one says "Charles Dickens" and "historical novel" in the same sentence, the immediate impression is of the French Revolution adventure "A Tale of Two Cities". But Dickens wrote another historical novel 18 years before, in 1841, the complex and colorful "Barnaby Rudge", set during London's anti-Papal riots of June 1780, when there was a reaction against the Catholic influence in Parliament. Populated by a large cast and activated by a plot of intrigue and danger, it is one of the best of Dickens in his early period. In fact, it is perhaps Dickens' most under-rated work. As usual with Dickens, the characters find themselves in a labyrinth of relationships. Sir John Chester is an impoverished habitué who tells his handsome son he expects the young man to insure the family fortune in the time-honored tradition of decadent nobility: by marrying money. "With regard to our circumstances, Ned, you may set your mind at rest upon that score. They are desperate." His son is appalled, the more so as he is in love with Emma, the daughter of a country gentleman, Geoffrey Haredale, Sir John's moral opposite. Running parallel to this love story is that of Joe Willet, the good-hearted son of John Willet, the proprietor of the Maypole Inn, where much of the action takes place. Joe is courting the daughter of Gabriel Varden, an honest, hard-working locksmith, a proletarian hero. (Originally he was the book's title character.) Gabriel's daughter Dolly, Joe's inamorata, is one of those human cookies so adored by Victorian England. (All through the 19th Century articles of clothing were named after her: the Dolly Varden bonnet, the Dolly Varden cape, etc.) Touching these families is Barnaby Rudge himself, a strange, simple-minded boy whose naïveté leads him into joining the rebellion led by the Protestant radical Lord George Gordon, who also appears as a minor character. Barnaby's constant companion is a talking raven; their conversations sound like vaudeville routines. His mother hides one of those dark family mysteries Dickens used so suspensefully in "Oliver Twist"; and this theme is reflected in Sir John Chester's secret: he is the illegitimate father of ... the story's least likely character. The novel is filled with Dickensian trademarks: ironic drama, an odd sense of humor, and, of course, strong sentimentality. With the bloody Gordon riots as a climax, "Barnaby Rudge", elaborate and absorbing, is an impressive predecessor to Dickens' better-known tale of the Reign of Terror.
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