Books with author WILLIAM HARRISON . AINSWORTH

"Old Saint Paul's: A Tale of the Plague and the Fire" by William Harrison Ainsworth. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

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“By far the best of Mr. Ainsworth’s works; it is carefully written; the interest of the story is maintained throughout; many of the scenes are fraught with pathos and replete with incident, while his characters are portrayed with a graphic power and faithfulness which brings before the mind’s eye the daily occurrences of that dreaded epoch of our history. Mr. Ainsworth has invested our time-honored edifices – the Tower, St. Paul’s, and the old houses of Parliament with that individualizing interest which, before his advent to the domain of romantic fiction, was the sold and undisputed field of the great magician. The historical romances of Sir Walter Scott led thousands of minds, to whom political history had been an ungenial and distasteful line of reading, to renew and improve their acquaintance with the personages and events of the momentous eras depicted in his novels – a study, in fact of the chronicles of their country. In Mr. Ainsworth’s ‘Tower of London,’ the early years of Elizabeth, the reign of Bloody Mary, and the romantic, melancholy episode of Lady Jane Grey, a period of which, up to the publication of this chronicle of the Tower, we had but a hazy, imperfect notion, are as familiar to us as the latter years of the same sovereign, and the times of James I. “To emulate the author of ‘Kenilworth,’ and ‘Quentin Durward,’ is a task worthy of Mr. Ainsworth’s genius; and no one sensible of the value of blending the amusing with the instructive, can regard with indifference such an addition to the series of standard historical novels as the one under our notice. ‘Old Saint Paul’s, a tale of the Plague and the Fire,’ has more merit for ingenuity and originality than either the ‘Tower,’ or ‘Guy Fawkes.’ The career and fate of the heroine, Amabel, with the entire new phases in which we view the character period of the plague, form an interest unabated throughout the three volumes. We little think, we live in these tranquil times, of the horrors that have fallen, comparatively but a few years ago, upon men like unto ourselves.” -The St. James's Magazine

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Excerpt from Old Saint Paul's: A Tale of the Plague and the FireIt is characteristic of Defoe that he rejects, with all the sober gravity of the historian the tale that the blind piper started his music in the cart, and so frightened the bearers away. He even denies that the piper was blind - he was only an ignorant, weak, poor man, playing his pipes from door to door and finding custom especially at the public-houses where they knew him and would give him drink and victuals, and sometimes farthings. Defoe's is the method of the Dutch painters, an absolute fidelity to every detail, no matter how commonplace or grotesque it may be. Ainsworth as a disciple of the romantic school has no such scruples his piper is blind, and is provided with a faithful dog, and a beautiful damsel whose father he is supposed to be, but who is in reality the daughter of a nobleman.The pestilence of 1665, as it was the last so it was the greatest of the plagues by which London had been afflicted, not even excepting the Black Death of 1349.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Old Saint Paul's, Vol. 2 of 3: A Tale of the Plague and the FireAsk your own heart, and it will tell you, rejoined Nizza, boldly. I am come to pre serve the life of this poor youth.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The portion of the ensuing Tale relating to the Grocer of Wood-street, and his manner of victualling his house, and shutting up himself and his family within it during the worst part of the Plague of 1665, is founded on a narrative, which I have followed pretty closely in most of its details, contained in a very rare little volume, entitled, "Preparations against the Plague, both of Soul and Body," the authorship of which I have no hesitation in assigning to DEFOE. Indeed, I venture to pronounce it his masterpiece. It is strange that this matchless performance should have hitherto escaped attention, and that it should not have been reprinted with some one of the countless impressions of the "History of the Plague of London," to which it forms an almost necessary accompaniment. The omission, I trust, will be repaired by Mr. HAZLITT the younger, DEFOE'S last and best editor, in his valuable edition of the works of that great novelist and political writer, now in the course of publication. It may be added, that a case precisely similar to that of the Grocer, and attended with the same happy results, occurred during the Plague of Marseilles, in 1720. For my acquaintance with this narrative, as well as for the suggestion of its application to the present purpose, I am indebted to my friend, Mr. JAMES CROSSLEY, of Manchester. KENSAL MANOR HOUSE, HARROW ROAD, November 30, 1841.

The story of Old St. Paul's is spread over six books that range between April 1665 and September 1666 and details the events of the grocer Stephen Bloundel's life. Part of the story deals with the pursuit of Leonard Holt, the grocer's apprentice, in love with his master's daughter while she pursues Maurice Wyvil. This happens while a plague hits London, and St Paul's Cathedral is turned into a place to house the sick. During the plague, London is filled with the ill while many characters, including Anselm Chowles and Mother Malmaynes, go around killing and robbing the sick. Bloundel seals his house to avoid the plague. While this happens, Holt wanders alone in London and catches the plague, and Amabel Bloundel goes to marry Wyvil. However, Wyvil, really John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester, holds a fake marriage and uses it to trick Amabel to sleep with her. When she finds out that the marriage was a fake, Amabel grows sick and soon dies. Eventually, Holt recovers from the plague and continues to wander London. While he wanders, he meets Nizza Macascree, a woman who soon falls in love with him. However, she is revealed to be Lady Isabella Argentine, which keeps Holt and Argentine from marriage. The London fires are started by a group of religious zealots. To try to prevent the fire, Holt plans to destroy buildings in the fire's path, which he does and ends up saving King Charles II's life. In return, Holt is granted a title and is able to marry Argentine. The murderous thieves, Chowles and Malmayne, are killed during the fire when they are trapped beneath St. Paul's Cathedral as the fire destroys it. Eventually, Holt witnesses the rebuilding of the Cathedral

Excerpt from Jack Sheppard, Vol. 1 of 3: A RomanceNotwithstanding her emaciation, her features still retained something of a pleasing expression, and might have been termed beautiful, had it not been for the repulsive freshness of lip denoting the habitual dram drinker; a freshness in her case rendered the more shocking from the almost livid hue of the rest of her complexion. She could not be more than twenty and though want and other suffering had done the work of time, had wasted her frame, and robbed her cheek of its bloom and roundness, they had not extinguished the lustre of her eyes, nor thinned her raven hair. Checking an ominous cough that, ever and anon, convulsed her lungs, the poor woman addressed a few parting words to her companion, who lingered at the doorway as if he had something on his mind, which he did not very well know how to communicate.Well, good-night, Mr. Wood, she said, in the deep, hoarse accents of consumption; and may God Almighty bless and reward you for your kindness! You were always the best of masters to my poor husband; and now you've proved the best of friends to his widow and orphan boy.Pooh! Pooh! Say no more about it, rejoined the man hastily. I've done no more than my duty, Mrs. Sheppard, and neither deserve, nor desire your thanks.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.