William Harrison Ainsworth

Guy Fawkes; or, The gunpowder treason, an historical romance. By William Harrison Ainsworth

Guy Fawkes first appeared as a serial in Bentley's Miscellany, between January and November 1840. It was subsequently published as a three-volume set in July 1841, with illustrations by George Cruikshank. The first of William Harrison Ainsworth's seven "Lancashire novels", the story is based on the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, an unsuccessful attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Ainsworth relied heavily on historical documents describing the trial and execution of the conspirators, of whom Fawkes was one, but he also embellished the known facts. He invented the character of Viviana Radcliffe, daughter of the prominent Radcliffe family of Ordsall Hall - who becomes Fawkes's wife - and introduced supernatural elements into the story, such as the ability of the alchemist, John Dee, to raise the spirits of the dead.