Rookwood (Summarized Edition)

Rookwood (1834) entwines a contested family inheritance with the meteoric legend of Dick Turpin, climaxing in the breathless Ride to York. Between crypts, inns, and the echoing chambers of Rookwood Hall, Ainsworth fuses Gothic architecture, fatal prophecy, and the kinetics of the road. Ornate, melodramatic prose is punctuated by ballads and tavern songs, producing a hybrid of historical romance an...