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Published in 1872, Boscobel gives a vivid, if rather over-romanticised account of episodes in the English Civil War, culminating in the fugitive Charles Stuart's escape after the battle of Worcester. While there is a subplot of the love affair between William Careless and Juliana Coningsby, the descriptions of battles, strategies and escapes outweigh the more romantic elements of the story. Necessarily, the topography of the countryside and the towns involved in the war play a major role, Worcester in particular. Additionally Ainsworth describes the location of numerous skirmishes, and houses visited by Charles in his flight.
A sample chapter of Boscobel is available on this website.
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The true story of Charles Stuart's defeat and flight is incredibly romantic and exciting, and even Ainsworth's occasionally unnatural and stilted style can't detract from it, nor from the qualities of loyalty and bravery displayed by so many of those involved. While his characters are two-dimensional, and their dialogue artificial and florid, his descriptions of the fighting and skirmishes is often genuinely exciting, and the reader is carried along by Ainsworth's own enthusiasm for his story. Ainsworth's novels, though originally written for an adult readership, also seem to have been popular with children and Boscobel no doubt provided the material and the high-flown rhetoric for games of Roundheads and Cavaliers in many families.
Page created 25 November 2002 and last
updated 25 November 2002
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