Two Novels About Different Guys Named Guy

"So these two Guys walk into a castle…"

Sir Walter Scott pioneered the historical novel, writing dozens of books centered around his native Scotland that enjoyed a worldwide audience and the acclaim of his peers. William Harrison Ainsworth also wrote historical novels, and while he was a lesser writer than Scott and the flame of his popular and critical notoriety burned out much more quickly, both of these authors have found parity in the degree to which their works have been neglected by readers and academics. Scott's Ivanhoe and Ainsworth's The Tower of London are the most famous works by these two men that are still read (the former considerably more than the latter). 

But both of these guys wrote novels that were fun to read: Scott wrote richly plotted, lush romantic tales of his native land with the skill and grace of the poet he was, and Ainsworth wrote action-packed tales plucked from English history with a sharp eye for historical detail and the broad popular appeal of Hollywood blockbuster movies.

For our purposes, what both of these guys really did was to write novels about guys named Guy.


Guy Mannering (1815) by Sir Walter Scott

Despite what the title might suggest, this is not an etiquette guide for bachelors. This was Scott's second novel, the follow up to the enormously successful Waverley--a difficult act to follow, as first novels often are. While Waverley focused on the Jacobite uprising of 1745, this novel takes place a few decades later, roughly between 1760 and 1780, in southwest Scotland.

Guy Mannering, a Colonel in the British army who dabbled in astrology as a young man, drew a horoscope that boded ill tidings for Harry Bertram, the newborn son and rightful heir of a Scottish magistrate whose estate Mannering happened to visit on a trip to Scotland. The five-year-old Bertram becomes the victim of a kidnapping plot that contributes to the downfall of his family's fortunes. The heir's return does not bode well for those who seek to gain from keeping his true identity a secret. But that's not even the half of it. This is a very difficult novel to synopsize for all its layers of plot and characterization. Bertram's troubles spring from a power struggle between magistrates, lawyers and smugglers. Add to all this the haunting presence of the gipsy Meg Merrilies, one of the most striking and evocative characters in all of English literature and the only character in the novel who sees through the deceptions and lies that keep Bertram from assuming his rightful position as head of his family estate.

This is a fine novel, and for what it lacks in the sheer emotional power that made Waverley such a gem, it makes up for with an intriguing story and unforgettable characters. If you like inventively plotted, exciting and mysterious tales, Guy Mannering is for you. As usual, there's lots of authentic Scottish dialect used here, but you'll get the hang of it if you can give it a chance.
 
Download Guy Mannering from Project Gutenberg


Guy Fawkes (1841) by William Harrison Ainsworth

The first of Ainsworth's series of very successful historical novels, this is the story of the famed Gunpowder Plot in which the notorious Guy Fawkes and a group of English Catholics tried and failed to blow up Parliament in 1605--an event celebrated with bonfires every year in England on the fifth of November.

Ainsworth was a meticulous researcher whose attention to accurate historical detail in matters of dress, custom and architecture gave his readers an uncanny, vivid sense of time and place. But he was also equally reckless with the details of the real life events he portrayed, and gleefully rearranged the facts and characters to create a compelling story that would appeal to his readers--largely middle class folks who read for pleasure rather than intellectual stimulation. Purists may scoff and titter at Ainsworth's tinkering, but mixing fact and fiction in this way is precisely how legends have been created in nearly all cultures for centuries. Ainsworth's historical novels are part of a time honored tradition of storytelling.

The Gothic and supernatural touches he adds make this novel read like a lushly illustrated comic book. The action moves well and the pages turn of their own volition, but don't look too deeply or you won't enjoy the ride. Though this is probably not "great literature" in the strictest sense, I have much affection for Ainsworth. Historical novels superimpose the values and prejudices of the eras in which they were written upon the eras that they portray, and like all of his historical romances, Guy Fawkes mythologizes English historical events in a decidedly Victorian way that reveals much about how the people of the nineteenth century viewed their own collective past. A modern-day novel of the Guy Fawkes legend would reflect our own times, and the results would be markedly different. Something to ponder, anyway.
 
Download Guy Fawkes from Project Gutenberg

 
Here, you can watch an amusing BBC documentary about Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot.

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Happy New Year, everyone!