WILLIAM

See also:

• HARRISON
• HARRISON, BENJAMIN
• HARRISON, FREDERIC (1831— )
• HARRISON, JOHN (1693—1776)
• HARRISON, THOMAS (16o6-166o)
• HARRISON, THOMAS ALEXANDER (1853– )
• HARRISON, WILLIAM (1534–1593)
• HARRISON, WILLIAM HENRY (1773–1841)

HARRISON

See also:

• AINSWORTH, HENRY (1571–1622)
• AINSWORTH, ROBERT (166o-1743)
• WILLIAM HARRISON AINSWORTH (1805-1882)

AINSWORTH (1805-1882)  , English novelist, son of Thomas Ainsworth, solicitor, was born at Manchester on the 4th of February 18o5 . He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and articled to the firm of which his father was a member, proceeding to London in 1824 to complete his legal training at the Inner Temple . At the age of twenty-one he married a daughter of John Ebers the publisher, and started in his father-in-law's line of business . This, however, soon proved unprofitable and he decided to attempt literary work . A novel called Sir John Chiverton, in which he appears to have had a share, had attracted the praise of Sir Walter Scott, and this encouragement decided him to take up fiction as a career . In 1834 he published Rookwood, which had an immediate success, and thenceforth he was always occupied with the compilation of " historical " novels . He published about forty such stories, of which the best-known are Jack Sheppard (1839), The Tower of London (184o), Guy Fawkes (1841), Old St Paul's (1841) and Windsor Castle (1843) . He edited Bentley's Miscellany, in which Jack Sheppard was published as a serial, and in 1842 he became proprietor of Ainsworth's Magazine . In 1853 it ceased to appear, and Ainsworth bought the New Monthly Magazine . He continued his literary activity until his death, but his later stories were less striking than the earlier ones . He died at Reigate on the 3rd of January 1882 and was buried at Kensal Green . Ainsworth had a lively talent for plot, and his books have many attractive qualities .

The glorification of

Dick Turpin in Rookwood, and of Jack Sheppard in the novel that bears his name, caused considerable outcry among straitlaced elders . In his later novels Ainsworth confined himself to heroes less open to criticism . His style was not without archaic affectation and awkwardness, but when his energies were aroused by a striking situation he could be brisk, vigorous and impressive . He did a great deal to interest the less educated classes in the historical romances of their country, and his tales were invariably instructive, clean and manly .