The Tower of London: A Historical Romance, Illustrated — Text and Context

Giants, Dwarfs, and the Grotesque

The excerpts introduce a cast of characters that would be out of place in a strictly historical novel: three giants named Og, Gog, and Magog; a dwarf named Xit; and a fool named Jane. In one scene, Xit, dressed as Cupid, emerges from a pasteboard monster's jaws, shoots arrows at Queen Mary, Princess Elizabeth, and others, and engages in a witty exchange with Jane the Fool. This comic interlude, complete with slapstick and wordplay, sits uneasily alongside the catalog's emphasis on historical figures like Lady Jane Grey. The novel's tone is deliberately mixed, mixing high drama with low comedy.

The Tower as a Character

Ainsworth devotes entire chapters to the Tower's history, architecture, and dungeons, as seen in Book the Second, Chapter IV: "Of the Tower of London; its antiquity and foundation; its magnitude and extent; its keep, palace, gardens, fortifications, dungeons, and chapels." This catalog-like description interrupts the narrative, suggesting that the building itself is a central character. The excerpts also mention specific locations—Saint John's Chapel, the By-Ward Tower, the Brick Tower, the Devilin Tower—that ground the action in a real, tangible space. The catalog subject "Tower of London (London, England) -- Fiction" is accurate, but the novel's treatment goes beyond setting to include extensive historical and architectural exposition.

Political Intrigue and Melodramatic Plotting

The chapter titles in the table of contents reveal a plot dense with conspiracy, imprisonment, and sudden reversals: "How the Duke of Northumberland menaced Simon Renard in Saint Peter's Chapel," "How the Council deposed Queen Jane; and how she fled from the Tower." The excerpts, however, offer little of this political action directly; instead, they focus on the comic scene with Xit and the formal procession. This discrepancy suggests that the novel's political drama may be conveyed through melodramatic confrontations and Gothic tropes rather than through nuanced historical analysis. The catalog subject "Grey, Jane, Lady, 1537-1554 -- Fiction" is present, but the excerpts show that her story is only one thread in a larger tapestry of Tower lore.

Readers approaching The Tower of London should expect a work that oscillates between historical exposition, Gothic horror, and broad comedy. The catalog subjects provide a starting point, but the novel's actual content is more varied and eccentric. Pay attention to how Ainsworth uses the Tower's physical spaces to structure his narrative, and note the frequent shifts in tone that characterize this Victorian historical romance.

Reading about the grey stones and doomed ladies of the Tower, I found my thoughts drifting somewhere gentler, to the odd, knotted threads of ordinary lives in Jaunty Jock, and Other Stories — Story, Setting & Ideas. Both hold that quiet ache of place, how a setting remembers what people forget. A strange pairing, perhaps, but the feeling lingered after the page turned.