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William Harrison Ainsworth (1805–1882) was a highly popular nineteenth-century English novelist best known for historical fiction and crime narratives based on real events and historical figures, and although he was born in Manchester and initially studied law, his stronger interest in literature led him to begin writing professionally in the 1830s. His best-known works include Rookwood, which explores the criminal underworld of eighteenth-century England, Jack Sheppard, inspired by the life of the notorious thief, and The Tower of London, set against the history and legends surrounding the famous fortress. Ainsworth’s fiction is characterized by rapid plots, dramatic scenes, conspiracies, escapes, crime, executions, and political conflict, qualities that made his novels enormously popular with contemporary readers. His work also provoked controversy for presenting criminals in a vivid and sometimes attractive manner, and while he is less widely read today than Charles Dickens, he remains an important figure in the development of Victorian popular historical fiction and crime literature.
