![]() The subject of the Pendle witches was suggested to Ainsworth by antiquarian and long-time friend James Crossley, President of the Chetham Society. Although she was convicted and executed for witchcraft, Alice’s only crime appears to have been that she was a Catholic in the wrong place at the wrong time. ![]() Īlthough featuring many of the characters involved in the Pendle witch trials, the novel’s plot is entirely fictional, centring as it does on Alice Nutter One of the 11 men and women found guilty of causing harm by witchcraft in the Pendle witch trials of 1612, unique among the accused in being a respectable wealthy widow. Bleiler rated the work as “one of the major English novels about witchcraft”. ![]() ![]() Modern critics such as David Punter consider the book to be Ainsworth’s best work. ![]() The novel is based on the true story of the Pendle witches Trials of the Pendle witches in 1612 are among the most famous witch trials in English history, and some of the best recorded of the 17th century., who were executed in 1612 for causing harm by witchcraft. It was serialised in the Sunday Times newspaper in 1848 a book edition appeared the following year, published by Henry Colburn. The Lancashire Witches is the only one of William Harrison Ainsworth English historical novelist, at one time considered a rival to Charles Dickens.‘s forty novels that has remained continuously in print since its first publication. ![]()
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