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ISBN:1861977875
James Sharpe English
Author: James Sharpe
ISBN13: 978-1861977878
Title: Remember, Remember the Fifth of November
Format: lit txt doc rtf
ePUB size: 1897 kb
FB2 size: 1854 kb
DJVU size: 1206 kb
Language: English
Publisher: Profile Books Ltd; Complete Numbers Starting with 1, 1st Ed edition (October 19, 2006)
Pages: 240

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November by James Sharpe



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On the night of 5 November 1605, an English Catholic, Guy Fawkes, was discovered in a store room underneath the Palace of Westminster. The store room contained no less than thirty six barrels of gunpowder and Mr Fawkes was carrying the fuse. Had he succeeded in his mission, it is estimated that an area of London at least five hundred yards across would have been obliterated. The King and his family and just about the entire nobility would have died

James Sharpe examines the fateful night of 5 November, 1605 and the tangled web of religion and politics which gave rise to the plot. He uncovers how celebration of the event, and of Guy Fawkes, the one gunpowder plotter everyone remembers, has changed over the centuries. Today, although most of the religious connotations have long been ignored, the bonfires remain.

James Sharpe examines the fateful night of 5 November, 1605 and the tangled web of religion and politics which gave rise to the plot. A Dictionary of English folklore.

On November the fifth in 1605, Guy Fawkes was part of the failed Gunpowder Plot. It was a plan to assassinate King James I and replace him with a Catholic monarch by blowing up the Houses of Parliament in London, England. Guy Fawkes was tasked with guarding the explosives. In the early hours of November the fifth, he was found, questioned, and eventually hanged for treason. Since then, November the fifth has turned into a night of celebration. Also known as Bonfire Night, or Fireworks Night, it is celebrated by having a bonfire or fireworks, and often by burning an effigy of Guy Fawkes

Published in UK as Remember, Remember the Fifth of November: Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot (2005), and in the US as Remember, Remember: A Cultural History of Guy Fawkes Day (2005). Why has the memory of this act of treason and terrorism persisted for 400 years? In Remember, Remember James Sharpe takes us back to 1605 and teases apart the tangled web of religion and politics that gave rise to the plot. And, with considerable wit, he shows how celebration of that fateful night, and the representation of Guy Fawkes, has changed over the centuries. James Sharpe's colorfully told story has wide implications. The plot of 1605 has powerful resonances today, in a time of heightened concern about ideological conflict, religious fanaticism, and terrorism.

Guy Fawkes is amongst the most celebrated figures in English history and Bonfire Night is a remarkably long lived and very English tradition.

Remember, remember! The fifth of November, The Gunpowder treason and plot; I know of no reason Why the Gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot! Guy Fawkes and his companions Did the scheme contrive, To blow the King and Parliament All up alive. Threescore barrels, laid below, To prove old England's overthrow

Remember, Remember book. But why every November do we still mark a planned act of treason and terrorism that was defeated 400 years ago? J. Books.

Guy Fawkes is amongst the most celebrated figures in English history and Bonfire Night is a remarkably long lived and very English tradition. But why every November do we still mark a planned act of treason and terrorism that was defeated 400 years ago? James Sharpe examines the fateful night of 5 November, 1605 and the tangled web of religion and politics which gave rise to the plot. He uncovers how celebration of the event, and of Guy Fawkes, the one gunpowder plotter everyone remembers, has changed over the centuries. Today, although most of the religious connotations have long been ignored, the bonfires remain. The festival created in 1605 by the state and church to commemorate a failed act of Catholic terrorism, now provides an annual raison d'etre for the firework industry and a cause of concern for Britain's cat owners!
Reviews: 3
monotronik
Got it for a gift, but came in earlier than expected and made a wonderful birthday present for my dad who's a newfound Guy Fawkes fanatic.
Hra
This is a most disappointing book. For a start it subtitle Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plot is highly misleading. The author gives a brief derivative summary but three quarters of his work is how the plot was remembered and celebrated. If you want an up to date narrative read Antoni Fraser's account. That is a quibble because a good book on popular and public remembrance would be facinating. This one, alas, is merely irritating. For an eminent academic historian Sharpe has a cavalier attitude to the facts. Queen Anne did not succeed King William in 1703 but in 1702 and the Hanoverians did not replace the last Stuart monarch in 1721 but seven years earlier. He is also unaware of the distinction between gender and sexuality. Most infuriating is a grave omission. While repeatedly referring to Bonfire Night and it's triumph he nowhere tells us when this anemic term first came into usage. I suspect it is a coinage of recent years and one designed, like Winterval, in an effort to avoid giving offence, as Guy Fawkes night was certainly the term used in the 1950s and 1960s. Sharpe however uses the term, capitalized and not in inverted commas, of November 5th festivities in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Thus the main thrust of describing how popular opinions or communal recollection changed is vitiated by a basic omission.

He is right about one thing. If you want to experience the wild exuberance of how the past is still reenacted go to Lewes in Sussex on 5th November. Go that is unless you need safe places and trigger warnings or are a member of the health and safety executive. Not for the feint-hearted nor for those easily offended on other peoples behalf. Guy Fawkes and the pope are paraded through the streets to meet an explosive fate as do modern bogeymen or bogey women from Bin Laden to Donald Trump. As the procession wends through the streets accompanied by Zulus and smugglers and red Indians carrying enormous flaming torches with the fire scorching their headdresses, youths throw enormous bangers into the crowd, air rushes up trousers and hearing is impaired for days. With 'bishops' standing on a scaffold denouncing Papist conspiracies the doomed and damned are placed on enormous piles of wood and explosives and blown to smithereens. Great fun is had by all and all Lewes takes part, Catholics included. Gunpowder, treason and plot in Lewes will never be forgot. Go there to watch raucous, traditional, remembrance but don't bother reading this book
Erennge
Since I am Catholic, I long wondered why early English history hated the religion. I knew of Henry's break with the Pope on divorcing one of his wives, and the rivalry with Imperial Spain. In this book, the author details the conspiracy to blow up the Lords, Commons, while James I was in attendance. Thirteen Catholics decided to get back at the royal court for failing to loosen the restrictions on Catholics. Guy Faykes was betrayed and those 13 suffered miserable deaths. I have never really read about this interesting story.

As the author has detailed, discrimination against Catholics was high after the attempt on James I's life. However, over time people have reconciled with the religion and the date has assumed a certain festivity in Great Britain. Now, 400 years after this deed, the 5th of November has been killed by the universality of Haloween. Too bad, since the bonfires, fireworks, and parties seemed to have been a good time to commemorate the uncovering of a murderous event.

This is a nice read about a little known event in America. I guess I should read more British history.
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