"Barnaby Rudge" by Charles Dickens (1841) - A "Contemporary" Novel?

This novel, one of the author's lesser known works, is a fictional account of the "Gordon Riots" in London (1780), which caused widespread rioting & destruction of lives (300-700) & property.

The riots began with a protest against an Act of Parliament intended to reduce discrimination against British Catholics. Lord Gordon, head of the Protestant Association argued that the law will enable Catholics to join the British Army, but secretly fight with the Catholic enemies (read French).

Dickens, describes the rioting Protestant gang as "composed for the most part of the very scum & refuse of London, whose growth was fostered by bad criminal laws, bad prison regulations & the worst conceivable police."

The novel depicts the love between Edward Chester, son of the Protestant Sir John & Emma Haredale, niece of the impoverished Catholic Lord Haredale. The two elders are  sworn enemies, but the wily Sir John convinces his enemy that his son's intentions are dishonourable & both oppose the marriage. Sir John plans to have a heiress as his daughter-in-law to finance his debt ridden extravagant life style.

The eponymous title character, "the village idiot" is willy-nilly dragged into the riots & barely escapes being hung. The lovers survive, marry & emigrate to the West Indies.

The impact of the riots was so long lasting, that even the 20th century novels of Agatha Christie mention "the Priest's Hole" in old mansions, built to hide Catholic Priests!