Windsor Castle (novel)

Windsor Castle is a novel by William Harrison Ainsworth serially published in 1842. It is a historical romance with gothic elements that depicts Henry VIII's pursuit of Anne Boleyn. Intertwined with the story are the actions of Herne the Hunter, a legendary ghost that haunts Windsor woods.

The first mention of Windsor Castle comes in a letter to Crossley 17 November 1841: "I am just now finishing Old St. Paul's and am consequently very busy [...] I have made all arrangements to start my Magazine at Christmas next, and have engaged Tony Johannot (the artist), who is now at work for me [...] Windsor Castle, of course, forms the main feature of the design, and I propose commencing the story with Henry the Eighth entering into the Castle on the morning of St. George's Day, 1529, attended by Anne Boleyn and the Cardinals Wosley and Campeggio. I intend making Lord Surrey the hero of the story. what say you?"

Ainsworth wrote Windsor Castle in 1842 while he was publishing The Miser's Daughter. During this time, he was constantly working to publish the novel by April, and Ainsworth only stopped when his mother, Ann Ainsworth, died on 15 March 1842. John Forster wrote to Ainsworth following the death of Ann to offer assistance with the work: "I imagine that you will defer the Windsor Castle this month – but should you not do so, I might be of some assistance to you. I have all my Henry VIII books here, and if you told me some particular thing you wanted – it may be horrible conceit – but somehow I think I might be of some beggarly service to you. At all events, in that or lesser matters, try if for old affection's sake you can discover anything for me to do for you".

After declining the service of Forster, it was published in a serialised form in the Ainsworth's Magazine starting July 1842 and ending in June 1843. There was some overlap with The Miser's Daughter, and George Cruikshank, illustrator of The Miser's Daughter later became illustrator of Windsor Castle after the prior work finished. It was published by Henry Colburn as a three-decker novel in 1843. Chapman and Hall published a cheap version of Ainsworth's works in late 1849, with a misprint in Windsor Castle that marked the later editions. In a letter to Charlies Ollier, Ainsworth wrote "Windsor Castle was worked off during my absence in Spain, and I had not observed the vexatious error into which the accursed printer had fallen, until you called my attention to it. It should be 1657—and is so given in the edition of the romance from which your copy was printed. What a pest those readers are! I have written to have the date corrected: but twenty thousand copies will contain this error."

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