Windsor Castle (Annotated)

William Harrison Ainsworth's Windsor Castle (1843) is a theatrical historical romance set in the reign of Henry VIII, entwining court intrigue, desire, and Gothic supernaturalism around Herne the Hunter. Moving between Tudor ceremony and the haunted recesses of Windsor Forest, the novel dramatizes Anne Boleyn's fall, Jane Seymour's rise, and the moral volatility of absolute power. Its melodramatic...