Ainsworth's last masterpiece, The Lancashire Witches proved a best-seller in its day and influenced many contemporary authors. Ultimately, the book becomes a struggle between Heaven and Hell, with Alizon's fate hanging in the balance. William Harrison Ainsworth’s The Lancashire Witches, published as a serial and then in book form in 1849, has the distinction of being one of the most popular Gothic novels ever written and one of the few that has never been out of printindeed, the only one of Ainsworth’s many novels that can make that claim. Mother Demdike, a powerful witch, and her clan face rival witches, raise innocent young Alizon Devi as their own, and try to corrupt Alizon despite her innocent ways. Dying, Paslew curses Demdike's offspring - who become the titular 'Lancashire Witches.' The rest of the book set in the 17th century. Years later, granted the powers of a warlock, he returns in the guise of Nicholas Demdike to witness Paslew's execution for treason. When a Cistercian monk, Borlace Alvetham, is falsely accused of witchcraft and condemned to death by his rival, Brother Paslew, he sells his soul to Satan and escapes. The Lancashire Witches begins in the 16th century, in Lancashire, England.
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