William Godwin Books In Order

Novels

  1. Caleb Williams (1794)
  2. St. Leon (1799)
  3. Fleetwood (1975)
  4. Damon and Delia (1988)

Collections

  1. Four Early Pamphlets, 1783 – 1784 (1966)
  2. Collected Novels and Memoirs of William Godwin (1992)

Non fiction

  1. The Enquirer (1797)
  2. Memoirs of Wollstonecraft (1990)
  3. Godwin on Mary Wollstonecraft (2005)

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William Godwin Books Overview

Caleb Williams

In William Godwin’s dark psychological novel of paranoia and persecution, the eponymous hero is a guileless young servant who enters the employment of Ferdinando Falkland, a cosmopolitan and benevolent country gentleman. Falkland is subject to fits of unexplained melancholy, and Caleb becomes convinced that he harbors a dark secret. His discovery of the truth leads to false accusations against him, and a vengeful pursuit as suspenseful as any thriller. The novel is also a powerful political allegory, inspired by the events of the decade following the French Revolution. This is the first paperback edition to reproduce the first edition 1794, restoring the original, highly topical novel written during the political crisis of 1793 4 when the British government clamped down on the burgeoning reform movement. The edition is further enhanced by Pamela Clemit’s comprehensive introduction outlining the novel’s contemporary reception, its historical and literary contexts, and its alternate endings; three appendices highlighting selected variants between the second and third editions; Godwin’s prefatory materials; and new up to date bibliography and explanatory notes. About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World’s Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford’s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up to date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

St. Leon

Set in Europe during the Protestant Reformation and first published in 1799, St. Leon tells the story of an impoverished aristocrat who obtains the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of immortality. In this philosophical fable, endless riches and immortal life prove to be curses rather than gifts and transform St. Leon into an outcast. William Godwin’s second full length novel explores the predicament of a would be philanthropist whose attempts to benefit humanity are frustrated by superstition and ignorance.

This Broadview edition includes a critical introduction and full annotation. The appendices include contemporary reviews of the novel; Godwin’s writings on immortality, the domestic affections, and alchemy; and selections from works influenced by St. Leon, most notably Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Fleetwood

Fleetwood is a pivotal novel of early English Romanticism and a powerful critique of the Romantic emotionalism being spread across Europe in Rousseau’s name. Godwin s ‘new man of feeling’ chronicles the impact of his ‘natural’ education in the wilds of Wales, and his behavior allows Godwin to draw attention to an array of contemporary social issues. Godwin attacks the inhumanity of the early factory system, and indicts British society for its patriarchal inequities. His portrayal of Fleetwood s obsessive and devastating jealousy contributed significantly to the development of psychological realism in English fiction. As essential historical background, the editors provide reviews, and excerpts from Rousseau s writing and from Godwin s other works.

Damon and Delia

William Godwin, also known as Edward Baldwin and Theophilus Marcliffe, 1756 1836 was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism, and one of the first modern proponents of philosophical anarchism. He is most famous for two books that he published within the space of a year: An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice 1793, an attack on political institutions, and Caleb Williams; or, Things as They Are 1794, which attacks aristocratic privilege, but also is virtually the first mystery novel. He wrote prolifically in the genres of novels, history and demography throughout his life time. With his wife, Mary Jane Clairmont, he wrote children’s primers on Biblical and classical history, which he published along with such works as Charles and Mary Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare. He also has had considerable influence on British literature and literary culture. His other works include Memoirs of the Author of ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’ 1798, Life of Chaucer 1803, Cloudesley 1830, and Deloraine 1833.

Four Early Pamphlets, 1783 – 1784

A Defense of the Rockingham Party, in Their Late Coalition with the Right Honorable Frederic Lord North. Instructions to a Statesman. An Account of the Seminary. The Herald of Literature

Collected Novels and Memoirs of William Godwin

This is a collection in eight volumes of the novels and memoirs of William Godwin, one of the foremost philosophers and radical thinkers of his age. There is a general introduction covering Godwin’s life and literary works and each volume is prefaced by a scholarly introduction. His monumental work on government and individual freedom, ‘Political Justice’, made him the chief philosophical exponent of English radicalism. Both his novels and his philosophical works were a major influence on Thomas Holcroft, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and others in the radical movement of the 1790s, and on William Hazlitt, Percy Bysshe Shelley and others in early 19th century literary circles. ‘Caleb Williams’, ‘St Leon’ and ‘Fleetwood’ in particular, were widely read and influential novels when first published.

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