St. Leon - Softcover

Godwin, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1230209115 ISBN 13: 9781230209111

Publisher: TheClassics.us, 2013

Synopsis

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1835 edition. Excerpt: ... taste. Ours was a sober and dignified happiness; and its very sobriety served to give it additional voluptuousness. We had each our separate pursuits, whether for the cultivation of our. minds, or the promotion of our mutual interests. Separation gave us respectability in each other's eyes, while it prepared us to enter with fresh ardour into society and conversation. In company with each other, hours passed over us, and appeared but minutes. It has been said to be a peculiar felicity for any one to be praised by a man who is himself eminently a subject of praise: how much happier to be prized and loved by a person worthy of love? A man may be prized and valued by his friend; but in how different a style of sentiment from the regard and attachment that may reign in the bosom of his mistress or his wife? Self-complacency and self-satisfaction may perhaps be numbered among the principal sources of contentment. It is necessary for him who would endure existence with patience, that he should conceive himself to be something,--that he should be persuaded he is not a cipher in the muster-roll of man. How bitter is the anguish we are sometimes doomed to sustain in this respect from the marks we receive of other men's indifference and contempt? To feel that we are loved by one whose love we have deserved, to be employed in the mutual interchange of the marks of this love, habitually to study the happiness of one by whom our happiness is studied in return, this is the most desirable, as it is the genuine and unadulterated condition of human nature. I must have some one to sympathise with; I cannot bear to be cut off from all relations; I desire to experience a confidence, a concord, an attachment, that cannot rise between common acquaintance. In...

About this title

Review

"St. Leon, Godwin's second major novel, is a radical experiment in fictional genres. Into a historical novel of vast range and violence Godwin melded elements of the domestic novel, the philosophical novel, and the scientific fantasy. More relentlessly than the earlier Caleb Williams, this novel tests Godwin's philosophical premises to destruction, showing the importance--and failure--of family affections and the disintegration of effective social responsibility. William Brewer's judicious annotations and informative introduction equip the reader to understand Godwin's re-evaluation of his earlier views; the appendices contain ample material illustrating the novel's influence on other writers, its relation to Godwin's other works, and the lively reactions of contemporary reviewers."--Victoria Myers

"William Brewer's edition of St. Leon is more than simply a new, well-edited version of the text. The introduction alone--which includes a precis of other important current critical work on St. Leon--makes this a must-have edition, rehearsing as it does the place of this unclassifiable novel in Godwin's development and in the period, the influences visible in the novel, including its political implications and sources, and the novel's reception and literary heirs. Many of these issues can be further pursued through the judiciously chosen excerpts in the appendices."--Lisa M. Steinman

"William Brewer's edition of St. Leon is more than simply a new, well-edited version of the text. The introduction alone--which includes a precis of other important current critical work on St. Leon--makes this a must-have edition, rehearsing as it does the place of this unclassifiable novel in Godwin's development and in the period, the influences visible in the novel, including its political implications and sources, and the novel's reception and literary heirs. Many of these issues can be further pursued through the judiciously chosen excerpts in the appendices." -- Lisa M. Steinman, Reed College

"St. Leon, Godwin's second major novel, is a radical experiment in fictional genres. Into a historical novel of vast range and violence Godwin melded elements of the domestic novel, the philosophical novel, and the scientific fantasy. More relentlessly than the earlier Caleb Williams, this novel tests Godwin's philosophical premises to destruction, showing the importance--and failure--of family affections and the disintegration of effective social responsibility. William Brewer's judicious annotations and informative introduction equip the reader to understand Godwin's re-evaluation of his earlier views; the appendices contain ample material illustrating the novel's influence on other writers, its relation to Godwin's other works, and the lively reactions of contemporary reviewers." -- Victoria Myers, Pepperdine University

"William Brewer's edition of St. Leon is more than simply a new, well-edited version of the text. The introduction alone--which includes a precis of other important current critical work on St. Leon--makes this a must-have edition, rehearsing as it does the place of this unclassifiable novel in Godwin's development and in the period, the influences visible in the novel, including its political implications and sources, and the novel's reception and literary heirs. Many of these issues can be further pursued through the judiciously chosen excerpts in the appendices." -- Lisa M. Steinman, Reed College

"St. Leon, Godwin's second major novel, is a radical experiment in fictional genres. Into a historical novel of vast range and violence Godwin melded elements of the domestic novel, the philosophical novel, and the scientific fantasy. More relentlessly than the earlier Caleb Williams, this novel tests Godwin's philosophical premises to destruction, showing the importance--and failure--of family affections and the disintegration of effective social responsibility. William Brewer's judicious annotations and informative introduction equip the reader to understand Godwin's re-evaluation of his earlier views; the appendices contain ample material illustrating the novel's influence on other writers, its relation to Godwin's other works, and the lively reactions of contemporary reviewers." -- Victoria Myers, Pepperdine University

"William Brewer's edition of St. Leon is more than simply a new, well-edited version of the text. The introduction alone--which includes a precis of other important current critical work on St. Leon--makes this a must-have edition, rehearsing as it does the place of this unclassifiable novel in Godwin's development and in the period, the influences visible in the novel, including its political implications and sources, and the novel's reception and literary heirs. Many of these issues can be further pursued through the judiciously chosen excerpts in the appendices." -- Lisa M. Steinman, Reed College

From the Back Cover

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: TheClassics.us
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1230209115
• ISBN 13: 9781230209111
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 170