William Godwin
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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William Godwin (3 March 1756 – 7 April 1836) was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism and the first modern proponent of anarchism. Godwin is most famous for two books that he published within the space of a year: An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, an attack on political institutions, and Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams, an early mystery novel which attacks aristocratic privilege. Based on the success of both, Godwin featured prominently in the radical circles of London in the 1790s. He wrote prolifically in the genres of novels, history and demography throughout his life.
In the conservative reaction to British radicalism, Godwin was attacked, in part because of his marriage to the feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft in 1797 and his candid biography of her after her death from childbirth. Their daughter, later known as Mary Shelley, would go on to write Frankenstein and marry the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. With his second wife, Mary Jane Clairmont, Godwin set up The Juvenile Library, allowing the family to write their own works for children (sometimes using noms de plume) and translate and publish many other books, some of enduring significance. Godwin has had considerable influence on British literature and literary culture.
Major works
- Damon and Delia, A Tale (1784)
- Enquiry concerning Political Justice, and its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness (1793)
- Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794)
- The Enquirer (London: George Robinson, 1797; rev. 1823)
- Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1798)
- St. Leon (1799)
- Life of Geoffrey Chaucer (1804)
- Fleetwood (1805)
- The Pantheon: Or, Ancient History of the Gods of Greece and Rome (1814)
- Lives Of Edward And John Philips, Nephews And Pupils Of Milton (1815)
- Mandeville (1817)
- Life of Lady Jane Grey, and of Lord Guildford Dudley, Her Husband (1824)
- History of the Commonwealth (book) (1824–1828)
- Cloudesley: A Tale (1830)
- Thoughts on Man, his Nature, Productions, and Discoveries, Interspersed with some particulars respecting the author (1831)
- Deloraine (1833)
- Lives of the Necromancers (1834)
- Transfusion (1835)