St. Leon (Oxford World's Classics) [Paperback]

William Godwin (Author), Pamela Clemit (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Oxford World's Classics | Publication Date: June 23, 1994

St. Leon, William Godwin's second novel, is a work of challenging ambition. Set during the Protestant Reformation, it tells the harrowing tale of an exiled French aristocrat who is given the secrets of the philosopher's stone and the elixer of life. His attempts to use these gifts to benefit humanity lead only to disaster, plunging him into self-destructive isoloation and arousing fascination, suspicion, and social unrest wherever he goes. It is a tale of obsession and spiralling pursuit, emphasizing the individual's powerlessness in the face of momentous historical change.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (June 23, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192828339
• ISBN-13: 978-0192828330
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 4.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,031,172 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Godwin's Best, But Good Enough, June 8, 2001

By 

mp - See all my reviews

This review is from: St. Leon (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

William Godwin's 1799 novel, "St. Leon," builds on themes he and patterns he established in his first novel "Caleb Williams". Godwin's first concern, as always, is the way that the operations of government affect the individual. Godwin complicates the scenario of persecution, pursuit, and paranoia he worked with in "Caleb Williams" by giving his hero, Reginald St. Leon, a wife and children. Godwin goes deep into human psychology to explore how the vicissitudes of human fortune affect not only one man, but how his responses to the world affect everyone around him.

The novel begins in the early 1520's, at the very beginnings of the Protestant Reformation. The anti-hero is Reginald St. Leon, a landed aristocrat, building his name in war and society. As a youth, he develops an unfortunate penchant for gambling which places his family's fortune and his legacy in severe straits. His friend and advisor, a gentleman by the name of de Damville, offers his daughter to St. Leon. De Damville trusts that by settling down with a prudent young lady like Marguerite, he will abandon his wanton lifestyle and become the man that his noble house expects. ...

One day, St. Leon is approached by an old man who takes him into confidence, promising St. Leon a way to recuperate his fortune, on the condition that he tells no one what passes between them. Offered the ultimate prizes of alchemy, the philosopher's stone and the elixir of immortality, St. Leon is sworn to silence, alienating him further from his wife and family. The next three volumes of the novel show the catastrophic aftermath of St. Leon's new gifts. St. Leon wanders all over Europe, abandoning his family, trying to use his unlimited wealth to benefit mankind. His experiments are ill-conceived, though, and he ends up, like his predecessor Caleb Williams, a complete outcast to humanity, hated by his family, pursued by the Spanish Inquisition, and imprisoned by the Hungarian Turks.

More psychologically complex than "Caleb Williams," "St. Leon" gives us a broad range of characters, male and female, who are each affected by their contact with St. Leon. We are exposed by Godwin, in a time when nations measured themselves as good by the supposed evil of other nations, to a kind of social relativism. In France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Hungary, Godwin gives us, not only St. Leon's perspective, but forces us to consider 16th (and by reflection 18th) century international relations from the vantage point of each.

However, this diffusion and variety that contributes to the complexity of the novel, socially, politically, and psychologically, also detracts from the overall effect of the novel upon the reader. Where "Caleb Williams" drives straight through in a constant state of panic and terror, "St. Leon" has a looser structure, and as a result, moves much slower, and does not captivate or enthrall as the earlier novel does. Overall, "St. Leon" is an extremely interesting novel, and should appeal to fans of psychological gothic and historical novels.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Gothic, November 27, 2004

By 

M. North (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: St. Leon (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

Loved this Gothic tale of an alchemist who invents a way to live for ever, then later realizes it is a curse. Lots of dark castles in Eastern Europe, Spain and other "mysterious" places with references to real people and events from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Good writing, clever unpredicatble plot.