ST. LEON: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century is Godwin-s most popular novel after Caleb Williams. As a follow-up to that seminal text of the revolutionary decade of the 1790s, St. Leon might at first appear somewhat unexpected. The story revolves around Reginald St. Leon and how he comes to acquire the Philosopher-s Stone and the elixir vitae, the legendary arts of, respectively, making gold from common materials and the gift of rejuvenating youth, and, thus, of immortality. The novel, in other words, is far more directly Gothic in its subject matter and indeed in its formal features than Caleb Williams, a novel which had employed Gothic techniques only in order to mount a thorough critique of the state of contemporary British society (-things as they are-). It might therefore seem that Godwin-s two 1790s novels are diametrically opposed: one a realist novel utilising Gothic on a purely formal level; the other an out-and-out Gothic fantasy, radically distanced from Godwin-s own socio-political contexts, and thus from any serious realist critique of society. The apparent difference between these two great novels, however, is merely that, apparent, and St. Leon extends and develops all of Godwin-s major philosophical and political points, whilst at the same time marking for the first time in his fictional writing the profound impact of his late wife, Mary Wollstonecraft. For William Hazlitt, in his important summary of the great men of the Romantic period, The Spirit of the Age (1825), Caleb Williams and St. Leon were -two of the most splendid and impressive works of the imagination that have appeared in our time,- and clearly represented Godwin-s greatest achievements as a novelist.
The main story of the novel, St. Leon-s acquisition of the Philosopher-s Stone and the elixir vitae, has a significant effect on its narrative form. Godwin exploits this effect in profound ways, some of which have never properly been critically acknowledged and analysed. The main effect, of course, concerns the possibility of a novel being narrated by a character who never grows old, or at least can reverse his age back into youth. Readers have to be extremely aware of this radically disturbing narrative situation when they come to read St Leon and attempt to interpret its plot and fundamental rhetorical and thematic dimensions. The plot-line of the novel breaks down into two halves. In the first we learn about St Leon-s childhood. He is brought up by his mother to value the code of chivalry and witnesses the meeting between Francis I and Henry VIII at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. However, St Leon-s life is one of disastrous repetitions and returns. Lapsing after the death of his mother into the life of a gambler, St Leon is given his first chance of ethical salvation by the Marquis de Damville.
AN EXCERPT FROM THE PREFACE:
PREFACE.
The following passage from a work, said to be written by the late Dr. John Campbel, and entitled Hermippus Redivivus, suggested the first hint of the present performance.
"There happened in the year 1687, an odd accident at Venice, that made a very great stir then, and which I think deserves to be rescued from oblivion. The great freedom and ease with which all persons, who make a good appearance, live in that city, is known sufficiently to all who are acquainted with it; such therefore will not be surprised, that a stranger, who went by the name of signor Gualdi, and who made a considerable figure there, was admitted into the best company, though no body knew who or what he was. He remained at Venice some months, and three things were remarked in his conduct. The first was, that he had a small collection of fine pictures, which he readily shewed to any body that desired it; the next, that he was perfectly versed in all arts and sciences...
