Caleb Williams

by William Godwin

Other authorsMaurice Hindle (Editor), Maurice Hindle (Introduction)
Paperback, 1988

Status

Available

Call number

823.6

Collection

Publication

Penguin Classics (1988), Paperback, 448 pages

Description

Classic Literature. Fiction. HTML: Caleb Williams is hired as personal secretary to a British Squire, Fernando Falkland. In the course of his work he comes across a terrible secret from the Squire's past, and is sworn to secrecy. Falkland believes in the virtue of the upper classes and the villainy of the lower. He is uneasy in the power of a lowly servant and sets about persecuting Williams, leading to a series of adventures in an early thriller style..

User reviews

LibraryThing member AlexTheHunn
Godwin depicts Caleb Williams as an unforunate who is bedeviled by a relentless monster of a man who will be conten with nothing less than total ruin. The narrative is in the first person. Only gradually does the reader come to realize how much Caleb William himself is the blame for his own
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troubles; moreover one begins to wonder if this is a portrait of madness. Is there truly a pursuer bent on his destruction. Whatever the outcome, Godwin's prose keeps the reader interested.

Godwin was married to Mary Wolstonecraft and was the step-father (perhaps father) of Mary Shelly who wrote Frankenstein.
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LibraryThing member amydross
A rollicking thriller, though gets awfully repetitive at times. Though it was intended as a showcase for Godwin's political ideas, the story takes on a life of its own and sometimes seems to contradict his political precepts. It is perhaps at its most interesting when it does so.
LibraryThing member JBD1
It took me a little while to get into this, but once I did, I ended up really enjoying it. Other than the reviews, which were interesting, I didn't think the extra stuff in this Broadview edition added all that much to the story.

Language

Original publication date

1794

Physical description

448 p.; 7.78 inches

ISBN

0140432566 / 9780140432565

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