Today, William Godwin is perhaps best known as the 'anarchist' philosopher who wrote "Enquiry Concerning Political Justice..." It is my understanding that in the 19th century, although his philosophy was popular, his fiction also garnered significant attention. After reading both "Enquiry" and "Caleb Williams," I can see both why his novels were popular then and why they're scarcely in print now.

As a story, this novel is pretty good. It is a psychological suspense story of first (teetering on second) rate. The tale is about Caleb Williams's descent from a promising career as personal secretary to an intellectual, to a fleeting criminal that ironically was, at first, innocent. So, while the plot and action are good, these are buried in over-emotional asides and one dimensional characters. You never quite get to know Caleb, Mr. Falkland or anyone else here. All in all, as a story, I give it 4 stars as the plot makes up for any weaknesses.

As a political/social commentary, this novel has 2 stars. First, unless she has read "Enquiry Concerning Political Justice," the reader will not pick up on many of the subtle points Godwin makes about the nature of liberty and its preconditions. Second, while trying to show Caleb as victim of a flawed legal system, Godwin created in Caleb a character that was just as villianous. The only way Calebs often villanous behavior could be explained is Godwin's belief in determinism; the theory that our actions are predetermined solely by external circumstance - in other words, Caleb, while increasingly underhanded in his actions, is not responsible for them as he is treated like a criminal anyhow. At any rate, one may not get these points if they've not read Godwin the philosopher.

In short, I would reccomend this novel but with hesitancy. First, I would qualify the reccomendation with "but you should read "Enquiry" first." Well, since "Enquiry" is 800+ pages (and out of print in every edition) this is quite an undertaking in itself. However, if the reader JUST wants a good suspense story (minus the philosophical undertones) then this is a pretty good novel.

Having never myself been the victim of a wrongful criminal accusation, imprisonment, or torture, I was ill-prepared for the experience of reading "Caleb Williams". I once thought that Orwell's "1984" and "Animal Farm," or the fiction works of Camus, Kafka, or Sartre were more than adequate to address the problem of total alienation and isolation in the very midst of humanity. Even Richardson's "Pamela" carries its heroine through half the novel in a state of claustrophobic paranoia. In 1794, Godwin created a world and a mind no less frightening than the worst and most depraved of the 20th century. That we still toil through issues of basic human and legal rights entering the 21st century speaks to the complexity of these issues and casts a shadow of doubt over our ever finding a suitable solution.

In an effort to expose the hypocrisy of a legal system under the complete influence of the "long purse" and the lack of recourse of the common man to justice, Godwin has his hero Caleb suffer increasing terrors, imprisonment, and the threat of ceaseless surveillance at the hands of the ex-thief Gines. Like Richardson's Pamela, Caleb's suicidal fantasies enable him for a short while to claim control over his mind and his situation.

Unlike Pamela, Caleb fails to maintain this control, even after he forces the ruthless Falkland to admit to the murder of Tyrrel. In a scene reminsicent of ones in "1984" and Kafka's "The Trial," Caleb relinquishes what little power he has been able to garner over his torturer. Falkland, a frail, physically powerless, demoniacal 'gentleman,' through a constant and pervasive presence in Caleb's own fragile mind has unwittingly reclaimed final power over the novel's helpless hero.

By internalizing the social hierarchy since childhood, Caleb is finally unable to bear the disgrace he brings upon Falkland. Ironically, while he is pursued across England and Wales as a thief, he claims innocence. Once he is exonerated of his crime, he is insistent on his guilt. "Caleb Williams" is an endlessly complex and captivating novel, frought with issues of power, levels of narrative, and takes issue with the flawed notion of human justice.

Godwin was writing more than two hundred years ago, and yet when you read his writings in this book his 'philosophy' was certainly not anarchistic as we would understand it, it WAS revolutionary and probably disturbed a lot of people. But I see his beliefs to be the person-centred concepts that people such as Carl Rogers expressed a hundred and fifty years later. As as example:

"All education is despotism. It is perhaps impossible for the young to be conducted without introducing in many cases the tyranny of implicit obedience. Go there; do that; read; write; rise; lie down; will perhaps for ever be the language addressed to youth by age."

i think this is a good book it is a 4 cuz some of the things are inacurate.

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.

As Isaac Kramnick remarks in his introduction, there are many 'schools' of political thought and one should ideally start at their beginnings. Libertarian? Locke. Communism? Marx. Anarchism? Proudhorn?....No. Godwin. This is the first book that I know of to advocate a society without a state. Unfortunately, the reasoning is too bizzarre to be practical and unfortunately for Godwin, time disproved most of this books contents.

Godwin's view of human nature is wrong. His view of the determinism (the nature around us is determined, so we have to be.) is immature. He mauls the definitions of 'voluntary' and 'involuntary' action beyond recognition. The good part, honestly, was his critique on existing governments. Very astute, unless you consider that Montesquieu made identical observations several years befor Godwin was born. Still, if you've not read or don't want to read Montesquieu, Godwin's is a forcefully stated, action-packed polemic.

His view of a stateless society based on a jejune faith in honesty of all people everywhere is extremely naive and one wonders why Godwin, who doesn't have faith in government or the ruled people (yes, even in democracies) could have faith in peoples capacities for honesty and the self-government that it entails.

Alas, I gave this two stars because of it's originality, it's contributions to anarchism (a movement that produces an adequate thinker from time to time) and most importantly, as an historically interesting contrast to Rousseau and Montesquieu who predated this book and Proudhorn, Goldman and even Marx who followed it.