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St. Leon. A tale of the sixteenth century

Contributions

William Godwin
author
G.G. and J. Robinson (George Robinson)
publisher

Related resources

has translation
Saint-Léon, histoire du seizième siècle, par William Godwin. Traduit de l'anglais translation

Summary (extracted citations)

"The hearts and the curiosity of readers have been assailed in so many ways, that we, writers who bring up the rear of our illustrious predecessors, must be contented to arrive at novelty in whatever mode we are able".

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Notes

While 'St. Leon' is relatively neglected today, it was highly regarded at the time by many of Godwin's contemporaries, including Lord Byron, for its moving account of the revolutionary ideal of brotherhood and deep conviction that a love of humanity is innate. It presented a moral contrast between Gabor, the passionate misanthrope and St. Leon, the philanthropist, isolated form mankind by his possession of immortality.

Godwin's preface begins with an anecdote from Dr John Campbell's supposed translation from Latin of 'Hermippus redivivus' (1743) to give an idea of what is to follow. As its subtitle suggests, the strange work, based on a Roman inscription said to have been discovered in the seventeenth century, is, "a curious physico-medical examination of the extraordinary manner in which [its supposed author] extended his life to 115 years by inhaling the breath of little girls".

Godwin goes on to remark that he searched the libraries of Oxford and Cambridge in vain to find the original source cited by Campbell for this anecdote, while adding that the quest for the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life has intrigued the curious for centuries and led to the ruin of "hundreds of unfortunate adventurers [who] wasted their fortunes and their lives".

Like Mary Shelley's (Godwin's daughter) later 'Frankenstein', 'St. Leon' portrays a tale of misguided benevolence in which well-intended but hubristic transgressions of social, religious and scientific conventions are punished by enforced exile from human society.

On the radical content of Godwin's novel, see: Rowland Weston, "Radical Enlightenment and Antimodernism: The Apostasy of William Godwin (1756–1836)", in Journal for the Study of Radicalism, Vol.7, No.2 (2013), pp.1-30.