The reputation of WILLIAM GODWIN as a social philosopher, and the merits of his famous novel, “Caleb Williams,” have been for more than a century the subject of extreme divergencies of judgment1 among critics. “The first systematic2 anarchist,” as he is called by Professor Saintsbury, aroused bitter contention3 with his writings during his own lifetime, and his opponents have remained so prejudiced that even the staid bibliographer4 Allibone, in his “Dictionary of English Literature,” a place where one would think the most flagitious author safe from animosity, speaks of Godwin’s private life in terms that are little less than scurrilous5. Over against this persistent6 acrimony may be put the fine eulogy7 of Mr. C. Kegan Paul, his biographer, to represent the favourable8 judgment of our own time, whilst I will venture to quote one remarkable9 passage that voices the opinions of many among Godwin’s most eminent10 contemporaries.
In “The Letters of Charles Lamb,” Sir T.N. Talfourd says:
“Indifferent altogether to the politics of the age, Lamb could not help being struck with productions of its newborn energies so remarkable as the works and the character of Godwin. He seemed to realise in himself what Wordsworth long afterwards described, ‘the central calm at the heart of all agitation11.’ Through the medium of his mind the stormy convulsions of society were seen ‘silent as in a picture.’ Paradoxes12 the most daring wore the air of deliberate wisdom as he pronounced them. He foretold13 the future happiness of mankind, not with the inspiration of the poet, but with the grave and passionless voice of the oracle14. There was nothing better calculated at once to feed and to make steady the enthusiasm of youthful patriots15 than the high speculations16 in which he taught them to engage, on the nature of social evils and the great destiny of his species. No one would have suspected the author of those wild theories which startled the wise and shocked the prudent17 in the calm, gentlemanly person who rarely said anything above the most gentle commonplace, and took interest in little beyond the whist-table.”
WILLIAM GODWIN (1756–1836) was son and grandson of Dissenting18 ministers, and was destined19 for the same profession. In theology he began as a Calvinist, and for a while was tinctured with the austere20 doctrines21 of the Sandemanians. But his religious views soon took an unorthodox turn, and in 1782, falling out with his congregation at Stowmarket, he came up to London to earn his bread henceforward as a man of letters. In 1793 Godwin became one of the most famous men in England by the publication of his “Political Justice,” a work that his biographer would place side by side with the “Speech for Unlicensed Printing,” the “Essay on Education,” and “Emile,” as one of “the unseen levers which have moved the changes of the times.” Although the book came out at what we should call a “prohibitive price,” it had an enormous circulation, and brought its author in something like 1,000 guineas. In his first novel, “Caleb Williams,” which was published the next year, he illustrated23 in scenes from real life many of the principles enunciated24 in his philosophical25 work. “Caleb Williams” went through a number of editions, and was dramatized by Colman the younger under the title of “The Iron Chest.” It has now been out of print for many years. Godwin wrote several other novels, but one alone is readable now, “St. Leon,” which is philosophical in idea and purpose, and contains some passages of singular eloquence26 and beauty.
Godwin married the authoress of the “Rights of Woman,” Mary Wollstonecraft, in 1797, losing her the same year. Their daughter was the gifted wife of the poet Shelley. He was a social man, particularly fond of whist, and was on terms of intimacy27 and affection with many celebrated28 men and women. Tom Paine, Josiah Wedgwood, and Curran were among his closest male friends, while the story of his friendships with Mrs. Inchbald, Amelia Opie, with the lady immortalized by Shelley as Maria Gisborne, and with those literary sisters, Sophia and Harriet Lee, authors of the “Canterbury Tales,” has a certain sentimental30 interest. Afterwards he became known to Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Lamb. He married Mrs. Clairmont in 1801. His later years were clouded by great embarrassments31, and not till 1833 was he put out of reach of the worst privations by the gift of a small sinecure32, that of yeoman usher33 of the Exchequer34. He died in 1836.
Among the contradictory35 judgments36 passed on “Caleb Williams” by Godwin’s contemporaries those of Hazlitt, Sir James Mackintosh, and Sir T. N. Talfourd were perhaps the most eulogistic37, whilst De Quincey and Allan Cunningham criticized the book with considerable severity. Hazlitt’s opinion is quoted from the “Spirit of the Age”:
“A masterpiece, both as to invention and execution. The romantic and chivalrous38 principle of the love of personal fame is embodied39 in the finest possible manner in the character of Falkland; as in Caleb Williams (who is not the first, but the second character in the piece), we see the very demon40 of curiosity personified. Perhaps the art with which these two characters are contrived41 to relieve and set off each other has never been surpassed by any work of fiction, with the exception of the immortal29 satire42 of Cervantes.”
Sir Leslie Stephen said of it the other day:
“It has lived — though in comparative obscurity — for over a century, and high authorities tell us that vitality43 prolonged for that period raises a presumption44 that a book deserves the title of classic.”— National Review, February, 1902.
To understand how the work came to be written, and its aim, it is advisable to read carefully all three of Godwin’s prefaces, more particularly the last and the most candid45, written in 1832. This will, I think, dispose of the objection that the story was expressly constructed to illustrate22 a moral, a moral that, as Sir Leslie Stephen says, “eludes him.” He says:
“I formed a conception of a book of fictitious46 adventure that should in some way be distinguished47 by a very powerful interest. Pursuing this idea, I invented first the third volume of my tale, then the second, and, last of all, the first. I bent48 myself to the conception of a series of adventures of flight and pursuit; the fugitive49 in perpetual apprehension50 of being overwhelmed with the worst calamities51, and the pursuer, by his ingenuity52 and resources, keeping his victim in a state of the most fearful alarm. This was the project of my third volume.”
He goes on to describe in more detail the “dramatic and impressive” situations and the “fearful events” that were to be evolved, making it pretty clear that the purpose somewhat vaguely53 and cautiously outlined in the earliest preface was rather of the nature of an afterthought. Falkland is not intended to be a personification of the evils caused by the social system, nor is he put forward as the inevitable54 product of that system. The reader’s attention is chiefly absorbed by the extraordinary contest between Caleb Williams and Falkland, and in the tragic55 situations that it involves. Compared with these the denunciation of the social system is a matter of secondary interest; but it was natural that the author of the “Political Justice,” with his mind preoccupied56 by the defects of the English social system, should make those defects the, evil agencies of his plot. As the essential conditions of the series of events, as the machinery57 by which everything is brought about, these defects are of the utmost importance to the story. It is the accused system that awards to Tyrrel and Falkland their immense preponderance in society, and enables them to use the power of the law for the most nefarious58 ends. Tyrrel does his cousin to death and ruins his tenant59, a man of integrity, by means of the law. This is the occasion of Falkland’s original crime. His more heinous60 offence, the abandonment of the innocent Hawkinses to the gallows61, is the consequence of what Godwin expressly denounces, punishment for murder. “I conceived it to be in the highest degree absurd and iniquitous62, to cut off a man qualified63 for the most essential and extensive utility, merely out of retrospect64 to an act which, whatever were its merits, could not be retrieved65.” Then a new element is imported into the train of causation, Caleb’s insatiable curiosity, and the strife66 begins between these well-matched antagonists67, the man of wealth and station utilizing68 all the advantages granted him by the state of society to crush his enemy. Godwin, then, was justified69 in declaring that his book comprehended “a general view of the modes of domestic and unrecorded despotism by which man becomes the destroyer of man.” Such were the words of the original preface, which was suppressed for a short time owing to the fears caused by the trial of Horne Tooke, Thomas Holcroft and other revolutionists, with whom Godwin was in profound sympathy. Had he intended “Caleb Williams,” however, from its first inception70, to be an imaginative version of the “Political Justice,” he would have had to invent a different plan and different characters. The arguments of a sociological novel lack cogency71 unless the characters are fairly representative of average mankind. Godwin’s principal actors are both, to say the least, exceptional. They are lofty idealizations of certain virtues72 and powers of mind. Falkland is like Jean Valjean, a superhuman creature; and, indeed, “Caleb Williams” may well be compared on one side with “Les Misérables,” for Victor Hugo’s avowed73 purpose, likewise, was the denunciation of social tyranny. But the characteristics that would have weakened the implied theorem, had such been the main object, are the very things that make the novel more powerful as drama of a grandiose74, spiritual kind. The high and concentrated imagination that created such a being as Falkland, and the intensity75 of passion with which Caleb’s fatal energy of mind is sustained through that long, despairing struggle, are of greater artistic76 value than the mechanical symmetry by which morals are illustrated.
E. A. B.
1 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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2 systematic | |
adj.有系统的,有计划的,有方法的 | |
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3 contention | |
n.争论,争辩,论战;论点,主张 | |
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4 bibliographer | |
书志学家,书目提要编著人 | |
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5 scurrilous | |
adj.下流的,恶意诽谤的 | |
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6 persistent | |
adj.坚持不懈的,执意的;持续的 | |
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7 eulogy | |
n.颂词;颂扬 | |
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8 favourable | |
adj.赞成的,称赞的,有利的,良好的,顺利的 | |
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9 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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10 eminent | |
adj.显赫的,杰出的,有名的,优良的 | |
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11 agitation | |
n.搅动;搅拌;鼓动,煽动 | |
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12 paradoxes | |
n.似非而是的隽语,看似矛盾而实际却可能正确的说法( paradox的名词复数 );用于语言文学中的上述隽语;有矛盾特点的人[事物,情况] | |
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13 foretold | |
v.预言,预示( foretell的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14 oracle | |
n.神谕,神谕处,预言 | |
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15 patriots | |
爱国者,爱国主义者( patriot的名词复数 ) | |
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16 speculations | |
n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 );思考;投机活动;推断 | |
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17 prudent | |
adj.谨慎的,有远见的,精打细算的 | |
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18 dissenting | |
adj.不同意的 | |
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19 destined | |
adj.命中注定的;(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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20 austere | |
adj.艰苦的;朴素的,朴实无华的;严峻的 | |
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21 doctrines | |
n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 );教义;学说;(政府政策的)正式声明 | |
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22 illustrate | |
v.举例说明,阐明;图解,加插图 | |
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23 illustrated | |
adj. 有插图的,列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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24 enunciated | |
v.(清晰地)发音( enunciate的过去式和过去分词 );确切地说明 | |
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25 philosophical | |
adj.哲学家的,哲学上的,达观的 | |
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26 eloquence | |
n.雄辩;口才,修辞 | |
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27 intimacy | |
n.熟悉,亲密,密切关系,亲昵的言行 | |
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28 celebrated | |
adj.有名的,声誉卓著的 | |
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29 immortal | |
adj.不朽的;永生的,不死的;神的 | |
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30 sentimental | |
adj.多愁善感的,感伤的 | |
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31 embarrassments | |
n.尴尬( embarrassment的名词复数 );难堪;局促不安;令人难堪或耻辱的事 | |
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32 sinecure | |
n.闲差事,挂名职务 | |
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33 usher | |
n.带位员,招待员;vt.引导,护送;vi.做招待,担任引座员 | |
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34 exchequer | |
n.财政部;国库 | |
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35 contradictory | |
adj.反驳的,反对的,抗辩的;n.正反对,矛盾对立 | |
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36 judgments | |
判断( judgment的名词复数 ); 鉴定; 评价; 审判 | |
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37 eulogistic | |
adj.颂扬的,颂词的 | |
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38 chivalrous | |
adj.武士精神的;对女人彬彬有礼的 | |
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39 embodied | |
v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 );象征;包括;包含 | |
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40 demon | |
n.魔鬼,恶魔 | |
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41 contrived | |
adj.不自然的,做作的;虚构的 | |
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42 satire | |
n.讽刺,讽刺文学,讽刺作品 | |
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43 vitality | |
n.活力,生命力,效力 | |
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44 presumption | |
n.推测,可能性,冒昧,放肆,[法律]推定 | |
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45 candid | |
adj.公正的,正直的;坦率的 | |
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46 fictitious | |
adj.虚构的,假设的;空头的 | |
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47 distinguished | |
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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48 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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49 fugitive | |
adj.逃亡的,易逝的;n.逃犯,逃亡者 | |
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50 apprehension | |
n.理解,领悟;逮捕,拘捕;忧虑 | |
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51 calamities | |
n.灾祸,灾难( calamity的名词复数 );不幸之事 | |
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52 ingenuity | |
n.别出心裁;善于发明创造 | |
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53 vaguely | |
adv.含糊地,暖昧地 | |
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54 inevitable | |
adj.不可避免的,必然发生的 | |
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55 tragic | |
adj.悲剧的,悲剧性的,悲惨的 | |
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56 preoccupied | |
adj.全神贯注的,入神的;被抢先占有的;心事重重的v.占据(某人)思想,使对…全神贯注,使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
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57 machinery | |
n.(总称)机械,机器;机构 | |
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58 nefarious | |
adj.恶毒的,极坏的 | |
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59 tenant | |
n.承租人;房客;佃户;v.租借,租用 | |
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60 heinous | |
adj.可憎的,十恶不赦的 | |
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61 gallows | |
n.绞刑架,绞台 | |
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62 iniquitous | |
adj.不公正的;邪恶的;高得出奇的 | |
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63 qualified | |
adj.合格的,有资格的,胜任的,有限制的 | |
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64 retrospect | |
n.回顾,追溯;v.回顾,回想,追溯 | |
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65 retrieved | |
v.取回( retrieve的过去式和过去分词 );恢复;寻回;检索(储存的信息) | |
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66 strife | |
n.争吵,冲突,倾轧,竞争 | |
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67 antagonists | |
对立[对抗] 者,对手,敌手( antagonist的名词复数 ); 对抗肌; 对抗药 | |
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68 utilizing | |
v.利用,使用( utilize的现在分词 ) | |
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69 justified | |
a.正当的,有理的 | |
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70 inception | |
n.开端,开始,取得学位 | |
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71 cogency | |
n.说服力;adj.有说服力的 | |
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72 virtues | |
美德( virtue的名词复数 ); 德行; 优点; 长处 | |
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73 avowed | |
adj.公开声明的,承认的v.公开声明,承认( avow的过去式和过去分词) | |
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74 grandiose | |
adj.宏伟的,宏大的,堂皇的,铺张的 | |
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75 intensity | |
n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度 | |
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76 artistic | |
adj.艺术(家)的,美术(家)的;善于艺术创作的 | |
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