LIVES THAT NEVER GROW OLD This unique series - edited by Richard Holmes - recovers the great classical tradition of English biography. Every book is a biographical masterpiece - still thrilling to read and vividly alive. The philosopher William Godwin fell in love with and married the radical feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, only to attend her deathbed (giving birth to their child, the late Mary Shelley). Heartbroken, Godwin immediately shut himself up in his study and wrote this intensely moving biography. True to his philosophical belief in absolute sincerity, Godwin coolly describes Wollstonecraft's previous love affairs, her time in revolutionary Paris, her illegitimate child, and her two suicide attempts. The book almost wrecked both their reputations, but can now be seen as a masterpiece of indiscretion and human honesty.

The political philosopher and writer William Godwin (1756-1836), who was also the husband of writer Mary Wollstonecraft and father of Mary Shelley, was known for his philosophical works and novels. In this work, originally published in 1834, Godwin turns to the issue of the supernatural, and to some of the famous - and sometimes unexpected - people associated with it. He begins by defining some magic practices, such as divination, astrology, and necromancy, giving examples of the latter from the Bible. The remainder of the work consists of brief sketches of people and places involved in the occult world, beginning in the Ancient Middle East and Greece, surveying the Christian era in Europe, and ending with the New England witch trials. In a remarkable work of synthesis, he discusses apparently supernatural episodes in the lives of many historical figures, from Socrates and Virgil to Joan of Arc and James I.

The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. Western literary study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others. Experience the birth of the modern novel, or compare the development of language using dictionaries and grammar discourses.

Caleb Williams; Or, Things as They Are (1794) is a novel by English writer and political philosopher William Godwin. Published a year after the appearance of his Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793), Caleb Williams; Or, Things as They Are is a thriller and mystery based on the principles set forth in his popular work of anarchist political philosophy. Caleb Williams, a self-educated orphan, gets a job at the estate of Ferdinando Falkland, a reclusive aristocrat. Curious as to his master's temperamental nature, Williams asks the estate's administrator to share any information he knows regarding Falkland's past. Through Mr. Collins, Caleb learns of Falkland's feud with Barnabas Tyrrel, his oppressive neighbor. Caleb is surprised to discover that Falkland was once regarded as a generous and gregarious gentleman who persevered in vain for the love of Tyrrel's niece. Following Emily Melville's untimely death and the unsolved murder of Barnabas Tyrrel, Falkland became an embittered man, prone to violent outbursts and averse to social interaction. Shocked by Mr. Collins's account, Caleb begins to investigate Falkland's behavior and soon grows to suspect his master of murder. When news of his suspicion reaches Falkland, he accuses Caleb of attempted theft, forcing the young man to flee under threat of imprisonment. A fugitive, Caleb resists the temptations of criminal life, but the past-and Falkland-are never far behind him. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of William Godwin's Caleb Williams; Or, Things as They Are is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

Caleb Williams; Or, Things as They Are (1794) is a novel by English writer and political philosopher William Godwin. Published a year after the appearance of his Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793), Caleb Williams; Or, Things as They Are is a thriller and mystery based on the principles set forth in his popular work of anarchist political philosophy. Caleb Williams, a self-educated orphan, gets a job at the estate of Ferdinando Falkland, a reclusive aristocrat. Curious as to his master’s temperamental nature, Williams asks the estate’s administrator to share any information he knows regarding Falkland’s past. Through Mr. Collins, Caleb learns of Falkland’s feud with Barnabas Tyrrel, his oppressive neighbor. Caleb is surprised to discover that Falkland was once regarded as a generous and gregarious gentleman who persevered in vain for the love of Tyrrel’s niece. Following Emily Melville’s untimely death and the unsolved murder of Barnabas Tyrrel, Falkland became an embittered man, prone to violent outbursts and averse to social interaction. Shocked by Mr. Collins’s account, Caleb begins to investigate Falkland’s behavior and soon grows to suspect his master of murder. When news of his suspicion reaches Falkland, he accuses Caleb of attempted theft, forcing the young man to flee under threat of imprisonment. A fugitive, Caleb resists the temptations of criminal life, but the past—and Falkland—are never far behind him. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of William Godwin’s Caleb Williams; Or, Things as They Are is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

In these two closely linked works - a travel book and a biography of its author - we witness a moving encounter between two of the most daring and original minds of the late eighteenth century: A Short Residence in Sweden is the record of Wollstonecraft's last journey in search of happiness, into the remote and beautiful backwoods of Scandinavia. The quest for a lost treasure ship, the pain of a wrecked love affair, memories of the French Revolution, and the longing for some Golden Age, all shape this vivid narrative, which Richard Holmes argues is one of the neglected masterpieces of early English Romanticism.

Memoirs is Godwin's own account of Wollstonecraft's life, written with passionate intensity a few weeks after her tragic death. Casting aside literary convention, Godwin creates an intimate portrait of his wife, startling in its candour and psychological truth. Received with outrage by friends and critics alike, and virtually suppressed for a century, it can now be recognized as one of the landmarks in the development of modern biography.

When honest young Caleb Williams comes to work as a secretary for Squire Falkland, he soon begins to suspect that his new master is hiding a terrible secret. But as he digs deeper into Falkland's past and finally unearths the guilty truth, the results of his curiosity prove calamitous when even though Caleb has loyally sworn never to disclose what he has discovered the Squire enacts a cruel revenge. A tale of gripping suspense and psychological power, William Godwin's novel creates a searing depiction of the intolerable persecution meted out to a good man in pursuit of justice and equality. Written to expose the political oppression and corrupt hierarchies its author saw in the world around him, Caleb Williams (1794) makes a radical call to end the tyrannical misuses of power.