St. Leon

by William Godwin, William D. Brewer (Editor)

Set in Europe during the Protestant Reformation and first published in 1799, St. Leon tells the story of an impoverished aristocrat who obtains the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of immortality. In this philosophical fable, endless riches and immortal life prove to be curses rather than gifts and transform St. Leon into an outcast. William Godwin’s second full-length novel explores the predicament of a would-be philanthropist whose attempts to benefit humanity are frustrated by superstition and ignorance. This Broadview edition includes a critical introduction and full annotation. The appendices include contemporary reviews of the novel; Godwin’s writings on immortality, the domestic affections, and alchemy; and selections from works influenced by St. Leon, most notably Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein .

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Gothic, Romanticism, Historical Fiction, British Literature, 18th Century

507 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1799

About the author

William Godwin was the son and grandson of strait-laced Calvinist ministers. Strictly-raised, he followed in paternal footsteps, becoming a minister by age 22. His reading of atheist d'Holbach and others caused him to lose both his belief in the doctrine of eternal damnation, and his ministerial position. Through further reading, Godwin gradually became godless. He promoted anarchism (but not anarchy). His Political Justice and The Enquirer (1793) argued for morality without religion, causing a scandal. He followed that philosophical book with a trail-blazing fictional adventure-detective story, Caleb Williams (1794), to introduce readers to his ideas in a popular format. Godwin, a leading thinker and author ranking in his day close to Thomas Paine, was enormously influential among famous peers.

He and Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, secretly married in 1797. She died tragically after giving birth to daughter Mary in 1797. Godwin's loving but candid biography of his wife, Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1798), further scandalized society. Godwin, caring not only for the baby Mary, but her half-sister Fanny, remarried. He and his second wife opened a bookshop for children. Godwin, out of necessity, became a proficient author of children's books, employing a pseudonym due to his notoriety. His daughter Mary, at 16, famously ran off with poet Percy Shelley, whose Necessity of Atheism was influenced by Godwin. Mary's novel Frankenstein also paid homage to her father's views. Godwin's life was marked by poverty and further domestic tragedies. Godwin's prized manuscript attacked the Christian religion and was intended to free the mind from slavery. The Genius of Christianity Unveiled: in a Series of Essays was published only many years after his death.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

How can a book be boring and interesting at the same time? Read William Godwin's gothic moral fable St. Leon and you can find out for yourself.

St. Leon is boring because the narrator, the alchemist St. Leon--who sounds a lot like the political philosopher William Godwin--is humorless, sententious, and given to rumination. Although he speaks regretfully concerning his conduct and its consequences, he lacks self-awareness and the ability to learn from experience, and--although I'd like to give Godwin the benefit of the doubt and assume that this irony is part of his design--his craft is not assured enough, his style not elegant enough, to make the ironies clear. We like his wife Marguerite and we don't like him for what he has done to her, and--since his voice is the only voice we hear--we soon tire of that voice and of his character as well.

And yet the book is interesting too. For starters, it is a very early attempt at an historical novel and involves an engaging premise: how can an alchemist, possessed of the secrets of eternal life and endless wealth, suffer a life filled with misfortune? If Voltaire, with his sharp wit, had used this conception as the springboard for one of his moral tales, it would have been a masterpiece. But--alas!--St. Leon is without wit, a four volume novel more than four times the length of any tale of Voltaire's.

St. Leon's gothic elements are also of interest, particularly the character of the warrior Bethlem Gabor who, having become evil through brooding upon his own misfortunes, imprisons our protagonist in a crumbling castle. Finally, the novel is interesting for the obvious influence it had on Godwin's daughter Mary's great novel Frankenstein. St. Leon, an intellectual cut off from the world by his "scientific" obsession, is eventually transformed, through isolation and egotism, into a "monster" (the words of his wife Marguerite). Thus St. Leon is a forerunner both of Dr. Frankenstein and of the Creature too.

[Dominick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was apparently highly regarded when it came out and treated as a classic in the nineteenth century. It's difficult to see why. Even laying aside the inflated and prolix style as typical of its day, rather than a specific blemish, this is a tedious and baffling book. Reginald de St. Leon gets the secret of the philosopher's stone from a mysterious old wanderer, who promptly dies after enjoining him to strict secrecy. Why pick St. Leon to give the secret to? Who knows? Why does St. Leon put such deep faith in what from any rational perspective must seem like a raving madman he's never met before? Again, who knows? Godwin seems to have no interest in rationalizing why St. Leon is picked (there seems to be a deliberateness about the old man's choice) or why he is so eager to believe the guy and to honor his oath. Furthermore, the book is about a third over before we even get to this apparently central element of the tale. The first third seems an overly-elaborated demonstration that money doesn't buy happiness which the latter two thirds then drill home again and again, mercilessly. Or they might if St. Leon was not depicted as perhaps the stupidest man in the history of the universe. Strange old man offers you a fabulous secret if you swear never to tell anyone? Sure, why not? Just take his word at face value and then relentlessly keep the secret from your wife (the best woman in the history of the universe, of course) until it drives an unbridgeable gap between you and leads to the decline in health that takes her life--but perform your alchemy in full view of your servant, so he can then blab about your magical abilities to all who will listen. Decide you need a friend to help you in your attempts at philanthropy (which would be hilariously inept if they were not so tediously elaborated)? Why, of course you must pick the biggest misanthrope in the history of the universe, a Byronic figure who makes Byron'sByronic heroes look like philanthropists (unsurprisingly, perhaps, Byron was a great admirer of this book). It doesn't even have consistent internal logic. Late in the novel, St. Leon insists that he can't give this super-misanthrope the secret of the philosopher's stone because anyone with that secret is morally purified by the knowledge (if so, why not give it to the hater of humanity and thereby cure his rabid misanthropy?), and the keen insight into human nature the gift gives him means he can see that the misanthrope is not worthy of it (but where was that keen insight when he befriended the guy in the first place--or every other time he catastrophically misjudges people?) Even how the alchemy works is opaque: St. Leon routinely refers to using its powers to create wealth without ever addressing how he manages to create currency rather than just gold (there is never any discussion of converting gold to currency, just to him producing such and such or so many ducats etc.) The editor suggests that perhaps Godwin is playing with an unreliable narrator, but if so, the point of doing so is opaque to me. Certainly, though, it is hard to take St. Leon as narrator seriously. Baffling and, to my eyes, a pretty much pointless book. what the fantasy element of the philosopher's stone is supposed to add that could not have been dealt with in a fable of a few hundred words is beyond me, after five hundred pages.

[Robert Rich · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is seriously one of my favorite Romantic era novels. Inside the mind of Reginald de St. Leon is downright painful. It's about as anti-Johnson as you can get. Whenever St. Leon acts honorably he seems to suffer for it, and when he has to get himself out of trouble by more underhanded methods.

[Paul Creed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mind boggling (beautiful) language and a crazy plot. Read and enjoy

Why use one word when a stream of marvellous ones will do. Takes you to a different century but constantly reminds that human nature is the same.

[Adam Chandler · Rating 2 out of 5]

The second of Godwin's major novels. Unlike his first novel ("Caleb Williams") which had some great flair in its prose, although being lacklustre in its plot and characters (displaying some obvious philosophical holes in Godwin's calls to anarchic treatment of social life), this book has little flair in the prose leaving you with only the lacklustre plot and characters. The interesting aspects of the book lie more with Godwin's exploration of the history of the 16th century as his titular character travels around Europe. I also appreciate that he implements some (not all, having an interesting perspective of the Catholic-Protestant dispute, to say the least) accurate depictions of Christianity for the period, despite himself being an atheist.

The general plot is that Leon/Reginald encounters a man who reveals to him the philosopher's stone so that he becomes immortal and can generate unlimited gold. During a time of God-fearing Christendom in Europe, people persecute Reginald as working devilry in witchcraft. He does not deny it multiple times, gets arrested multiple times, and members of his family die or abandon him. There is no seeming point to any of it except for Godwin to paint some non-Christians as potentially more sympathetic to new ideas. However, since these individuals would also have been warry of witchcraft (e.g. Jews and Muslims), they would have rejected Reginald as well instead of being allies as Godwin paints them. What Godwin does not understand, I think, is that the real solution for the protagonist would have been to admit wealth and immortality do not equate to social or personal wellbeing, thus we should look to what does bring unity and hope: Christ; as every antagonist in the book would have done had Reginald portrayed the Christians accurately.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't love it nearly as much as I did Caleb Williams, but there's some fascinating stuff in there...the idea of a narrator so cut off from humanity that he cannot impart his full emotional sensations to us, a man who claims to be aiming at bare truth yet will withhold things, an ending which seems to only come about through pushing the narrator out of the picture entirely...definitely one I want to come back to!

[Sarah Robbins · Rating 1 out of 5]

I remember almost nothing of the plot, but am filled to the brim with memories of Reginald’s excruciatingly dramatic and self-pitying personality.

[Joaquin del Villar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Se trata de la historia de un personaje, algo ingenuo, bastante egoísta y también pánfilo. Un personaje que arrastra de forma repetida a la miseria a su familia, a pesar de la fortuna de su familia y de su suegro. El ritmo de la narración en forma de memorias, a veces trascurre de forma rápida, otras veces mas lenta. El relato del protagonista está lleno de comentarios moralizantes, yo le veo un parecido al estilo de "Frankenstein". Si bien en la primera parte de la obra el protagonista se dedica a dilapidar su patrimonio, en la segunda, en posesión del secreto de la vida eterna y de una riqueza inacabable, se empeña en meter la pata, quizás cuando pretendes hacer el bien en algún lugar, haces el mal en otro. En definitiva, aunque al principio se hace muy cuesta arriba de leer, le vas cogiendo el ritmo y la lectura se hace amena. Yo la pondría en el mismo lugar que "El hombre invisible" de Wells.