William Godwin anticipated the English Romantic literary movement with his writings advancing atheism, anarchism and personal freedom. He set down his radical beliefs in the celebrated Enquiry concerning political justice.
Although he objected to marriage in principle, in 1797 Godwin married Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Of that union, it was said that Godwin was "as sincerely in love as his nature admitted." Wollstonecraft died the same year after the birth of their daughter Mary, the future wife of Shelley and author of Frankenstein.
Godwin published St. Leon in 1799. His first novel, Caleb Williams, had appeared five years earlier. St. Leon is notable for the portrait of Marguerite, drawn from the character of Mary Wollstonecraft. The book incorporates her later thinking. A friend, congratulating Godwin on the work, wrote, "Your Marguerite is inimitable. Knowing the model after which you drew, as often as I recollected it, my heart ached while I read."
Byron, Keats and Shelley all praised the novel. When Godwin was an old man he encountered Byron who asked him why he didn't write a new novel. Godwin replied that the effort would kill him. "And what matter?" Byron answered. "We should have another St. Leon."
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