is Godwin’s most popular novel after
Caleb Williams. As a follow-up to that seminal text of the revolutionary decade of the 1790s,
St. Leonmight at first appear somewhat unexpected. The story revolves around Reginald St. Leon and how he comes to acquire the Philosopher’s Stone and the
elixir vitae, the legendary arts of, respectively, making gold from common materials and the gift of rejuvenating youth, and, thus, of immortality. The novel, in other words, is far more directly Gothic in its subject matter and indeed in its formal features than
Caleb Williams, a novel which had employed Gothic techniques only in order to mount a thorough critique of the state of contemporary British society (“things as they are”). It might therefore seem…
2602 words
Citation: Allen, Graham. "St. Leon: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 January 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1888, accessed 23 November 2024.]
