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Mandeville
A new edition of Godwin's powerful novel of war, madness, and paranoia, edited by a major scholar of Romanticism.
528 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1817
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About the author
William Godwin
489 books196 followersWilliam 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 25, 2017
*slight spoilers*
This is the third book I've read in my quest to read six books published in 1817 in 2017.
Mandeville follows the life of a young man of the same name. In a way it's a bildungsroman, or perhaps it could be classed as an anti-bildungsroman because young Mandeville seems to go backwards in life!
Mandeville is very much a novel of its time. The first volume relies on telling not showing, in which Mandeville gives the reader a detailed account of his childhood. It was difficult to know at times whether the narration was meant to be factual, or whether we are meant to raise our eyebrows at his self-aggrandizing explanations (he reminded me of a kid on social media who desperately tries to praise himself without appearing to). As I moved onto the second and third volumes it became obvious that the latter was intended. The end of the novel focussed on the maelstorm of the hero's insanity, and much of the "entertainment" came from figuring out what was actually happening from the narrator's warped accounts, and analysing what caused his insanity. There was also some suspense in whether or not his enemies would get the better of him. In many ways reminded me of Hogg's Confessions of a Justified Sinner.
This is the third book I've read in my quest to read six books published in 1817 in 2017.
Mandeville follows the life of a young man of the same name. In a way it's a bildungsroman, or perhaps it could be classed as an anti-bildungsroman because young Mandeville seems to go backwards in life!
Mandeville is very much a novel of its time. The first volume relies on telling not showing, in which Mandeville gives the reader a detailed account of his childhood. It was difficult to know at times whether the narration was meant to be factual, or whether we are meant to raise our eyebrows at his self-aggrandizing explanations (he reminded me of a kid on social media who desperately tries to praise himself without appearing to). As I moved onto the second and third volumes it became obvious that the latter was intended. The end of the novel focussed on the maelstorm of the hero's insanity, and much of the "entertainment" came from figuring out what was actually happening from the narrator's warped accounts, and analysing what caused his insanity. There was also some suspense in whether or not his enemies would get the better of him. In many ways reminded me of Hogg's Confessions of a Justified Sinner.
January 19, 2022
The dialectical tension between Mandeville and Clifford is immaculate.
Want to read
November 7, 2024Ch 36 P3 We have placed fetters around them which reach up to their chins till they seem to be out of joint.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews