Fleetwood

FLEETWOOD :

OR THE

NEW MAN OF FEELING

_______________

BY WILLIAM GODWIN

_____________

LONDON :

RICHARD BENTLEY

1832.

DESCRIPTION

First Edition

(ii) + xvi + 371pp + (ii)

Book measures 170mm x 105mm approximately.

Bound in full rich green calf. Spine with five gilt-ruled raised bands with decorative motifs to compartments, and tan author / title label with date in gilt to spine foot. Twin gilt fillet borders with cornices and blind-tooled inner dentelles to boards. Marbled end-papers and paste-downs and all page edges marbled. Small engraving to tile page with further engraving to verso.

CONDITION

Binding is firm and holding well. Boards exhibit some minor surface marks, light random blemishes, some rubbing to upper hinges and mild bumping to corners.

Internally the pages are generally in good clean condition with moderate light browning and age toning throughout. The occasional spot and very light foxing to title page and end-papers with some shadowing also to tile page. Previous owner bookplate to front paste-down.

Please always refer to photo images for a clearer indication of condition.

We are always happy to provide further photo images if required.

INTERESTING

William Godwin (1756 to 1836) was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism and the first modern proponent of anarchism. Godwin is most famous for two books that he published within the space of a year: An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, an attack on political institutions, and Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams, an early mystery novel which attacks aristocratic privilege. Based on the success of both, Godwin featured prominently in the radical circles of London in the 1790s. He wrote prolifically in the genres of novels, history and demography throughout his life.

In the conservative reaction to British radicalism, Godwin was attacked, in part because of his marriage to the feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft in 1797 and his candid biography of her after her death from childbirth. Their daughter, later known as Mary Shelley, would go on to write Frankenstein and marry the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Fleetwood is intended as a criticism of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his ideas about the virtue of natural man. Like Emile, the protagonist of Rousseau's treatise on education, Fleetwood is raised in the supposedly ideal world of nature. However, what is ideal for Rousseau turns out to be problematic in Fleetwood.