Caleb Williams

This is an excellent early English novel, and deserves a wider readership. It is at once a detective novel, a suspenseful tale of pursuit and escape, a psychological study of obsession, a political exploration of class, a savage indictment of English law and English prisons, and an inspiring story o Leggi tutto

This was intense, passionate and completely gripping. The power of the narrative is entirely enthralling. Caleb has a story to tell and he beckons you to heed his words. I’ve heeded them myself three times because this was just that good. This novel is entirely underrated on this website, and drasti Leggi tutto

Caleb Williams was from a humble family in rural England (set and written in the 1700's ) , his father a hard working shrewd farmer, with a small piece of land still young Caleb is an intelligent boy and promptly noticed by amiable Mr. Collins, the steward of a squire much loved by the locals, wealt Leggi tutto

William Godwin was a guy who scores a perfect 10 on the the Coolometer - anyone's Coolometer, doesn't matter what model, even ones where the batteries are low, he is going to score a 10. Well, he was an anarchist and wrote giant attacks on the political establishment; but also, he married Mary Wolls Leggi tutto

This book was interesting. It was about Caleb Williams, a man who was employed as a secretary for Mr Falkland. His employer was very anxious and of an agitated mind. This caused some concern to Caleb, who wanted to understand why. After lots of investigating, he soon was taken into confidence- but t Leggi tutto

I don’t often read eighteenth-century novels but I generally enjoy them when I do; they’re such curious hybrids, foreshadowing the modern novel in some ways, but with one foot still firmly in earlier narrative traditions, like romance and allegorical fiction. Caleb Williams has sometimes been hailed Leggi tutto

According to Ian Ousby, author of Bloodhounds of Heaven: The Detective in English Fiction from Godwin to Doyle , this book is the first in English fiction to "display a sustained interest in the theme of detection," and that the book's hero, the titular Caleb Williams, is "the first important detecti Leggi tutto

Caleb Williams is part philosophical novel, part thriller and part vocabulary lesson. Usually the book is cited as being anarchic, but it isn't directly so. It doesn't suggest an alternative to the existing government, it's not pro-capitalism or pro-syndicalism but it does hold to the most basic pri Leggi tutto

I'd expected a novel by William Godwin to be politically charged; what I didn't expect was that it would be such a gripping and sophisticated narrative. Caleb Williams is a young, naive and bookish man from a humble family. He is hired as a private secretary and librarian by a local country squire, F Leggi tutto