The Letters of William Godwin

• Publishes for the first time all the letters of this significant social thinker, novelist, and philosopher of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries
• Covers the first major phase of Godwin's life and career, from his education in English religious nonconformity through his early years as a writer struggling for recognition, to his years of fame in the era of the French Revolution
• Sheds light on many literary, political, and artistic figures of the times - Mary Hays, Elizabeth Inchbald, Thomas Lawrence, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Mary Wollstonecraft - and provides insight into the publishing circles and radical social networks of the period

Readership: Students and scholars of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English literature, and historians of British culture and of the book.

Edited by Pamela Clemit, Professor of English Studies, Durham University

"Pamela Clemit judges the tone and texture of her notes perfectly, so that the glosses to each letter are at once self-contained, engaging and accessible, as well as skilfully integrated into the volume as a whole, helpfully gesturing forwards and backwards in order to elucidate the interconnectedness of Godwin's acquaintance and thought." - Kelly Grovier, TLS

"[Clemit's] editorial work undoubtedly adds greatly to the value of these letters. She has left scholars in her debt and whetted our appetites for the succeeding volumes in this series." - H.T Dickinson, Enlightenment and Dissent

"Clemit's fully comprehensive edition will be definitive, judging by the meticulous editorial work demonstrated here ... a magnificent achievement." - David O'Shaughnessy, The Review of English Studies

"immaculately edited" - John Barrell, London Review of Books

"This is a magnificent, definitive edition of William Godwin's letters... We think of editions of letters as valuable research tools, and so they are. But I read this volume cover to cover for the story. It has an imaginative, psychological, and topical consistency... This deep-structure 'feel' for the 1790s, however, springs not just from reading Godwin's letters. Much of it comes from Pamela Clemit's learned, concise, and perfectly balanced notes... She is an editor of superb critical acumen... I am struck by her taste and tact... As a result of Clemit's great work, I should think that a good deal of fine tuning, if not outright revisionism or probes in wholly new directions, might become possible in scholarship on 'Godwin and His Circle'." - Kenneth Johnston, Review 19

Dedication
Acknowledgements
List of Letters
List of Illustrations
Abbreviations and Symbols
Introduction
A Note on Editorial Principles
Chronology: William Godwin, 1756-1797
Letters, 1778-1797 (Numbers 1-186)
Appendix 1: Undated Letters
Appendix 2: Articles of Agreement for Political Justice
Appendix 3: Letters in the Abinger papers: Old and New Shelfmarks