William Godwin, Cloudesley ; A Tale

Graham Allen (University College Cork)
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Cloudesley

is Godwin’s fifth novel, published thirteen years after

Mandeville

, his fourth; Godwin had celebrated his 74th birthday the day before it appeared. The novel, like most of Godwin’s other novels, was composed and published after the completion of an important work of non-fiction, Godwin’s Four Volume,

History of the Commonwealth of England

, published between 1824 and 1828. Mary Shelley, Godwin’s daughter, reviewed the novel in

Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine

, XXVII in May 1830. Comparing Godwin’s novels to those of Walter Scott and Edward Bulwer-Lytton, she writes: “Of all modern writers, Mr Godwin has arrived most sedulously, and most successfully, at the highest species of perfection his department of art affords.” She also states, at the end of her review:…

2362 words

Citation: Allen, Graham. "Cloudesley ; A Tale". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 September 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5984, accessed 19 March 2024.]

5984 Cloudesley ; A Tale 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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