Boxall delt.
C. Marr sculpt.
ST. LEON,
“I took her hand and by my caressesendeavoured to soothe and compose her.”
Page 65.
London, Published by Henry Colburn & Richard Bentley, 1831.
ST. LEON,
BY
WILLIAM GODWIN.
He put his hand to the wound;the Animal stirred not.
Page 273.
LONDON.
COLBURN AND BENTLEY,
NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
1831.
ST. LEON:
A
TALE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
BY
WILLIAM GODWIN.
Ferdinand Mendez Pinto was but a type of thee, thou liar ofthe first magnitude.
Congreve.
LONDON:
HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY,
NEW BURLINGTON STREET;
BELL AND BRADFUTE, EDINBURGH
AND CUMMING, DUBLIN.
1831.
London:
Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode,
New-Street-Square.
ADVERTISEMENT.
The Publishers of the Collection of “StandardNovels” are extremely desirous that I should furnishthem with a few lines, by way of introduction to theappearance of St. Leon in its present form. I amhowever at a loss how to oblige them. In the originalPreface I frankly stated the sources upon which I haddrawn for the idea and conduct of the work. I havetherefore no remarks to offer, but these which follow:—
In 1794 I produced the novel of Caleb Williams. Ibelieved myself fortunate in the selection I had madeof the ground-plot of that work. An atrociouscrime committed by a man previously of the mostexemplary habits, the annoyance he suffers from theimmeasurable and ever-wakeful curiosity of a raw youthwho is placed about his person, the state of doubt inwhich the reader might for a time be as to the truthof the charges, and the consequences growing out ofthese causes, seemed to me to afford scope for a narrativeof no common interest. I was not disappointed.Caleb Williams was honoured with the public favour.
The consequence was that I was solicited to try myhand again in a work of fiction. I hesitated long. Idespaired of finding again a topic so rich of interestand passion. In those days it was deemed a mostdaring thought to attempt to write a novel, with thehope that it might hereafter rank among the classicsof a language. The most successful English writers[vi]in that province of literature had scarcel