Author
William Godwin is documented in Fuller’s letters, books, and published essays (1830–1846). 4 distinct works are named, most often in New-York Daily Tribune, and the most intensive engagement recorded is “analyzed”.
Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this author is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →
“If Godwin's choice of the calumniated authoress of the "Rights of Woman," for his honored wife, be a sign of a new era, no less so is an article to which I have alluded some pages back... it would be so for the generous affection evinced under the peculiar circumstances... He believed he saw of what soul she was... He who delineated with such purity of traits the form of woman in the Marguerite, of whom the weak St. Leon could never learn to be worthy”
This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.
Selected passages from Fuller’s own writings, in chronological order.
“I think you will be more and more satisfied with Godwin.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. VI. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.
Fuller comments on William Godwin's Mandeville: A Tale of the Seventeenth Century in England, which Clarke had been reading; Hudspeth identified this specific work as the novel Clarke discussed with her.
“You must not expect another like St Leon such do not grow on every bush.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
“Its sad changes should be written out in Godwin's best manner: such are the themes he loved, as did also Rousseau.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.
Inferred Hudspeth footnote 4 identified The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794) and St. Leon (1799) as his key novels.
“The Marguerite of Godwin, no less, is all refinement and the purest tenderness; but she is also the soul of honor, capable of deep discernment, and of acting in conformity with the inferences she draws.”
Fuller, Margaret. Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. Boston: Brown, Taggard and Chase, 1860. · p84
Inferred Fuller identifies and discusses the character of Marguerite, the wife of the protagonist in William Godwin's novel St. Leon (1799).
“If Godwin's choice of the calumniated authoress of the "Rights of Woman," for his honored wife, be a sign of a new era, no less so is an article to which I have alluded some pages back...”
Fuller, Margaret. Woman in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Greeley & McElrath, 1845.
Inferred Two Godwin works referenced: (1) his Memoirs of Wollstonecraft (1798) — 'a little volume'; (2) his novel St. Leon (1799), which features the character Marguerite.
“Not to mention works of the highest genius; in those of Godwin and Balzac—the most singular facts do not surprise us”
Fuller, Margaret. "Evelyn; or a Heart Unmasked . . ." New-York Daily Tribune, 7 July 1845. · 7 July 1845
“The tone is noble; in its calm, but heart-felt, respect for the claims of man reminding us of Godwin.”
Fuller, Margaret. "The Slave; Or Memoirs of Archy Moore . . ." New-York Daily Tribune, 4 February 1845. · 4 February 1845
“It has been the custom to liken Brown to Godwin. But there was no imitation, no second-hand in the matter. They were congenial natures”
Fuller, Margaret. Papers on Literature and Art. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846.
Hudspeth footnote 4 identified The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794) and St. Leon (1799) as his key novels.