St. Leon (novel)
Following the success of Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794), Godwin searched for a topic that would capture his imagination as much as his earlier work.
He accepts the secret of the elixir of life and of the power of multiplying wealth from a dying stranger, ultimately causing him to wander separated from humankind.
"[1] Reginald has grand notions of aristocratic honour, and, inspired by his uncle, the Marquis de Villeroy, he joins the Italian war of 1521–6, hoping to achieve military renown in the battle of Pavia.
He meets the beautiful and accomplished nineteen-year-old Marguerite Louise Isabeau de Damville, whose education has benefited from the society of Clement Marot, Rabelais, Erasmus, and Scaliger, and whose drawing has been encouraged by Leonardo da Vinci.
Disturbed by the sight of a dead woman and child, Reginald realizes he is fortunate when he returns home to find his family is safe.
This development gives Godwin scope to expatiate on the Swiss system of storing corn in public reserves in case of natural disasters.
An old man arrives at the family's house at Lake Constance, claiming to be a Venetian called Francesco Zampieri, but his true identity remains a mystery.
Reluctant to keep a secret from his wife, Reginald is forced to remain silent about the gift and Zampieri dies shortly afterwards.
Unwilling to return to his simple domestic life, Reginald plans to repurchase the estate that he lost, but in order to make it seem like he has regained his wealth gradually and not in suspicious circumstances, he moves to the city of Constance and pretends that Zampieri had given him 3,000 crowns.
Reginald is quickly seduced into spending a great deal of money and arouses the suspicion of his countryman, Gaspard de Coligny.
Reginald's son, Charles, becomes aware of the shame that wealth with an inexplicable origin has brought and disowns his father and leaves.
The keeper asks for more money, and Reginald is forced to trust him, and this time he is released provided he takes Hector with him in order to make the latter appear to be an accomplice.
Philip II returns to Spain after his marriage to Queen Mary, and he oversees an auto da Fé in Seville.
While processing to Valladolid from Madrid, a horse is frightened and kicks, and in the confusion, Reginald escapes and breaks into the house of a Jewish convert to Christianity, Mordecai.
Louisa is 28, Marguerite (named after her mother) is 24, and Julia died four years previously after her fiancé had been imprisoned by his father for intending to marry her.
Reginald leaves for Hungary and takes a house in Buda, intending to use his money to revitalize the economy after the devastation of a long war.
He gives charity to poor people, becomes a corn dealer and an architect, and takes a new name: "the sieur de Chatillon" (p. 366).
Problems occur, however, when demand for corn becomes too great and the people suspect him of manipulating the market for personal gain.
In the dungeon Reginald dreams that he is rescued by a knight in armour, who turns into a female angel, and that they fly away together leaving the castle in flames.
While Reginald sympathizes a great deal with his son and is proud of his achievements, he regards his role as a Christian warrior as religious fanaticism.
Pandora's father died in the siege of Ziget, leaving her a poor orphan and Nadasti prefers Charles to marry one of his own daughters.
Reginald finds, by chance, a man who had sailed on the same ship, Benedetto Cabriera, who has lost all of his money due to a series of calamities.
Reginald leaves for Presburg and meets Charles, who is on his way to accompany Mary, Queen of Scots back to her native land.
More so than the earlier Caleb Williams, this novel tests Godwin's philosophical premises, showing the tensions between the aspiration to greatness and family affections and the disintegration of effective social responsibility.
The ideas expressed in the novel follow those of Godwin's Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Modern Morals and Manners (1793).
[3] When Reginald is finally in a position to put his new ability to multiply gold to good use, he secures the future of his daughters, and then travels to Buda to help stimulate the post-war economy with a building program.
He also explores racial intolerance through the torture and murder of Hector, the African servant, and the fear expressed by Mordechai, the Spanish convert from Judaism to Christianity.
The St. Leon family is displaced several times, and they learn that the "prepossessions of mankind are clearly unfavourable to a newcomer, an emigrant who has quitted his former connections and the scenes of his youth.
Zampieri, the stranger, criticizes Reginald for arguing that he could not keep a secret from his wife, calling him "[f]eeble and effeminate" and "the puppet of a woman".
[9] The Reverend John Hobart Caunter, a friend of Godwin's,[a] also wrote a play inspired by the novel, St. Leon: A Drama.
