But Godwin gave one book to the world which has acquired a notoriety which entitles it to a more extended notice than its intrinsic merits would otherwise justify.  “Caleb Williams” was first published in 1794, and was widely read.  Lord Byron is said to have threatened his wife that he would treat her as Falkland had treated Caleb Williams, and this fact brought the novel into prominence with the Byron controversy, and occasioned its republication in the present century.  The author tells us that his object was “to comprehend a general review of the modes of domestic and unrecorded despotism by which man becomes the destroyer of man.”  And this was to be done “without subtracting from the interest and passion by which a performance of this sort (a novel) ought to be characterized.”  In both his didactic and his artistic purpose the author must be said to have failed.  The story is briefly as follows:  Falkland, who is represented as a man whose chief thought and consideration consist in guarding his honor from stain, stabs Tyrrel, his enemy, in the back, at night.  He then allows two innocent men to suffer for the murder on the gallows.  His aim, during the remainder of his life, is to prevent the discovery of his crime and the consequent disgrace to his name.  Caleb Williams enters his employment as a secretary, discovers the secret with the greatest ease, and promises never to betray his patron.  Williams soon becomes weary of his position, and attempts to escape.  He is accused by Falkland of robbery and is imprisoned.  He escapes from prison, and wanders about the country, always pursued by the hirelings of his master who use every means to render his life miserable.  Finally he openly accuses Falkland of his crime, who confesses it and dies.  The story is full of the most evident inconsistencies.  There is no adequate reason for Tyrrel’s hatred of Falkland, which leads to the murder.  It is inconceivable that a man of Falkland’s worship of honor should commit so dastardly a crime, and should suffer two innocent men to pay its penalty.  The facility with which Falkland allows his secretary to discover a secret which would bring him to the gallows is entirely inconsistent with the strength of mind which the author imputes to his hero.  Finally, the confession of crime, after so many years of secrecy, and when conscience must have been blunted by time and habit, is without adequate cause.  The characters are very slightly sketched, and excite neither interest nor sympathy.  Emily Melville resembles Pamela too closely, and Tyrrel is a poor reproduction of Squire Western.

Godwin tells us that, when thinking over “Caleb Williams,” he said to himself a thousand times:  “I will write a tale, that shall constitute an epoch in the mind of the reader, that no one, after he has read it, shall ever be exactly the same man that he was before.”  The effort, and straining after effect which this confession implies, are evident throughout the work.  The reader’s curiosity is continually excited by the promise of new interest and new developments, but he is as continually disappointed.  The main idea of the story is certainly a striking one, but it is feebly carried out.  The constitution of society cannot be effectively attacked by so improbable and exceptional an illustration of tyranny as the persecution of Caleb Williams.