St. Leon: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century
St. Leon: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century
A Gothic novel by William Godwin (1756-1836), first published in 1799. It may have been suggested by stories of the mysterious Comte de Saint Germain and the curious book HermippusRedivivus; or The Sage's Triumph Over Old Age and the Grave by J. H. Cohausen (1744).
Godwin used this novel to propagate some of the ideas expressed in his work An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness (2 vols., 1793). St. Leon sought to show that "boundless wealth, freedom from disease, weakness and death are as nothing in the scale against domestic affection and the charities of private life."
(See also Signor Gualdi ; occult English fiction ; St. Irvyne ; or the Rosicrucians ).
More From encyclopedia.com
Novel , novel, in modern literary usage, a sustained work of prose fiction a volume or more in length. It is distinguished from the short story and the ficti… Patristic Literature , patristic literature, Christian writings of the first few centuries. They are chiefly in Greek and Latin; there is analogous writing in Syriac and in… Fourteen , Skip to main content
fourteen
four·teen / ˌfôrˈtēn; ˈfôrˌtēn/ • cardinal number equivalent to the product of seven and two; one more than thirteen, o… Sty , sty1 / stī/ • n. a pigpen. • v. (sties, stied) [tr.] archaic keep (a pig) in a sty: the most beggarly place that ever pigs were stied in. sty2 (also… Saint Sebastian , St Sebastian
St Sebastian (late 3rd century), Roman martyr. According to legend he was a soldier who was shot by archers on the orders of Diocletian,… Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky , The Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) mixed social, Gothic, and sentimental elements with psychological irrationalism and visionary reli…
About this article
St. Leon: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century
You Might Also Like
NEARBY TERMS
St. Leon: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century