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William Godwin (1756–1836) hatte 1793 mit der aufsehenerregenden Publikation „An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice“ (Untersuchung, die politische Gerechtigkeit betreffend) das „erste grundlegende anarchistische Werk“ (Max Nettlau) verfasst.
Der spannende Roman „Caleb Williams“ ist eine popularisierte Darstellung der Ideen aus Political Justice. Godwin benutzte die Romanform als massenwirksames Mittel zur Propagierung seiner Gesellschaftskritik. Der Roman handelt von einer Verfolgung, die in exemplarischer Weise aufzeigt, wie „der Mensch zum Zerstörer des Menschen“ (William Godwin) wird.
Caleb Williams, ein einfacher Bauernsohn, bekommt Chance als Sekretär bei dem angesehenen Falkland zu arbeiten. Caleb hat eine rosige Zukunft vor sich. Seine Neugierde und seine Wissbegierigkeit führen eines Tages dazu, dass er Falklands Geheimnis lüftet. Er weiß nun, dass Falkland ein Mörder ist. Für Caleb Williams beginnt das Leiden, das Leben wird von nun an von Flucht, Gefangenenschaft und Verfolgung geprägt.
Wäre Caleb Williams ausschließlich eine literarische Gesellschaftskritik, wäre er nicht so erfolgreich gewesen. Aus der psychologischen Konstellation der handelnden Figuren hat Godwin ein Abenteuer- und Schauerroman, ein frühes Meisterwerk des Verbrecher- und Kriminalromans geschaffen. Godwin hatte mit „Caleb Williams“ einen der ersten Kriminalromane geschrieben, bei ihm tritt der Mörder nicht als Gejagter, sondern als Jäger auf.
(Quelle: Edition AV)
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Subjects
Fiction, Executions and executioners, Master and servant, False imprisonment, Young men, Murderers, Didactic fiction, Williams, caleb (fictitious character), fiction, Fiction, general, England, fiction, British and irish fiction (fictional works by one author), Classic Literature, Anarchism, Anarchism; writers of international importance; William Godwin and his circle; Godwin (author), Anarchisme; auteurs van internationale betekenis; William Godwin en zijn kring; werken van Godwin, Fiction, coming of age, Fiction, action & adventurePeople
William Godwin (1756-1836)Places
EnglandShowing 11 featured editions. View all 73 editions?
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Caleb Williams oder die Dinge wie sie sind
2007, Edition AV
Paperback
in German
- 1. Auflage
3936049866 9783936049862
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Things as they are, or, The adventures of Caleb Williams
1988, Penguin Books
in English
0140432566 9780140432565
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Things as they are: or, The adventures of Caleb Williams
1816, Printed for W. Simpkin and R. Marshal
in English
- The 4th ed.
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The Adventures of Caleb Williams, or Things as They Are (1794) by William Godwin is a three-volume novel written as a call to end the abuse of power by what Godwin saw as a tyrannical government. Intended as a popularization of the ideas presented in his 1793 treatise Political Justice Godwin uses Caleb Williams to show how legal and other institutions can and do destroy individuals, even when the people the justice system touches are innocent of any crime. This reality, in Godwin's mind was therefore a description of "things as they are."The novel describes the downfall of Ferdinando Falkland, a British squire, and his attempts to ruin and destroy the life of Caleb Williams, a poor but ambitious young man that Falkland hires as his personal secretary. Caleb accidentally discovers a terrible secret in his master's past. Though Caleb promises to be bound to silence, Falkland, irrationally attached (in Godwin's view) to ideas of social status and inborn virtue, cannot bear that his servant should possibly have power over him, and sets out to use various means--unfair trials, imprisonment, pursuit, to make sure that the information of which Caleb is the bearer will never be revealed.Godwin described the book as "a series of adventures of flight and pursuit; the fugitive in perpetual apprehension of being overwhelmed with the worst calamities", so that Caleb Williams can be classified as an early thriller or mystery novel.In order to evade a censorship ban on presenting the novel on the stage, the impresario Richard Brinsley Sheridan presented the piece on the stage of his Drury Lane Theatre in 1796 under the title The Iron Chest, his pretext for avoiding censorship being that his resident composer Stephen Storace had made an "operatic version" of the story.
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January 29, 2024 | Edited by Gustav-Landauer-Bibliothek Witten | Goodreads |
October 17, 2021 | Edited by Gustav-Landauer-Bibliothek Witten | details |
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