St. Leon: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century

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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 ).

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