Fleetwood

Fleetwood is a pivotal novel of early English Romanticism and a powerful critique of the Romantic emotionalism being spread across Europe in Rousseau’s name. Godwin’s “new man of feeling” chronicles the impact of his “natural” education in the wilds of Wales, and his behavior allows Godwin to draw attention to an array of contemporary social issues. Godwin attacks the inhumanity of the early factory system, and indicts British society for its patriarchal inequities. His portrayal of Fleetwood’s obsessive and devastating jealousy contributed significantly to the development of psychological realism in English fiction. As essential historical background, the editors provide reviews, and excerpts from Rousseau’s writing and from Godwin’s other works.