Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
St. Leon

St. Leon

Jonson, Will
Godwin, William

Paperback

Classic Fiction

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 1494427265
ISBN13: 9781494427269
Publisher: Createspace
Published: Mar 13 2014
Pages: 352
Weight: 1.04
Height: 0.73 Width: 5.98 Depth: 9.02
Language: English
Set in Europe during the Protestant Reformation, 'St. Leon' relates the travails of an impoverished French aristocrat, Count Reginald de St. Leon, who obtains the philosopher's stone and the elixir of immortality, elixir vitae, from a mysterious stranger named Francesco Zampieri. In this philosophical fable, endless riches and immortal life prove to be curses rather than gifts and transform St. Leon into an outcast. St. Leon becomes an alchemist who can create gold and who possesses immortal life. As a result, his son Charles rejects him, he is separated from his daughters, and his wife Marguerite de Damville becomes impoverished and dies. He is the target of German authorities and the Spanish Inquisition. He also encounters a Hungarian misanthrope named Bethlem Gabor. William Godwin's second Gothic novel explores the predicament of a would-be philanthropist whose attempts to benefit humanity are frustrated by superstition and ignorance. The novel explores the themes of immortality, the domestic affections, and alchemy. The novel is a radical experiment in fictional genres. Into a historical novel of vast range and violence Godwin melded elements of the domestic novel, the philosophical novel, and the scientific fantasy. More relentlessly than the earlier 'Caleb Williams', this novel tests Godwin's philosophical premises to destruction, showing the importance-and failure-of family affections and the disintegration of effective social responsibility. Please note that this is NOT a facsimile but a modern edition of this great novel.

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