Home / Browse / Philosophy & History of Ideas / An Enquiry concerning Political Justice,
GODWIN, William.
An Enquiry concerning Political Justice,
and its influence on General Virtue and Happiness.
Publisher: London: G. G. J. and J. Robinson, 1793
Stock code: 36598
Price: £7,500 Currency Conversion
First edition of one of the most radical and far-reaching books of the years of revolution at the end of the 18th century, by the founder of philosophical anarchism. Published just weeks after the execution of Louis XVI, Godwin's tract attacks all restraints on the exercise of individual judgement – in the belief that human opinions will become progressively more enlightened with the growth of knowledge. Among Godwin's targets were established religion and marriage, and he believed that government itself would ultimately become redundant. The book still speaks today for its eloquent defence of human liberty, but its contemporary influence was profound and lasting. Godwin, for all his lack of worldly success, was the epicentre of English radicalism. He subsequently married the most discussed, admired, criticized, and mythologized feminist intellectual in history, Mary Wollstonecraft; inspired and infuriated Percy Bysshe Shelley, who bankrolled him, then eloped with his daughter Mary, future author of Frankenstein; and published, among many others, Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare and works illustrated by William Blake. As a text Political Justice had one hugely influential if contrary result: it directly inspired Malthus to formulate his Essay on Population.
2 volumes, quarto. Attractive contemporary half calf, flat spines with wide bands stained black and Greek-key rolls in blind, gilt-lettered direct, compartments decorated in gilt and in blind, blue marbled sides, blue sprinkled edges. Fine large armorial bookplates of Sir Gore Ouseley (1770–1844), Bt, Ambassador to Persia and Russia. Extremities a little rubbed, an excellent copy of a book rarely found in such attractive contemporary state.
