cbr16 bingo Fiasco
Well this was a hot mess and a half. Now I have read many a 17th and 18th century book, but this was a whole different thing. This was written in 1794, to be sure, but only fifteen years later, Jane Austin was publishing novels that were immensely readable with characters to whom we can relate even to this day. Godwin? Not so much. There was a serviceable plot here, to be sure, but buried under mountains of verbose nonsense. And the main character? A ridiculously self-aggrandizing twit.
Williams is hired as a secretary to a wealthy man, Mr. Falkland. Note that he is an employee, not a slave nor indentured servant. But when he discovers than his esteemed employer is actually a murderer, he does what he can to cover it up. And when Falkland, realizing that he has found out, starts to make Caleb’s life a living hell, Caleb just puts up with it, never questioning Falkland’s nobility. Seriously dude? There is no legal hold he has over you, so just get yourself on down the road! And from there, it gets all the more ridiculous.
Mostly Caleb is utterly unbelievable as a character himself. No matter that Falkland has sent his minions to track him wherever he goes and spread lies about him, and throw him in jail with the risk of being hanged because of the lies, Caleb cannot shut up about what a noble creature Falkland is. Boy needs some serious therapy, I tell you what.
I can see where Godwin was trying to present the seriously skewed British justice system of the time, but you are gonna need some better characters than this. Dickens, a short while later, could be over the top sometimes, but he was way better than this.