Peter Marshall's biography is a masterwork. Godwin was the husband of Mary Wollstonecraft, whose daughter Mary married the poet Shelley and wrote Frankenstein. Godwin is not as well known as he should be. Precisely, he was the founder of anarchism as viable social theory. Egalitarianl, social freedom advocate, republican, (Driving past Buckiingham Palace he said "There's a place worse than useless for a thing worse still.") Deist and anti-christian.
"when shall the mind of man again be free, shake off the chains that fasten it to its dungeon, and soar unrestrained in his native element"
This book is brimming with erudition and is indispensable to anyone studying the men or the age.