William Godwin has long been known for his literary connections as the husband of Mary Wollstonecraft, the father of Mary Shelley, the friend of Coleridge, Lamb, and Hazlitt, the mentor of the young Wordsworth, Southey, and Shelley, and the opponent of Malthus. Godwin has been recently recognised as the most capable exponent of philosophical anarchism, an original moral thinker, a pioneer in socialist economics and progressive education and a novelist of great skill. Basing his work on extensive materials, Peter Marshall has written a comprehensive study of this fascinating figure.