Dr. Porscha Fermanis on William Godwin

William Godwin’s History of the Commonwealth (1824-1828) is far from his most popular work, and is accordingly the subject of very few textual analyses. Hayden White is one of the few noted historians to offer an analysis of Godwin’s History…, but his approach focused exclusively on the text itself, whilst deprivileging the role played by romantic fiction. In contrast to the approach adopted by White, Dr. Porscha Fermanis' frames her analysis of Godwin’s History… through the prism of Godwin’s biographical works, his fictional oeuvre, as well as his own personal life.

Dr. Fermanis’ primary source of reference in her exploration of the rhetoric and form of Godwin’s representation of Britain’s history is his novel Mandeville, as well as his biographical studies of both the ‘common man’ (The Lives of Edward & James Phillips, written about his nephews), and luminous figures such as William Chaucer (The Life of Chaucer), all published before History… . These works were themselves thinly disguised historical works hiding under the veil of the biography, and were roundly excoriated by critics as being highly emotive and nothing more than ‘speculative biographies’. Fermanis posits that the sting felt by such criticism would play a significant role in shaping his historical work later in his career; History… is subsequently far more conservative than Godwin’s biographical studies, with much of the research conducted by Godwin personally rather relying on secondary sources. Godwin also relegates the more sentimental aspects located within to the footnotes section (some of which go on for more than an entire page), while the main body of text is composed in a strictly factual, detached style – the direct antithesis of traditional literary form.

Dr. Fermanis also points out the posthumous role played by Godwin’s predecessors, namely David Hume, in formulating his approach to historical literature. Hume’s six-volume History of England was Britain’s standard historical text for many years, and Godwin’s ambitious attempts to rival Hume would play a major role in dictating his own unique form and style. Fermanis argues that Godwin was sceptical of Hume’s approach of and wished to be seen in a different light, which was the primary motivation of Godwin’s promotion of ‘individual’ history, rather than the notion of ‘mankind as a mass’, which constituted a common theme of Hume’s work. Godwin’s endorsement of ‘individual history’ manifests itself in the romanticism of his character portrait of Oliver Cromwell located within the historical narrative. This incorporation of Cromwell imbues History... with an autobiographical voice, while Godwin is conscious to eschew the cloying sentimentality that raised the ire of critics commenting of his earlier biographical studies.