SOURCE: Dumas, D. Gilbert. “Things as They Were: The Original Ending of Caleb Williams.” SEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 6, no. 3 (summer 1966): 575-97.

In the following essay, Dumas explores possible motivations for Godwin's withdrawal of the Preface from the first edition and his substitution of the original ending of the novel.

Godwin's note in the second edition of Things as They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams informs us that he had withdrawn the Preface, now restored, from the first edition because of the fears of booksellers. The novel had first appeared in May 1794, “the same month,” says Godwin in his note, “in which the sanguinary plot broke out against the liberties of Englishmen. … Terror was the order of the day; and it was feared that even the humble novelist might be shown to be constructively a traitor.”¹ The plot Godwin alludes to was of course the...