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readwithbells's review against another edition
4.0
I was really not enjoying this book at first and found the entire first volume incredibly dull. However, once the story really got started in the second volume, all the worldbuilding established at first pays off in Caleb’s adventures and by the end I was really invested in him! The published ending - Godwin’s second ending - hit me like a hammer. I felt really betrayed at Caleb’s apparent regression as a character, and I definitely prefer the original ending (though I understand the reasons why Godwin wrote the second one and stuck with it). All in all, this is a good gothic! A little heavy handed in the political beliefs and not nearly enough women, but I love that rather than being confined to a castle, Caleb is confined to the entirety of England and it’s still not vast enough to protect him from the gothic villain of Falkland.
Read for Gothics class.
Read for Gothics class.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Police brutality, and Gaslighting
Minor: Sexual assault
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