Justice, idéologie anarchiste et roman à suspense

Résumé

This article studies how, in Caleb Williams, William Godwin combines anarchist ideology with the writing style of the thriller to expose the defects of eighteenth-century English institutions. It analyses the arguments used by the writer to "prove" that his country
was under the leadership of a plutocracy, i.e. a government of the rich, for the rich and by the rich. It shows how the novelist lays bare the "instrumentalization " of the legislative and judicial powers by the upper classes to give a legal foundation to iniquity and oppression. Finally, it reviews Godwin's fictionalized call for social and political reform in view of a society based on justice, freedom and equality.