ABSTRACT
Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795–1854), the son of a Reading brewer, was better known for his activities as a literary journalist and author. As the contributor of articles of dramatic criticism to the New Monthly Magazine, he became friendly with many leading writers of the day, including William Hazlitt, Charles Lamb, Godwin’s nineteenth-century disciple Edward Bulwer, and Godwin himself. Talfourd’s retrospective account of Godwin in 1848 is very different from his earlier essay on his writings published in the New Monthly Magazine in 1820. Talfourd writes admiringly of Political Justice and declares his sympathy with its principles, even though he regrets its 'speculative extravagance'. At first glance, Talfourd’s description of Godwin as ‘a man of two beings’ seems to recall Hazlitt’s various accounts of Godwin’s mixed intellectual character. Though the tone of Talfourd’s references to Godwin’s personal demeanour is largely respectful, his emphasis on his subject’s apparent imperturbability also provides a means of defusing his controversial political views.
