William Godwin was one of the most popular novelists of the Romantic era; P.B. Shelley praised him, Byron drew heavily on his narrative style, and Mary Shelley, Godwin’s daughter, dedicated Frankenstein to him. Caleb Williams is the riveting account of a young man whose curiosity leads him to pry into a murder from the past. The first novel of crime and detection in English literature, Caleb Williams is also a powerful exposé of the evils and inequities of the political and social system in 1790s Britain. In addition to the text itself, the editors have included an extensive selection of primary source materials from the period, ranging from Godwin’s original manuscript ending and excerpts from his political writings to contemporary reviews, the political writings of Burke and Paine, and materials on criminals and the English prison system.

Caleb Williams is hired as personal secretary to a British Squire, Fernando Falkland. In the course of his work he comes across a terrible secret from the Squire's past, and is sworn to secrecy. Falkland believes in the virtue of the upper classes and the villainy of the lower. He is uneasy in the power of a lowly servant and sets about persecuting Williams, leading to a series of adventures in an early thriller style.