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On Trial: Restorative Justice In The Godwin-Wollstonecraft-Shelley Family Fictions, Colleen M. Fenno

Dissertations (1934 -)

William Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Mary and Percy Shelley wrote during an era of democratic possibility and intense legal and penal reforms, when changes to criminal justice procedures were adopted that would have far reaching consequences, even for contemporary practices. Their fictions - Caleb Williams (1794), Maria: Or the Wrongs of Woman (1798), Frankenstein (1818), Falkner (1837), and The Cenci (1818) - raise questions and seek answers to questions at the heart of these reforms: What happens to individuals falsely accused of a crime without the resources to defend themselves? What happens to victims of crimes associated with guilt or …