An Illustrated Afterlife: William Godwin’s Essay on Sepulchres

This chapter examines a single copy of Essay on Sepulchres (1809) which has been illustrated with beguiling pencil drawings post-publication, including a quotation from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s sonnet ‘Ozymandias’ (1818). While the inside front cover has been signed by the landscape artist, John Linnell (1792–1882), when the essay was sold at auction in 1992, the drawings were attributed to the collector William Young Ottley (1771–1836). This chapter examines the dialogue between the drawings and the text, using the drawings to suggest new understandings of Sepulchres. It contextualises this copy of the essay, plotting its history, and explores Godwin’s relationships with artists, demonstrating that these drawings speak to a much longer legacy for Godwin’s essay than is usually acknowledged.