The Vicar of Wakefield (Oxford World's Classics) - Softcover

Oliver Goldsmith

3.46

10,149 ratings by Goodreads

9780192805126: The Vicar of Wakefield (Oxford World's Classics)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192805126 ISBN 13: 9780192805126

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2006

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Oliver Goldsmith's hugely successful novel of 1766 remained for generations one of the most highly regarded and beloved works of eighteenth-century fiction. It depicts the fall and rise of the Primrose family, presided over by the benevolent vicar, the narrator of a fairy-tale plot of impersonation and deception, the abduction of a beautiful heroine and the machinations of an aristocratic villain. By turns comic and sentimental, the novel's popularity owes much to its recognizable depiction of domestic life and loving family relationships.
New to this edition is an introduction by Robert L. Mack that examines the reasons for the novels enduring popularity, as well as the critical debates over whether it is a straightforward novel of sentiment or a satire on the social and economic inequalities of the period and the very literary conventions and morality it seems to embody. This edition also includes a new, up-to-date bibliography and expanded notes, and contains reprints of Arthur Friedman's authoritative Oxford English Novels text of the corrected first edition of 1766.

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About the Author:

Robert L. Mack has edited a number of volumes for Oxford World's Classics, including Burney's The Wanderer, and Oriental Tales. He is the author of Thomas Gray: A Life.

Review:

Novel by Oliver Goldsmith, published in two volumes in 1766. The story, a portrait of village life, is narrated by Dr. Primrose, the title character, whose family endures many trials--including the loss of most of their money, the seduction of one daughter, the destruction of their home by fire, and the vicar's incarceration--before all is put right in the end. The novel's idealization of rural life, sentimental moralizing, and melodramatic incidents are countered by a sharp but good-natured irony. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

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