Product Description

'He loved all mankind; for fortune prevented him from knowing there were rascals.' 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. Regarded by some as a straightforward and well-intentioned novel of sentiment, and by others as a satire on the very literary conventions and morality it seems to embody, The Vicar of Wakefield contains, in the figure of the vicar himself, one of the most harmlessly simply and unsophisticated yet also ironically complex narrators ever to appear in English fiction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #143305 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

An easy 18th century novel
Goldsmith's novel is both representative and peculiar among other 18th century novels. It draws on sentimentalism and moral disquisition, but it pursues them with a calm pace, almost subdued.

The novel, after its idyllic beginning, follows the fall of the vicar and his family, which first lose their savings, and then become actively pursued by the local squire. The vicar faces all sorts of adversities with a serene attitude, and both his faith and his prose never falter.

A thoroughly enjoyable book, particularly in the first half. Towards the end, the innumerable coups de théâtre make it lose some realism, which only puts the novel among the best written in the 18th century.

Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield
Oliver Goldsmith's novel The Vicar of Wakefield is one that I revisit every few years. It rates highly as an early form of the pompous little man against the world journal and others have followed in the selfsame track with much success. It is rustic, rural and indicative of an era when the rich rode horses and the ordinary walked, where everyone went to church, and where entertainments were simple, a meal in the open air or a quiet conversation. A good, slow, gentle read.

great service, great book
I haven't had the opportunity to this at this point but I am happy with the delivery service and item conditions.