Books with title The Vicar of Wakefield by Dr Goldsmith

The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.Western literary study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others. Experience the birth of the modern novel, or compare the development of language using dictionaries and grammar discourses. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++British LibraryT146814The titlepage is engraved. Another issue of this work was published in 1800 bearing the imprint: London printed by C. Whittingham, for T. Cadell Junr. & ..London: printed by C. Whittingham, for T. Heptinstall, and sold by H.D. Symonds, Messrs. A & J. Black & H. Parry, R.H. Westley, J. Robins, and West & Hughes, Archer. Dublin, Bell & Bradfute, Edinburgh & Messrs. Duncans, Glasgow, 1800. [6],235, [1]p., plates; 8°

Oliver Goldsmith's 18th century novel "The Vicar of Wakefield" was so popular in Victorian times that it is mentioned in many classics of that era including George Eliot's "Middlemarch," Jane Austen's "Emma," Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities" and Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", amongst others. It is the story of Dr. Charles Primrose, the titular Vicar, his wife Deborah and their six children who live an idyllic life in a country parish. The Vicar who is wealthy due to investing an inheritance loses all his money when the merchant investor with which he is invested goes bankrupt and skips town with Dr. Primrose's money. This unfortunate event occurs on the eve of his son George's wedding to the wealthy Arabella Wilmot, causing the wedding to be called off by the Father of the Bride. "The Vicar of Wakefield" is often described as a sentimental novel, which displays the belief in the innate goodness of human beings. But it can also be read as a satire on the sentimental novel and its values.

First published in 1766 and a perennial favorite since then, The Vicar of Wakefield is built around the naïve but loveable figure of Dr Primrose. He and his family live in rural bliss until disaster threatens to destroy their happiness: abduction, impoverishment and betrayal combine to lay them low, but a surprising figure brings hope when all seems lost.

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.