The Vicar of Wakefield

by Oliver Goldsmith, Stephen Coote (Introduction)

Overview

When Dr Primrose loses his fortune in a disastrous investment, his idyllic life in the country is shattered and he is forced to move with his wife and six children to an impoverished living on the estate of Squire Thornhill. Taking to the road in pursuit of his daughter, who has been seduced by the rakish Squire, the beleaguered Primrose becomes embroiled in a series of misadventures - encountering his long-lost son in a travelling theatre company and even spending time in a debtor's prison. Yet Primrose, though hampered by his unworldliness and pride, is sustained by his unwavering religious faith. In The Vicar of Wakefield, Goldsmith gently mocks many of the literary conventions of his day - from pastoral and romance to the picaresque - infusing his story of a hapless clergyman with warm humour and amiable social satire.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140431599
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/28/1982
Series:	Penguin Classics Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	1,141,837
Product dimensions:	5.13(w) x 7.75(h) x 0.54(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Oliver Goldsmith (1728 - 1774) was born in Ireland. Having studied at Trinity College, Dublin, he studied medicine at Edinburgh and Leyden after being rejected by the Church of Ireland. Settling in London, he was writing professionally by 1757 and became a friend of Johnson. Best known for She Stoops to Conquer, The Vicar of Wakefield is his only novel and is generally considered his finest work. Stephen Coote was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge and Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of critical studies of Chaucer, T.S. Eliot and English literature of the Middle Ages, as well as biographies of Byron and William Morris.

Table of Contents

1.	The description of the family of Wakefield; in which a kindred likeness prevails as well of minds as of persons	1
2.	Family misfortunes. The loss of fortune only serves to encrease the pride of the worthy	3
3.	A migration. The fortunate circumstances of our lives are generally found at last to be of our own procuring	6
4.	A proof that even the humblest fortune may grant happiness, which depends not on circumstance, but constitution	11
5.	A new and great acquaintance introduced. What we place most hopes upon generally proves most fatal	13
6.	The happiness of a country fire-side	16
7.	A town wit described. The dullest fellows may learn to be comical for a night or two	18
8.	An amour, which promises little good fortune, yet may be productive of much	21
9.	Two ladies of great distinction introduced. Superior finery ever seems to confer superior breeding	27
10.	The family endeavours to cope with their betters. The miseries of the poor when they attempt to appear above their circumstances	29
11.	The family still resolve to hold up their heads	32
12.	Fortune seems resolved to humble the family of Wakefield. Mortifications are often more painful than real calamities	35
13.	Mr. Burchell is found to be an enemy; for he has the confidence to give disagreeable advice	39
14.	Fresh mortifications, or a demonstration that seeming calamities may be real blessings	41
15.	All Mr. Burchell's villainy at once detected. The folly of being over-wise	45
16.	The family use art, which is opposed with still greater	49
17.	Scarce any virtue found to resist the power of long and pleasing temptation	52
18.	The pursuit of a father to reclaim a lost child to virtue	58
19.	The description of a person discontented with the present government, and apprehensive of the loss of our liberties	61
20.	The history of a philosophic vagabond, pursuing novelty, but losing content	67
21.	The short continuance of friendship amongst the vicious, which is coeval only with mutual satisfaction	76
22.	Offences are easily pardoned where there is love at bottom	82
23.	None but the guilty can be long and completely miserable	85
24.	Fresh calamities	88
25.	No situation, however wretched it seems, but has some sort of comfort attending it	91
26.	A reformation in the gaol. To make laws complete, they should reward as well as punish	94
27.	The same subject continued	97
28.	Happiness and misery rather the result of prudence than of virtue in this life. Temporal evils or felicities being regarded by heaven as things merely in themselves trifling and unworthy its care in the distribution	100
29.	The equal dealings of providence demonstrated with regard to the happy and the miserable here below. That from the nature of pleasure and pain, the wretched must be repaid the balance of their sufferings in the life hereafter	107
30.	Happier prospects begin to appear. Let us be inflexible, and fortune will at last change in our favour	110
31.	Former benevolence now repaid with unexpected interest	115
32.	The Conclusion	125

Editorial Reviews

Patrick Tull has again created a masterpiece, a cameo performance. His vicar, Mr. Primrose, calls to mind the robust, periwig-pated fellow” of an earlier age as we watch him endure the total collapse of his once tranquil world. Everything short of boils befalls the hapless Mr. Primrose, but his resolve is never shaken. Patrick Tull’s voice, expressive and energized with latent excitement, creates anticipation as listeners bemoan Mr. Primrose and family’s parade of tumbling fortunes and rejoice at their restoration. The result is one of the oldest comic novels in English presented to the reader shining with fresh, new varnish. P.E.F. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine

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