Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Search - Vicar Of Wakefield

Vicar Of Wakefield
Vicar Of Wakefield
Author: Oliver Goldsmith
The hero of this piece unites himself in the three greatest characters on earth; he is a priest, a husbandman, and the father of a family. He is drawn as ready to teach and ready to obey; as simple in affluence, and majestic in its adversity. In this age of opulence and refinement, whom can such a character please? Such as are fond of high li...  more »
ISBN: 284282
Publication Date: 1942
Pages: 303
Rating:
  ?

0 stars, based on 0 rating
Publisher: The Spencer Press
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Write a Review
Read All 4 Book Reviews of "Vicar Of Wakefield"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

reviewed Vicar Of Wakefield on + 1432 more book reviews
I find writing of this era sometimes difficult to read. In Vicar, the key character was a weak, religious individual who wished to do good and help his parishioners. However, he doesn't strike me as being very bright as perhaps the author intended. When he runs afoul of a parishioner who disgraces his daughter we begin to see more personality development. The vicar loves his family unconditionally and tries to shelter them from the evil of the world. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. We read the details about the parishioner and the vicar. The conflicts escalate until the vicar and his son land in jail. What happens next is a bit sappy and inappropriate in my view but the story was interesting for its capsule of life during the era.
PIZZELLEBFS avatar reviewed Vicar Of Wakefield on + 331 more book reviews
From Amazon:

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.
reviewed Vicar Of Wakefield on + 14 more book reviews
Witty and full of irmony--A great little classic. This was the author's only book.
thefairunknown avatar reviewed Vicar Of Wakefield on + 57 more book reviews
This book can only be described as charmingly chaotic, kind of like your clutzy cousin that's always making a mess of things but whom you love nevertheless. A vicar and his family of endlessly charming children are constantly befallen by various ills, but never fail to come out on top in what I believe is supposed to be the 18th century version of a Hallmark film.

I've heard this was supposed to be satire, but any attempt at wittiness is marred by the author's (and the vicar's) verbosity. The multiple dei ex machina at the end were completely ridiculous. Thank goodness there were only two chapters dedicated to the selling of the family horses, rather than three.


Genres: