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A review by jlmb
The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
2.0
I read this because I kept seeing it referenced in other novels. I wanted to see why other novelists, novelists I really admire like Dickens and Eliot, would mention another author's book within their own. I still don't really understand why.
It's not a terrible novel, just not a great one, which is why you don't see people in the 21st century reading it very often, unless they are taking a History of the English Novel class. The story is melodramatic and the characters one dimensional. My favorite parts are when Goldsmith is having Primrose pontificate on a topic for pages & pages, using him as a mouthpiece for his own views. Normally, I hate it when an author does that.
Goldsmith makes a lot of spot-on observations about human nature which reminded me that even though this book is over 250 years old, people are - in the immortal words of Depeche Mode - people.
"the jests of the rich are ever successful"
"although we seldom follow advice we are all ready enough to ask it"
"I laboured to become cheerful, but cheerfulness was never yet produced by effort"
"the hours we pass with happy prospects in view are more pleasing than those crowned with fruition"
"laws govern the poor and the rich govern the laws"
Truth.
It's not a terrible novel, just not a great one, which is why you don't see people in the 21st century reading it very often, unless they are taking a History of the English Novel class. The story is melodramatic and the characters one dimensional. My favorite parts are when Goldsmith is having Primrose pontificate on a topic for pages & pages, using him as a mouthpiece for his own views. Normally, I hate it when an author does that.
Goldsmith makes a lot of spot-on observations about human nature which reminded me that even though this book is over 250 years old, people are - in the immortal words of Depeche Mode - people.
"the jests of the rich are ever successful"
"although we seldom follow advice we are all ready enough to ask it"
"I laboured to become cheerful, but cheerfulness was never yet produced by effort"
"the hours we pass with happy prospects in view are more pleasing than those crowned with fruition"
"laws govern the poor and the rich govern the laws"
Truth.