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A review by leerazer
The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
3.0
Wildly popular satirical novel of the Victorian era. Probably best left to students/devotees of the literature of the era, because who else would really care about a satire of the pop novel of the time? Yet it can still be read with some enjoyment today, with similarities to the Book of Job and to Voltaire's Candide noted, and a sense of why this was one of Dickens's favorite novels.
The first half seems considerably stronger than the second; it possesses a light tone and some quite comic scenes poking fun at the characters - one involving a commissioned painting of the "humble" family is pure gold. The second half however swings wildly about, with long harangues on the political merits of monarchy and the problem of prison reform seeming like they were shoved in from elsewhere to bulk up the book, before the soap opera-ish grand finale in a prison cell, where a disguise is removed, one thought dead is returned, a love thought lost is restored, a villain receives his comeuppance, yada yada yada.
The first half seems considerably stronger than the second; it possesses a light tone and some quite comic scenes poking fun at the characters - one involving a commissioned painting of the "humble" family is pure gold. The second half however swings wildly about, with long harangues on the political merits of monarchy and the problem of prison reform seeming like they were shoved in from elsewhere to bulk up the book, before the soap opera-ish grand finale in a prison cell, where a disguise is removed, one thought dead is returned, a love thought lost is restored, a villain receives his comeuppance, yada yada yada.