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A review by jmiae
The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
3.0
Whilst reading this rather obscure publication from 1766, I sometimes had to remind myself that the author/narrator is in real earnest when he goes on his moralising rants and endorses some severely antiquated gender norms. I'm honestly not sure what compelled me to buy this from one of the used bookshops in Edinburgh, since the copy I purchased isn't particularly beautiful, just merely in relatively good condition (not too surprising since it was printed in Oxford in the 1950s). So now it's sort of a novelty item that sits on my bookshelves.
Still, it was a fun read just to get a glimpse of what novels were like 250 years ago. Barring any edits from the editors at Oxford University Press, English hasn't changed too much since then, and I definitely see why Dickens was so popular with his contemporaries, what with all his strange plot twists and the satisfying tying-up of loose ends that always occurs at the end of an overly complicated set of conundrums that the main character encounters. I'm not sure how familiar most other modern readers of Dickensian literature are with other novels from that time or before. Apart from the usual suspects, I haven't read much English literature that didn't carry over into the modern mainstream, but reading The Vicar of Wakefield makes me wonder if maybe Dickens wasn't especially special for his age, just especially successful?
Still, it was a fun read just to get a glimpse of what novels were like 250 years ago. Barring any edits from the editors at Oxford University Press, English hasn't changed too much since then, and I definitely see why Dickens was so popular with his contemporaries, what with all his strange plot twists and the satisfying tying-up of loose ends that always occurs at the end of an overly complicated set of conundrums that the main character encounters. I'm not sure how familiar most other modern readers of Dickensian literature are with other novels from that time or before. Apart from the usual suspects, I haven't read much English literature that didn't carry over into the modern mainstream, but reading The Vicar of Wakefield makes me wonder if maybe Dickens wasn't especially special for his age, just especially successful?