- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks; New edition edition (25 Mar 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0192839403
- ISBN-13: 978-0192839404
- Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 13 x 1.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,057,241 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Synopsis
A vicar and his charming, if vain, family fall victim to undeserved misfortune in this eighteenth-century classic.
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First Sentence
THERE are an hundred faults in this Thing, and an hundred things might be said to prove them beauties. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
THERE are an hundred faults in this Thing, and an hundred things might be said to prove them beauties. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Vicar of Wakefield is one of the key texts in any reading of eighteenth-century English literature. It's characters are drawn not from life, but from type: exemplary models of how we might (or might choose not to) live. Read it alongside Sterne, MacKenzie, the Fieldings and Smollett: appreciate its impact upon gothic writing from Radcliffe to Shelley.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
6 reviews
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
A new book of Job
8 Feb 2001
Format:Paperback
In the Bible, Job is a wealthy and happy man who is put to test by God, in order to settle a bet with the Devil. Primrose, the vicar of Wakefield, seems to suffer the same fate: first, he loses all his money; then, a man seduces his daughter and all manners of trouble set upon he and his family. But the man will never surrender. His undestructible good humor and wit, his reliance on philosophy and religion, allow him to endure all kinds of calamities, until the happy end. This is not a moralizaing book: it is pure, intelligent fun, with a message not lectured to us, but insinuated. This novel deserves to be put out of the infamous "classic" shelf (the one that condemns masterpieces of art to become "boring" for lazy readers) and into the public. It's very much worth it.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
The beleaguered family man
21 May 2003
Format:Paperback
Charles Primrose, the protagonist of Oliver Goldsmith's "The Vicar of Wakefield," is a living symbol of the combination of ingenuousness and bad luck; a man so naive and unfortunate yet so deadpan and earnest, he would not only be suckered into buying the worst lemon in the used car lot, but walk out of the salesman's office with a "Kick Me" sign taped to his back. What keeps him going is an infectious cheerfulness, an almost quixotic faith in human virtue, and a devotion to the integrity of his family, even though they are often the cause of his troubles.
Primrose, an Anglican minister and the father of six children, begins accumulating misfortunes from the very beginning of the novel. Right before his eldest son George's wedding, he learns that the merchant with whom he has deposited his sizable inheritance has skipped town with all his money. Now impecunious, he is compelled to move his family to a village where he becomes a tenant farmer under an arrogant and devious young landlord named Thornhill. On the way, they meet an itinerant man of questionable background named Burchell who takes a liking to his daughter Sophia.
Life at the farm is fraught with woe, particularly with regard to money. Both Primrose and his son Moses get cheated out of horses they are selling; his daughters lose the opportunity to secure good positions in London because of false rumors being spread about his family; after Olivia runs off with Thornhill, he pursues her and returns to find his house in flames. When Primrose fails to pay the rent and insults Thornhill, who has spurned Olivia in favor of the very girl of whom George was deprived, he is thrown in jail.
But wait, it gets worse. Sophia is kidnapped by a ruffian; Olivia pines away in misery and dies; George, who has left home to make his own way in the world, ends up in Primrose's jail in a return considerably less dignified than that of the Prodigal Son. Primrose, however, remains confident in the glory of Providence and decides to deliver sermons to reform the other prisoners who, unsurprisingly, initially resist his efforts. That they eventually start taking him seriously only implies that they may be even more gullible than he is.
This is a picaresque novel, somewhat in the spirit of "Don Quixote" or "Tom Jones," featuring an intentionally flawed hero who undergoes improbable adventures; and if it appears that I've given away too much of the plot, keep in mind this is a genre in which nothing is quite as it seems. In fact, the denouement is so utterly silly and even stupid that I can't help but respect it for its brazen absurdity; it's really the only ending befitting a dupe as likeable as Primrose.
The Ideal Vicar
3 Nov 2010
Format:Paperback
What a wonderful discovery this book was! Once again I initially judged the book choice on its cover and my interest in the period in which it was written. And it was a great choice. The Vicar's upbeat character was consistent throughout the book. Even in the worst of times, being at his worst, he brought himself back to his basically good, decent nature. This book is perfect for lovers of classics, who have not yet discovered Oliver Goldsmith and especially those who enjoy and laugh at the character of the vicar in other great classics!
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