This newly edited critical edition of an enduringly popular tale, one of the most widely reprinted and illustrated works of fiction in English, offers readers an authoritative text along with extensive and helpful annotation. Following the lives of the vicar and his family, and the various calamities which befall them, The Vicar of Wakefield was one of the most popular and beloved works of eighteenth-century fiction. A lively introduction details the reception of Goldsmith's tale, from comments by Frances Burney and Goethe, through Sir Walter Scott, Washington Irving and Henry James, to critics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The volume also includes appendices comprising a wealth of contextual information, enhancing the work for contemporary readers. For scholars of Goldsmith and new readers alike, this edition will prove the authoritative version of a tale that moved generations of readers to laughter and to tears.

‘Beautifully presented, meticulously edited, the first two volumes of the Cambridge Goldsmith give notice that the highest standards of scholarship based on immersion in Goldsmith studies will prevail. The edition’s general editors, Michael Griffin and David O’Shaughnessy, bring both familiarity with Goldsmith’s oeuvre and reception history, and profound understanding of its complexities.’

Norma Clarke Source: The Times Literary Supplement