Though written between 1761 and 1762, Oliver Goldsmith’s single novel, The Vicar of Wakefield, was not published until several years following its completion. As the story goes, Goldsmith, a hack writer ever in peril of imprisonment due to debts, pleaded with Samuel Johnson to look through his work and choose something publishable. Johnson selected the manuscript from a pile and thrilled Goldsmith by placing it with a publisher in return for £60.

The publisher reconsidered and held the novel for a time, due to its lack of resemblance to the day’s popular fiction of horror and prejudice. Once distributed, it represented the only quality work between the publication of works by Laurence Sterne and Jane Austen and remained the most widely read novel from the 18th century for more than a century after its publication. It proved shorter than most books, and its protagonist, the kindly and stoic Vicar Dr. Primrose, suffered no melodramatic situations, although he did face conflict from many sources.

Unlike most fiction of its era, the novel lacked satire, it was neither obscene nor propagandistic, and it offered themes including the value of family and Christian faith. While trials and tribulations existed, they were not exploitive of readers’ emotions, and Goldsmith championed no contemporary ideology. That meant the novel would never be time-bound, allowing it to continue enormously popular for decades.

Goldsmith warned readers about the vicar in his preface: “Such as mistake ribaldry for humor, will find no wit in his harmless conversation; and such as have been taught to deride religion, will laugh at one whose chief stores of comfort are drawn from futurity.”

The aptly named Dr. Primrose narrates the tale concerning himself, his social-climber wife, Deborah, and his six children. His practical personality maintains balance in his family until the bankruptcy of a firm in which he had invested. Nearly destitute, he nevertheless expresses his generosity in aiding a gentleman of questionable character named Mr. Burchell. Burchell suggests that Mrs. Primrose be cautious in making matches for her daughters, advice the good lady rejects.

Primrose takes a position through the goodwill of Squire Thornhill, whose surname foreshadows his villainy. He tricks Olivia Primrose into a faked wedding and leaves her to be reclaimed by her father and brought home. When the Primrose house burns down and Thornhill calls for a payoff of the vicar’s debts, Primrose must serve time in debtors’ prison. His son George challenges Thornhill to a duel but is overpowered by the squire’s hired thugs and thrown in prison.

Primrose’s grief increases when he learns that his daughter Sophia has been kidnapped and Olivia supposedly has died of a broken heart. He manages to suffer nobly, retaining his faith. Luckily, Burchell appears and rescues Sophia, later revealing his true identity as the evil Thornhill’s uncle, Sir William Thornhill. He proves that the squire had abducted Sophia, that Olivia’s marriage had been legal, and that she still lives. Primrose is released from prison, as is George, who marries his true love. The vicar regains his lost fortune when the swindler Ephraim Jenkinson is brought to justice.

While not without weaknesses, such as some hasty plotting that appears to have missing episodes, The Vicar of Wakefield deserved its fame due to its bright characterizations, vivid expression, and its protagonist’s fortitude and right nature. The novel appeared at the conclusion of an era of experimentation in fictional form, taking its place as the first “normal” novel of its age. It owed a debt to Samuel Richardson’s Pamela (1740) and Clarissa (1747–48), as well as Henry Fielding’s Amelia (1751).

Bibliography
Murray, David Aaron. “From Patrimony to Paternity in The Vicar of Wakefield.” Eighteenth-Century Fiction 9 (April 1997): 327–336.
Rutledge, Archibald. Introduction to The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith. Boston: Ginn and Co., 1923.
Sells, A. Lytton. Oliver Goldsmith: His Life and Works. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1974.

Categories: British Literature, Literature, Novel Analysis

Tags: 18th century novel, Analysis of Oliver Goldsmith’s The Vicar of Wakefield, British literature classics, character-driven narrative, Christian values in literature, Clarissa, debtors’ prison in fiction, Dr. Primrose, early english novels, Enlightenment literature, experimental fiction, family themes in literature, Goldsmith’s literary style, Henry Fielding, historical novel publication, influence of Samuel Richardson, Jane Austen, Laurence Sterne, literary history, morality in 18th-century fiction, Mr. Burchell, non-satirical fiction, novel without satire, Oliver Goldsmith, Oliver Goldsmith’s The Vicar of Wakefield, Pamela, plot of The Vicar of Wakefield, Samuel Johnson, sentimental fiction, sentimental literature history, Sir William Thornhill, Squire Thornhill, The Vicar of Wakefield, themes of virtue and resilience, timeless fiction, Victorian novel precursors