The Vicar Of Wakefield

Oliver Goldsmith

Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons, The Knickerbocker Press, New York and London, 1888

About this Item

'With Thirty-Two Illustrations After Designs by William Mulready'. Not that it really matters, but this may be the first edition of the G.P. Putnam's Sons edition. '1888' is on the title page and there are no other later printings referenced. More importantly this book is in really nice condition. It has only one flaw that I can see: both top corners of the covers have areas of rub-through. As you can see from the photos the gilt lettering and design on the spine is in beautiful shape and quite bright. The boards have a flowery designed that is also in very nice condition, excepting the bit of rub-through visible at the front top corner. The edges are in very good shape, although the bottom corners have a very thin bit of rub-through on their bottom edges. The spine ends look very good with only it tiny bit of rubbing. The top page edge is gilt. It looks free of any wear and is bright. The middle and bottom page edges are deckled or rough-cut. They did a very good job, only a couple of pages have a slightly jagged outer edge. The rough-cut edges appear to be clean. The book is square and the spine is straight. The book is very solidly bound from cover to cover with nicely tight pages throughout and nicely tight covers as well. The interior of the book is in excellent shape. The white inside covers and end papers are all very clean. I'm not seeing any soiling at all. The pages are semi-glossy. There is no foxing to be found anywhere in the book. I'm not finding any soiling. There is very little creasing, no turned-down corners or placeholder creases. There are no markings. No attachments. And the only writing is a penciled date on the semi-glossy second front end paper. The date is 'Aug. 19, 1888.' 'The Vicar of Wakefield is a novel by Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith. It was written from 1761 to 1762 and published in 1766. It was one of the most popular and widely read 18th-century novels among Victorians. In literary history books, The Vicar of Wakefield is often described as a sentimental novel, which displays the belief in the innate goodness of human beings. But it can also be read as a satire on the sentimental novel and its values, as the vicar's values are apparently not compatible with the real "sinful" world. The novel is mentioned in George Eliot's Middlemarch, Stendhal's The Life of Henry Brulard, Arthur Schopenhauer's "The Art of Being Right", Jane Austen's Emma, Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Sarah Grand's The Heavenly Twins, Charlotte Bronte's The Professor and Villette, Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther, as well as his Dichtung und Wahrheit. Goethe wrote: "Now Herder came, and together with his great knowledge brought many other aids and the later publications besides. Among these he announced to us the Vicar of Wakefield as an excellent work, with a German translation of which he would make us acquainted by reading it aloud to us himself. A Protestant country clergyman is, perhaps the most beatific subject for a modern idyl; he appears, like Melchizedek, as priest and king in one person." Silent film adaptations of the novel were produced in 1910, in 1913, and in 1916. In 1959 an Italian television series The Vicar of Wakefield was broadcast.'. Seller Inventory # 003903

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Vicar Of Wakefield

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons, The Knickerbocker Press, New York and London

Publication Date: 1888

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good Plus