Goldsmith's the Vicar of Wakefield and the Deserted Village

The Vicar of Wakefield, originally published in 1766, remains Oliver Goldsmith's only novel and stands as a foundational text of 18th-century English literature. It was written during a period of financial hardship for the author, eventually becoming a staple of sentimental fiction for its gentle humor and moral optimism. The Deserted Village, an influential pastoral poem published in 1770, complements the novel by critiquing the effects of rural depopulation and the rise of commercialism in the British countryside.

This specific 2009 edition, published by General Books LLC, represents the modern archival effort to digitize and republish public domain classic literature. Like other titles from this publisher, the text is a facsimile or direct reprint of older scholarly editions, intended to provide students and general readers with affordable, accessible versions of Goldsmith's seminal works without additional modern commentary or editorial framing.