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Selected WritingsOliver GoldsmithEdited by John Lucas![]()
Categories: 18th Century, Irish
Imprint: FyfieldBooks Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (180 pages) (Pub. Apr 2003) 9781857547030 Out of Stock
Whence and what art thou, visionary birth?
Nature disowns and reason scorns thy mirth; In thy black aspect every passion sleeps, The joy that dimples and the woe that weeps. How hast thou filled the scene with all thy brood, Of fools pursuing, and of fools pursued! (from 'Epilogue, spoken by Mr Lee Lewes in the character of Harlequin')
Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774), essayist, reviewer, dramatist, novelist, librettist and poet, became one of the most popular authors in that 'age of authors', especially for The Vicar of Wakefield. In this selection of his poetry and prose, John Lucas reconsiders Thackeray's praise of Goldsmith as 'the most beloved of English writers', and reveals him as a more radical, formidable - and Irish - figure than the phrase suggests.
Goldsmith's 'wit, civility of tone and adroit handling of form' express, Lucas argues, the author's intelligence, integrity and concern for a society that he saw disintegrating into competing interests. The introduction, detailed notes and afterword on the contemporary context present a Goldsmith whose moral seriousness is as necessary to twenty-first century society as it was to his own.
Table of Contents
Introduction - John Lucas A Note on the Texts - John Lucas POEMS A Prologue On a Beautiful Youth Struck Blind by Lightning The Gift A Sonnet An Elegy on the Glory of Her Sex, Mrs Mary Blaize The Double Transformation Description of an Author's Bed-Chamber On Seeing Mrs*** Perform in the Character of On the Death of the Right Honourable An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog Stanzas on Woman Edwin and Angelina Songs The Traveller A New Simile Verses in Reply to an Invitation Epitaph on Edward Purdon Epilogue to The Good-Natured Man Epilogue to The Sister The Deserted Village Epitaph on Dr Parnell The Haunch of Venison Prologue to Zobenide Song Epilogue to She Stoops to Conquer Epilogue spoken by Mr Lee Lewes [On Ovid's Epistles From An Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe From The Bee From The Citizen of the World The Revolution in Low Life From An History of the Earth and Animated Nature To Mrs Banbury Afterword: Goldsmith and Politics - John Lucas Notes - John Lucas |
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