Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith (November 10, 1730(?) – April 4, 1774) was an Anglo-Irish author and one of the most versatile English writers of the 18th-century. Goldsmith wrote poetry, plays, essays, fiction, journalism, histories, biographies, and more. Although a good portion of Goldsmith's vast oeuvre is considered uneven by today's standards, a sizeable handful of his works in various genres, including his novel The Vicar of Wakefield, his pastoral poem Deserted Villages, his collection of semi-fictional essays Citizen of the World, and his popular comic play, She Stoops To Conquer. Goldsmith was a contemporary and confidant of Dr. Johnson and the two writers often exchanged ideas. Goldsmith became a member of one of the most influential circles of literary and intellectual figures in the 18th-century, associating with Sir Joshua Reynolds, Edmund Burke, and James Boswell. Although he is not as popular as he once was, Goldsmith remains one of the major writers of 18th-century England; he is still acclaimed by many critics for his effortlessly masterful prose-style that makes even his dullest works eminently readable. Greatly respected by the writers of his own time, Goldsmith is one of the luminaries of his period.

Life

He was born in the townland of Pallas, near Ballymahon, County Longford, where his father was Anglican curate of the parish of Forgney. When he was aged two, his father was appointed rector of the parish of Kilkenny West in County Westmeath. The family moved to the parsonage at Lissoy, between Athlone and Ballymahon, and continued to live there until his father's death in 1747.

Goldsmith earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1749 at Trinity College, Dublin, studying theology and law but never getting as far as ordination. Nevertheless, his name has been given to a new lecture theatre and student accommodation on the Trinity College campus, Goldsmith Hall. He later studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Leiden, then toured Europe, living on his wits. On his return, he settled in London, where he worked as an apothecary's assistant. Perennially in debt and addicted to gambling, Goldsmith had a massive output as a hack writer for the publishers of London, but his few painstaking works earned him the company of Samuel Johnson, along with whom he was a founding member of "The Club". The combination of his literary work and his dissolute lifestyle led Horace Walpole to giving him the much quoted epithet of Inspired Idiot.

Goldsmith is recorded as being a highly jealous man, a likeable but disorganised character who once failed to emigrate to America because he missed the ferry.

He was buried in Temple Church; his death in 1774 may have been partly caused by his own misdiagnosis of his condition. There is a monument to him in Westminster Abbey with an epitaph written by Samuel Johnson.

Goldsmith's birth date is not known for certain. According to the Library of Congress authority file, he told a biographer that he was born on November 29, 1731 or perhaps 1730. Other sources have indicated November 10, on any year from 1727 to 1731. November 10, 1730 is now the most commonly accepted birth date, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Notable works

• The Citizen of the World (1762)
• The Traveller (1764)
• The Vicar of Wakefield (1766)

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• The Vicar of Wakefield, ISBN 0-19-283940-3
• She Stoops to Conquer, ISBN 0-486-26867-5
• Life of Oliver Goldsmith, by Washington Irving, ISBN 1-58963-236-2
• The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith by Austin Dobson (Editor), ISBN 1-58827-277-X
• Oliver Goldsmith (Everyman's Poetry Series) edited by Gordon Campbell, ISBN 0-460-87827-1
• George Rousseau (1974), Goldsmith: The Critical Heritage (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1974). ISBN 710077203 Template:Please check ISBN

External links

• Works by Oliver Goldsmith. Project Gutenberg
• The Deserted Village
• Oliver Goldsmith: A Biography by Washington Irving from Project Gutenberg
• Goldsmith (English Men of Letters series) by William Black from Project Gutenberg
• An Essay on the Theatre; or, A Comparison Between Laughing and Sentimental Comedy
• Goldsmith Hall - student accommodation and lecture theatre, Trinity College, Dublin.
• Information on Goldsmith
• Oliver Goldsmith Resource

Credits

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