The Spiritual Quixote: Or, The Summer's Ramble of Mr. Geoffry Wildgoose: A Comic Romance

by Richard Graves

This is a new edition of a humorous picaresque novel that originally appeared anonymously in 1773. It follows the somewhat chaotic story of a Gloucester gentleman who decides to become a Methodist preacher, like George Whitefield. The author was an Anglican priest with several objections to Methodism as he saw it.

551 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1926

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

An innocent country gentleman sets out to be a travelling Methodist preacher instead. Still funny 236 years later and quite revealing about West Country society and social differences at the time. The gibes against Methodism, which was unpopular among the book-reading middle class, seem to be aimed more at Whitfield and his purported Calvinism, rather than at Wesley. A great read in the 18th-century peripatetic tradition.