Classics and the Western Canon discussion

Oliver Goldsmith's "The Vicar of Wakefield" is a short, fast-moving novel, and we have five weeks to read it. You might want to save each week's reading for a day or two before we start discussing it so the plot and characters will be fresh in your mind when discussion begins. Alternatively, you could read a chapter a day or read the book in one gulp, whatever works for you. The following schedule gives the date we will begin discussing a set of chapters. Please do not give away anything that comes later than the chapters under discussion.

Oct. 7. . . . ch. 1-6
Oct. 14. . . ch. 7-12
Oct. 21. . . ch. 13-18
Oct. 28. . . ch.19-25
Nov. 4. . . . ch. 26-32

Here are the characters in order of appearance.

The Rev. Dr. Charles Primrose, the vicar of the title and narrator of the tale.
Deborah Primrose, his wife.
George Primrose, their eldest child.
Olivia Primrose, the second child and elder of two daughters.
Sophia Primrose, the other daughter.
Moses Primrose, the fourth child.
Dick and Bill Primrose, the last two children, much younger than the others.

Arabella Wilmot, a beautiful young lady admired by George Primrose.
Mr. Wilmot, her father, a wealthy neighboring clergyman.

Mr. Burchell, a traveler who attaches himself to the Primroses for a while. Keep a lookout for him.
Squire Thornhill, nephew of Sir William Thornhill and dependent upon his generosity.

Farmer Flamborough
The Misses Flamboroughs
Mr. Jenkinson
Farmer Williams
Mr. And Mrs. Arnold
Timothy Baxter

I have an Everyman's Library edition circa 1967 and in it's intro, I read this was a favorite book of Sir Walter Scott, Charles Dickens and Goethe. Quite the recommendation!!!

I am reading this on my iPad using a free version. I am already quite a ways into the book and I am enjoying it a lot. I had never heard of either the author or the book before, so this is a treat. To be ready for each week, I have highlighted and made notes of what catches my attention. Looking forward to the discussion.

I"m familiar with Goldsmith only through his plays. For some reason I had this connected in my head with another novel Barchester Towers?
Like the characters names. I'm vowing to keep to schedule, so through chapter six. Such obedient children.

Chris wrote: "I have an Everyman's Library edition circa 1967 and in it's intro, I read this was a favorite book of Sir Walter Scott, Charles Dickens and Goethe. Quite the recommendation!!!"

I was just reading Henry James and he mentioned Goldsmith in the company of Dickens, Dr. Johnson, and Joseph Addison.

Goldsmith and Samuel Johnson were contemporaries and friends, and there are some good stories about him in Boswell's Life of Johnson. (Boswell was less of a Goldsmith fan as I recall). For example, "Goldsmith was talking about the writing of fables, and how necessary it was to make the animals talk in character so that little fishes spoke like little fishes. Samuel Johnson was overcome by laughter. "Why, Dr Johnson," said Goldsmith smartly, "this is not so easy as you seem to think, for if you were to make little fishes talk they would talk like WHALES."

I was reading "Charles Dickens. A Life" by Tomalin a bit ago and in the first chapter the biographer describes Dicken's home and the books therein which "in the little room next to his bedroom at the top of the stairs" included, inter alia, Goldsmith's "The Vicar of Wakefield".
I look forward to reading "Vicar" and it definitely is not a book I likely would have stumbled upon to read but for this group!

I'm loving these posts!

I just finished up Greenblatt's The Swerve last night & loaded an annotated copy of The Vicar to my Kindle. So I should be joining you all in the discussion at some point this weekend. Looking forward to it.

By the way, I've had an Irish Writers poster in my spare bedroom/library for years and years... Just realized that Goldsmith is the only one I haven't gotten around to yet from that list. Time to complete the circle.

Looking forward to your posts, Kyle!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vic...

Some nice pictures here. (May be some suggestions of the plot to come, so be careful if sensitive to spoilers.)

Kyle wrote: "By the way, I've had an Irish Writers poster in my spare bedroom/library for years and years... Just realized that Goldsmith is the only one I haven't gotten around to yet from that list. Time to c..."

do you like Irish writers in particular, Kyle?

Clari wrote: "Kyle wrote: "By the way, I've had an Irish Writers poster in my spare bedroom/library for years and years... Just realized that Goldsmith is the only one I haven't gotten around to yet from that li..."

Well, my family has been in the US for at least 5 generations, but pretty much only married within the Irish American community (which was actually not uncommon). So I came up with a pretty strong consciousness of an Irish heritage, even if it was so far removed. Plus, yeah, I guess I do tend to to find that Irish writers have a knack for storytelling. And I love the dark sense of humor.