The Vicar of Wakefield

You can't get very far into Victorian literature without tripping over references to The Vicar of Wakefield. Either the novel's heroine is reading the book, making fun of the book or trying to teach her French pupils how to translate the book. Oliver Goldsmith's 1766 novel is sort of the Moby Dick o......more

This was pretty ridiculous but also kind of cool. There is a whole lot of bad things happening every five minutes to this preacher and his family but the motto is don’t worry be happy because five minutes later a guy will come in the room and say oh yeah like that person that you thought was dead we......more

I know that this is a classic. I had it recommended to me at a very early age by Louisa May Alcott via Jo March and with that august endorsement did not ever think that it could be anything less than utterly charming. In spite of that, it has taken 45 years for me to get around to reading it and I wi......more

Our book club was looking for a light, classic, novel and I suggested this based on the good memories I had of reading it when I was younger. I am not sure how the younger girls in the club will rate this book but while I found it slow in getting started the delightful ending made up for it all. It......more

Much like the Biblical story of Job but in a nineteenth century English setting, this tale of extreme misfortune suffered by an English vicar—followed in the end by the restoration of his former life—is a model for living through such extremes with exemplary alacrity. The vicar is described as a nat......more