ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Early life. The son of an Anglo-Irish clergyman, Goldsmith was born in 1729 in Pallas, County Longford, Ireland, and grew up in Lissoy. He showed a flair for storytelling from a young age but was not a natural student.

Detailed explanation-2: -In 1766 Goldsmith revealed himself as a novelist with The Vicar of Wakefield (written in 1762), a portrait of village life whose idealization of the countryside, sentimental moralizing, and melodramatic incidents are underlain by a sharp but good-natured irony.

Detailed explanation-3: -One of the major literary breakthroughs of the Augustan age was the novel. The novel and not been previously popular and was practically non-existent up until the 18th century. However, Oliver Goldsmith’s novel The Vicar of Wakefield made it’s published debut in, approximately, 1761.

Detailed explanation-4: -Oliver Goldsmith as a Romantic Poet.