The Vicar of Wakefield

Hmm... When we were in High School, my classmate read this book and she thought it was hilarious. She had a wonderful sense of humor. She thought [b:Don Quixote 3836 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546112331l/3836.SX50.jpg 121842] was even funnier. She couldn't speak of it without laughing so much that her speech made no sense.I find the sarcasm in this book, but I don't think it's that funny. There are funny scenes, sure, but all in all, it feels to me as... well... perhaps I would have appreciated it more 250 years ago. Better knowing the circumstances. It also makes me think of [b:Justine, or the Misfortunes of Virtue 16182384 Justine, or the Misfortunes of Virtue Marquis de Sade https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1364181572l/16182384.SY75.jpg 13268607], even though in this one the virtues are being rewarded, and in that one, she was punished for being virtuous. To the end. Oh, G-d, how I despise that book! What I find interesting is that also in [b:War and Peace 656 War and Peace Leo Tolstoy https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1413215930l/656.SY75.jpg 4912783] there was a gad luring girls to elope with him, to get married by a sham priest, just to bed the girl and then abandon her. Also... I thought the marriage between the villain and the rich girl didn't happen, that they were never married, but apparently, I'm wrong. Though... I don't understand how he could ever have received her fortune just by signing the papers. I thought there should have been a marriage for the agreement to be of any weight, but apparently not. It seems scrupulous guys could waltz around tricking rich girls off their heritage just like that.

I had not gotten very far into The Vicar of Wakefield before I realized I was not sure whether it is best described as quite serious and sincere or rather sarcastic and comic. It was only after wrestling with this question for a while that I looked to see what others had to say. Imagine my delight on finding that the entire literary world since Goldsmith first published it seems to have asked the same questions and never to have reached a conclusion. Now having finished the book, and with long and hard thought, after much prayer, I can conclusively and definitively provide the answer: Yes, it is.

Not every classic story is going to be a five-star read, I guess. I had such high hopes for this book, and for the first half of the book, my hopes were realized. But then I hit the last half, and the story sagged and dragged, and the humor got lost, and it felt like melodrama.

The Vicar of Wakefield is the story of a vicar, his wife, and his children, who live quite comfortably on a sizable inheritance. Things go along quite well until the inheritance is poorly invested and the vicar ends up bankrupt.

Nevertheless, the vicar adjusts to his new circumstances, and the family learns to handle the new ways of life.

But about midway through the story, Goldsmith pulls out all the stops and throws everything disastrous for the family into the plot. It just didn't hold together for me, and the ending seemed exceptionally unlikely.

Overall, a disappointment, one of the few I've had on my Classics Club path.