Originally published in 1906 as part of the Pitt Press Series, and intended for use in schools, this book contains the text of two of Oliver Goldsmith's longer poems, 'The Traveller' and 'The Deserted Village', which was dedicated to Sir Joshua Reynolds. Murison includes a brief biography of Goldsmith, as well as chronological tables of his life and works and detailed notes on the poem. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Goldsmith or in eighteenth-century literature.

Originally published in 1921 as part of the Cambridge Plain Texts series, this volume contains the full version of The Good-Natur'd Man, a comedic play by Anglo-Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith (1728-74). A short editorial introduction is also included. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in eighteenth-century literature and the works of Goldsmith.

Charming satire of the sentimental comedies of the day has entertained audiences since 1773. A young lady poses as a serving girl to win the heart of a young gentleman too shy to court ladies of his own class. Many delightful deceits, hilarious turns of plot must be played out before the play concludes happily. This edition based on an authoritative edition published in 1773. Notes.

The action of She Stoops to Conquer (1773) is largely confined to a night and a day in Squire Hardcastle's somewhat dilapidated country house: Young Marlow, on his way there to meet the bride his father has chosen for him, loses his way and arrives at the house assuming it is an inn. The prospect of meeting the genteel Miss Hardcastle terrifies the diffident youngster; but the serving-girl Kate - in fact, Miss Hardcastle, who chooses not to clarify the misunderstanding - immediately catches his fancy and cannot complain of a lack of ardour in her well-born suitor. After a series of trifling confusions and the inevitable eavesdropping-from-behind-a-screen, all is resolved so pleasingly that the comedy has been a favourite with amateur and professional companies and their audiences for over 230 years.

Comic dramatist, poet and reviewer, Oliver Goldsmith wrote one novel, The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), now acknowledged as his finest work.

The story opens in the country parsonage of Dr Primrose, a kindly man who has a good heart, a good family and a good income. Suddenly, his idyllic life is cruelly devastated by a series of misfortunes and he ends up in gaol. Yet, despite all this calamity and injustice, the vicar never loses sight of Christian morality, and while this conviction lends him a genuine nobility, in the end it also brings justice and the restoration of his family and fortune.

Through this simple, almost fairy-tale plot, Goldsmith gives us a charming comedy; not a novel of sentiment, but an artful send-up of many of the familiar literary conventions of his day: the pastoral scene, the artificial romance, the unquestioning stoic bravery of the hero – all culminating, of course, in a gloriously improbable denouement.