SOURCE: "The Vicar of Wakefield and Other Prose Writings: A Reconsideration" in The Art of Oliver Goldsmith, edited by Andrew Swarbrick, Vision Press, 1984, pp. 17-32.

In the essay below, Jefferson argues that in The Vicar of Wakefield, Goldsmith created a form which transformed his writing weaknesses into strengths.

In the reassessment of authors that has taken place during the last half century, a process that has enhanced so many reputations, Goldsmith is not among those who have benefited, and the reason is not difficult to discover. His gifts were of the lighter kind. The aspects of eighteenth-century literature that he represents are akin to those associated with Addison, another Augustan who has not gained ground. Both writers had ease, grace, a pleasant humour. The present age attaches more importance to the deeper and weightier qualities of Samuel Johnson, whose work was scandalously underrated by critics in the nineteenth...