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The Vicar of Wakefield

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The Vicar of Wakefield

By: Oliver Goldsmith
Narrated by: David Thorn, Susan McCarthy, Tim King, Kevin Kennedy, James Aylward, Lou Spiegel, Lauralee Westaway, Linda Montgomery, Al Bedrosian, Bobbie Frohman
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About this listen

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 prison. Yet, despite all this calamity and injustice, the vicar never loses sight of Christian morality, a conviction which lends him genuine nobility and, in the end, also brings justice and the restoration of his family and fortune.

Through this simple, almost fairy-tale plot, Goldsmith gives us a charming comedy. It is 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 in a gloriously improbable dénouement.

Narrators include: Susan McCarthy, Tim King, Kevin Kennedy, James Aylward, Lou Spiegel, Lauralee Westaway, Linda Montgomery, Al Bedrosian, David Thorn, and Bobbie Frohman.

(P)2006 Alcazar AudioWorks Classics Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Satire Comedy Fiction Heartfelt
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I was very disappointed to find that the narrative is not, as the summary suggests, one sole English narrator, but is in fact frequently interspersed with readings from a cast of very poor American actors. I have nothing against American readers but it seems rather odd that they should have been combined with an English narrator and cast to read a story firmly set in late eighteenth England.

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