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. 213 pages; 31 chapters. |
