
Paglalarawan
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the renowned and versatile Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith (1728 - 1774). There is a memorial to him in Westminster Abbey’s Poet’s Corner written by Dr Johnson, celebrating Goldsmith's life as a poet, natural philosopher and historian. To this could be added ‘playwright’ and ‘novelist’ and ‘science writer’ and ‘pamphleteer’ and much besides, as Goldsmith explored so many different outlets for his talents. While he began on Grub Street in London, the centre for jobbing writers scrambling for paid work, he became a great populariser and compiler of new ideas and knowledge and achieved notable successes with poems such as The Deserted Village, his play She Stoops to Conquer and his short novel The Vicar of Wakefield. WithDavid O’Shaughnessy Professor of Eighteenth-Century Studies at the University of GalwayJudith Hawley Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of LondonAnd Michael Griffin Professor of English at the University of LimerickProducer: Simon TillotsonReading list:Norma Clarke, Brothers of the Quill: Oliver Goldsmith in Grub Street (Harvard University Press, 2016)Leo Damrosch, The Club: Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age (Yale University Press, 2019)Oliver Goldsmith (ed. Aileen Douglas and Ian Campbell Ross), The Vicar of Wakefield: A Tale, Supposed to Be Written by Himself (first published 1766; Cambridge University Press, 2024)Oliver Goldsmith (ed. Arthur Friedman), The Vicar of Wakefield (first published 1766; Oxford University Press, 2008)Oliver Goldsmith (ed. Arthur Friedman), The Collected Works of Oliver Goldsmith, 5 vols (Clarendon Press, 1966) Oliver Goldsmith (ed. Robert L. Mack), Oliver Goldsmith: Everyman’s Poetry, No. 30 (Phoenix, 1997)Oliver Goldsmith (ed. James Ogden), She Stoops to Conquer (first performed 1773; Methuen Drama, 2003)Oliver Goldsmith (ed. James Watt), The Citizen of the World (first published 1762; Cambridge University Press, 2024)Oliver Goldsmith (ed. Nigel Wood), She Stoops to Conquer and Oth
More By BBC Radio 4...
- 1
AlbumFront Row
BBC Radio 4... · 8,885 plays
- 2
Italo Calvino
BBC Radio 4... · 7,589 plays · 50:16
- 3
Angela Rayner on her return to the top table: 'It’s good to give people a second chance'
BBC Radio 4... · 4,119 plays · 45:04
- 4
Silicon
BBC Radio 4... · 7,976 plays · 56:48
- 5
30/05/2026
BBC Radio 4... · 3,594 plays · 36:04
- 6
Joe Lycett on his first solo exhibition, Everything Must Go
BBC Radio 4... · 4,695 plays · 42:24
- 7
Are we too quick to label ‘normal’ distress?
BBC Radio 4... · 8,047 plays · 29:26
- 8
Little Women
BBC Radio 4... · 6,373 plays · 49:45
- 9
The Stone Age
BBC Radio 4... · 3,724 plays · 14:22
- 10
What can AI medicine do for you?
BBC Radio 4... · 6,372 plays · 28:50
Baka Magustuhan Mo Rin
- 1
AlbumDangerously His: Areley in New York City
6,453 plays
- 2
AlbumYale County Jug Band
Yale County Jug Band · 9,936 plays
- 3
AlbumLes Histoires Sombres et Morbides - LEOW
7,455 plays
- 4
AlbumPxxrple
Pxxrple · 8,188 plays
- 5
AlbumDr. Sebi Herbal Bible: [4 Books in 1] A Step-by-Step Guide to Dr. Sebi’s Natural Healing Herbs, Remedies, Alkaline Diet, and Non-Toxic Lifestyle for Disease-Free Living
4,981 plays
- 6
Albumbally
bally · 10,667 plays
- 7
AlbumMaster|மாஸ்டர்
2,351 plays
- 8
AlbumGemm B
Gemm B · 7,213 plays
- 9
AlbumOb Mixtape
OB Flex · 4,562 plays
- 10
AlbumTren Lokote
Tren Lokote · 11,599 plays
- 11
AlbumTons Of Dramedy
Warner Chappell Production Music · 7,458 plays
- 12
AlbumAlex Angel Radio
6,587 plays