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"The hero of this piece unites himself in the three greatest characters upon earth; he is a priest, a husbandman, and the father of a family."Oliver Goldsmith

"We return to it again and again, and bless the memory of an author who contrives so well to reconcile us to human nature."Sir Walter Scott

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 heroall culminating, of course, in a gloriously improbable denouement.