Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village

Paul Baines (University of Liverpool)
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Goldsmith had been worrying about changes in the way agriculture was organised in Britain for some years before he wrote

The Deserted Village

. He is probably the author of an essay entitled “The Revolution in Low Life” which appeared in

Lloyd’s Evening Post

, 14-16 June 1762, which anticipates the themes of the poem, and he had commented on depopulation in the countryside in his poem

The Traveller

(1764). His novel

The Vicar of

Wakefield (1766) also gives a detailed picture of the vulnerability of rural life to power and money. From 1768 Goldsmith lived in a cottage at Edgeware, then in the countryside at some distance from London. He worked on

The Deserted Village

for about two years before its publication, but had been collecting materials on country visits for some years before…

2188 words

Citation: Baines, Paul. "The Deserted Village". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 April 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1100, accessed 28 March 2024.]

1100 The Deserted Village 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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