In Our Time

Oliver Goldsmith


Listen Later

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.

With

David O’Shaughnessy

Professor of Eighteenth-Century Studies at the University of Galway

Judith Hawley

Professor of Eighteenth-Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London

And

Michael Griffin

Professor of English at the University of Limerick

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Reading 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 Other Comedies (first performed 1773; Oxford University Press, 2007)

Michael Griffin and David O’Shaughnessy (eds.), Oliver Goldsmith in Context (Cambridge University Press, 2024)

Michael Griffin and David O’Shaughnessy (eds.), The Letters of Oliver Goldsmith (Cambridge University Press, 2018)

Roger Lonsdale (ed.), The Poems of Gray, Collins and Goldsmith (Longmans, 1969)

In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio production

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

In Our TimeBy BBC Radio 4

  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6

4.6

4,976 ratings


More shows like In Our Time

View all
Global News Podcast by BBC World Service

Global News Podcast

7,655 Listeners

History Extra podcast by Immediate Media

History Extra podcast

3,170 Listeners

Thinking Allowed by BBC Radio 4

Thinking Allowed

310 Listeners

Great Lives by BBC Radio 4

Great Lives

482 Listeners

Business Daily by BBC World Service

Business Daily

517 Listeners

World Business Report by BBC World Service

World Business Report

289 Listeners

Newshour by BBC World Service

Newshour

1,042 Listeners

In Our Time: History by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: History

1,863 Listeners

In Our Time: Culture by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Culture

599 Listeners

In Our Time: Science by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Science

718 Listeners

In Our Time: Religion by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Religion

282 Listeners

In Our Time: Philosophy by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Philosophy

862 Listeners

The Life Scientific by BBC Radio 4

The Life Scientific

238 Listeners

Dan Snow's History Hit by History Hit

Dan Snow's History Hit

4,629 Listeners

Newscast by BBC News

Newscast

646 Listeners

Evil Genius with Russell Kane by BBC Sounds

Evil Genius with Russell Kane

372 Listeners

Elis James and John Robins by BBC Radio 5 Live

Elis James and John Robins

321 Listeners

You're Dead to Me by BBC Radio 4

You're Dead to Me

2,983 Listeners

The Ancients by History Hit

The Ancients

3,094 Listeners

The Rest Is History by Goalhanger

The Rest Is History

12,955 Listeners

Gone Medieval by History Hit

Gone Medieval

1,752 Listeners

Not Just the Tudors by History Hit

Not Just the Tudors

1,960 Listeners

Sport's Strangest Crimes by BBC Radio 5 Live

Sport's Strangest Crimes

70 Listeners

Uncanny by BBC Radio 4

Uncanny

619 Listeners

Dua Lipa: At Your Service by BBC Sounds

Dua Lipa: At Your Service

1,002 Listeners

Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley by BBC Radio 4

Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley

546 Listeners

Empire by Goalhanger

Empire

2,116 Listeners

Believe in Magic by BBC Sounds

Believe in Magic

611 Listeners

The Global Story by BBC World Service

The Global Story

139 Listeners

Miss Me? by BBC Sounds

Miss Me?

281 Listeners

The History Podcast by BBC Radio 4

The History Podcast

25 Listeners

Rory Stewart: The Long History of... by BBC Radio 4

Rory Stewart: The Long History of...

68 Listeners

Havana Helmet Club by BBC Sounds

Havana Helmet Club

4 Listeners