Selected Writings of Oliver Goldsmith (Fyfield Books)

" John Lucas reconsiders Thackeray's praise of Goldsmith as 'the most beloved of English writers', and reveals him as a more radical, formidable - and Irish - figure than the phrase suggests." "Goldsmith's 'wit, civility of tone and adroit handling of form' express, Lucas, argues, the author's intelligence, integrity and concern for a society that he saw disintegrating into competing interests. The introduction, detailed notes and afterword on the contemporary context present a Goldsmith whose moral seriousness is as necessary to twenty-first century society as it was to his own."--BOOK JACKET.