Oliver Goldsmith

<p>Oliver Goldsmith was born on November 10, 1728, in Pallas, County Longford, Ireland. Educated at Trinity College Dublin, where he was an undisciplined student prone to practical jokes, he subsequently studied medicine at Edinburgh and Leiden. Spending years wandering across Flanders, France, Switzerland, and Italy supporting himself by playing the flute, he eventually arrived in London in 1756 penniless.</p><p>Goldsmith found his true vocation in Grub Street journalism, producing satirical essays collected as <em>The Citizen of the World</em> (1762), in which a fictional Chinese philosopher comments on British customs. His literary genius attracted the mentorship of Dr. Samuel Johnson, who helped found 'The Club' in 1764 with Goldsmith, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Edmund Burke as charter members.</p><p>In 1766, Goldsmith published <em>The Vicar of Wakefield</em>, one of the most widely read 18th-century novels. In 1770, his poem <em>The Deserted Village</em> passionately condemned rural depopulation caused by the enclosure acts. His theatrical triumph came in 1773 with <em>She Stoops to Conquer</em>, a sparkling comedy of manners that rescued English theater from weeping sentimentality and remains continuously staged worldwide.</p>