About
Oliver Goldsmith (10 November 1728 – 4 April 1774) was an Anglo-Irish poet, novelist, playwright, and hack writer. A prolific author of various literature, he is regarded among the most versatile writers of the Georgian era. His comedy plays for the English stage are considered second in importance only to those of playwright William Shakespeare, and his sentimental novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766) was one of the most popular literary works among the British citizenry in the 18th century, having influenced later English authors Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Mary Shelley.