The Vicar of Wakefield: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Vicar of Wakefield, credited to Oliver Goldsmith, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

Librivox recording of The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith. Read by Martin Clifton Published in 1766 'The Vicar of Wakefield' was Oliver Goldsmith's only novel. It was thought to have been sold to the publisher for £60 on Oliver Goldsmith's behalf by Dr Johnson to enable Goldsmith to pay off outstanding rent and to release himself from his landlady's arrest. It is the story of the family of Dr Primrose, a benevolent vicar, and follows them through their fall from fortune and their ultimate rise again. The story provides insight into family life and circumstances in the mid 18th century and the plot has many aspects of a pantomime like quality: Impersonation, deception, an aristocratic villain and the abduction of a beautiful heroine. Goldsmith himself dissipated his savings on gambling whilst a student at Trinity College Dublin and subsequently travelled in Europe sustaining himself by playing the flute and disputing doctrinal matters in monasteries and universities. Later he worked as an apothecary's assistant, a doctor and a school usher (experiences shared in this story by Dr Primrose's son). (Summary by Martin Clifton) For more free audiobooks, or to become a volunteer reader, please visit librivox.org.

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Vicar of Wakefield
• Author credits: Oliver Goldsmith
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 32
• Listed recording duration: 6:23:19

Catalogue topics

• fiction

Opening tracks: first 24 of 32

1. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch01 — 9:13
2. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch02 — 8:12
3. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch03 — 14:43
4. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch04 — 7:29
5. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch05 — 8:00
6. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch06 — 7:29
7. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch07 — 8:52
8. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch08 — 11:46
9. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch09 — 7:21
10. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch10 — 9:04
11. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch11 — 9:57
12. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch12 — 10:43
13. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch13 — 7:14
14. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch14 — 12:48
15. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch15 — 10:27
16. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch16 — 11:36
17. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch17 — 15:51
18. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch18 — 9:20
19. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch19 — 17:24
20. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch20 — 30:19
21. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch21 — 17:06
22. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch22 — 8:15
23. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch23 — 9:43
24. The Vicar of Wakefield Ch24 — 9:42

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.