What is Oliver Goldsmith?
[[File:Oliver Goldsmith..jpg|thumb|left|alt=Oliver Goldsmith|A portrait of author Oliver Goldsmith]] '''Oliver Goldsmith''' (10 November 1730 – 4 April 1774) was a writer, poet, and [[Medical doctor|physician]] famous for his novel, ''[[s:The_Vicar_of_Wakefield|The Vicar of Wakefield]]''(1776). His first successful [[literature|literary]] work was ''The Traveller'' (1764), a poem about British rule.<ref name=elegance>{{cite book | last = Stobaugh| first = James P.| title = British Literature| url = https://archive.org/details/britishliteratur0000jame_t3z5| publisher = Broadman & Holman Publishers| date = 2005| location = Nashville, Tennessee| isbn = 9780805458947}}</ref> Like [[Jonathan Swift]], Goldsmith {{broken wikt link|criticism|criticized}} [[wikt:society|society]], but he did not use [[satire]] like Swift.<ref name=elegance/> Goldsmith's greatest poem, ''The Deserted Village'' (1770), was a sad poem about how country life was being destroyed by landowners.<ref name=elegance/> The same theme is inside ''[[The Vicar of Wakefield]]''. Goldsmith's biggest work at that time was a collection of soft-satire [[essay]]s on English life seen by an imaginary [[China|Chinese]] visitor. He also wrote two plays, ''The Good Natured Man'' (1768), and ''She Stoops to Conquer'' (1773).<ref name=elegance/>(He is also thought to have written the classic children's story, ''The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes''.) == Life == {{The Club|align=right|caption=A literary party at Sir Joshua Reynolds's.<ref name=npg>[http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait.php?LinkID=mp64290&rNo=0&role=art 'A literary party at Sir Joshua Reynolds's], D. George Thompson, published by Owen Bailey, after James William Edmund Doyle, published 1 October 1851</ref> The person in the blue coat on the right is Oliver Goldsmith - use cursor to identify others.|size=220px}} It is not known for sure when he was born. Most people now think that he was born in 10 November 1730.<ref name=olive>{{cite book | title = The Vicar of Wakefield| publisher =