The Citizen of the World by Oliver Goldsmith
The Citizen of the World is a highly readable yet deceptively sophisticated text, using the popular eighteenth-century device of the imaginary observer. Its main narrator, the Chinese philosopher Lien Chi Altangi, draws on traditional ideas of Confucian wisdom as he tries (and sometimes fails) to come to terms with the commercial modernity and spectacle of imperial London. Goldsmith explores a moment of economic and social transformation in Britain and at the same time engages with the ramifications of a global conflict, the Seven Years' War (1756-63). He also uses his travelling Chinese narrator as a way of indirectly addressing his own predicament as an Irish exile in London. This edition provides a reliable, authoritative text, records the history of its production, and includes an introduction and explanatory notes which situate this enormously rich work within the political debates and cultural conflicts of its time, illuminating its allusiveness and intellectual ambition.
James Watt is Director of the Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies at the University of York. He is the author of British Orientalisms, 1759–1835 (Cambridge University Press, 2019) and Contesting the Gothic: Fiction, Genre, and Cultural Conflict, 1764–1832 (Cambridge University Press, 1999).
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781108479141 |
| ISBN 10 | 1108479146 |
| Title | The Citizen of the World |
| Author | Oliver Goldsmith |
| Series | The Cambridge Edition Of The Collected Works Of Oliver Goldsmith |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| Year published | 2024-11-07 |
| Number of pages | 996 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |