Book contents
- Oliver Goldsmith in Context
- Oliver Goldsmith in Context
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Preface
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Part I Life and Career
- Part II Social, Cultural, and Intellectual Contexts
- Chapter 5 Enlightenments
- Chapter 6 Universities
- Chapter 7 Libraries
- Chapter 8 The Club
- Chapter 9 Irish London
- Chapter 10 Liberty
- Chapter 11 Cosmopolitanism
- Chapter 12 Marriage
- Chapter 13 Gender
- Chapter 14 Race
- Chapter 15 Religion
- Chapter 16 Natural History and Science
- Chapter 17 War and Empire
- Chapter 18 Ghosts
- Part III Literary Contexts
- Part IV Critical Fortunes and Afterlives
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 7 - Libraries
from Part II - Social, Cultural, and Intellectual Contexts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2024
- Oliver Goldsmith in Context
- Oliver Goldsmith in Context
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Notes on Contributors
- Preface
- Chronology
- Abbreviations
- Part I Life and Career
- Part II Social, Cultural, and Intellectual Contexts
- Chapter 5 Enlightenments
- Chapter 6 Universities
- Chapter 7 Libraries
- Chapter 8 The Club
- Chapter 9 Irish London
- Chapter 10 Liberty
- Chapter 11 Cosmopolitanism
- Chapter 12 Marriage
- Chapter 13 Gender
- Chapter 14 Race
- Chapter 15 Religion
- Chapter 16 Natural History and Science
- Chapter 17 War and Empire
- Chapter 18 Ghosts
- Part III Literary Contexts
- Part IV Critical Fortunes and Afterlives
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
Goldsmith’s library is suggestive of his wide interests and of his status as a participant in the circulation of Enlightenment thought. His books were auctioned off after his death and they were advertised as a ‘Select Collection of Scarce, Curious and Valuable Books, in English, Latin, Greek, French, Italian and other Languages’. The chapter extrapolates the main trends within Goldsmith’s collection from the catalogue but also addresses the difficulties of drawing conclusions about the owner of a collection from an auction catalogue. The discernible referentiality of Goldsmith’s works provides, in many ways, a preferable index of his reading. The chapter also discusses the opportunities for reading books without owning them that Goldsmith, whose means were always limited, would have had as a student in Dublin, Edinburgh and Leiden and as a writer in London.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Oliver Goldsmith in Context , pp. 56 - 63Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024