Oliver Goldsmith’s The Vicar of Wakefield and Cesare Beccaria’s On Crimes and Punishments

Abstract

This paper posits the influence of Cesare Beccaria’s Dei delitti e delle pene on the development of characters and episodes in Oliver Goldsmith’s The Vicar of Wakefield using the close analogies between the two texts, particularly the later chapters of the novel, the time lapse between the sale to the publisher and the eventual publication of the novel that allowed for revisions and additions to the text, and the spread of Beccaria’s ideas in England prior to the English translation of his work.