I have this very moment finished reading a novel called The Vicar of Wakefield [by Oliver Goldsmith]…. It appears to me, to be impossible any person could read this book through with a dry eye and yet, I don’t much like it…. There is but very little story, the plot is thin, the incidents very rare, the sentiments uncommon, the vicar is contented, humble, pious, virtuous–but upon the whole the book has not at all satisfied my expectations.
