Introduction: The Deserted Village at 250

Abstract

Abstract:This essay introduces a cluster marking the 250th anniversary of the publication of Oliver Goldsmith's The Deserted Village. It summarizes the three contributions to the cluster, which explore approaches to the poem as varied as its acoustics, the history of its illustration, and its intertextual resonance with other important eighteenth-century literary works. We build on John Montague's argument that the poem's appeal and relevance stem from its transcending local preoccupations in order to raise issues of international concern that are both historically specific and transhistorical.