Spiritual Quixote, The

A 'comic romance' by Richard Graves (1715-1804), rector of Claverton near Bath from 1749, which is a genial satire on itinerant preachers and preaching. Begun about 1757 and eventually published in 1773, the butt of its ridicule is ill-timed effusions of enthusiasm and their ludicrous effect upon the gentlemanly Geoffrey Wildgoose, a convert to Methodism, and his cobbler companion Jerry Tugwell, while travelling in the West Country and Derbyshire, meeting with John Wesley himself on the way.

Sources
  • Clarence Tracy, Introduction to 1967 reprint
  • Clarence Tracy, A Portrait of Richard Graves (Cambridge, 1987)

Entry written by: CJS
Category: Publication
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