ABSTRACT
The idyllic transfiguration of family life in Goldsmith’s poem in prose shows the immense change in literary taste which the eighteenth century brought in its train. The bourgeoisie’s most outstanding achievement is the transformation of the family into a real community. If family life is really to exist at all, there must first be a true marriage based on a complete sharing between wife and husband in all spiritual and—so far as this is possible—in all intellectual matters. In the meantime changed circumstances are compelling millions of human beings to shape their lives in such a fashion that the family ideal must appear Utopian, but many consider even this Utopia to be no longer attractive. The bourgeoisie in the old sense of the term has been unable to keep up with developments and many of its ties are loosening.
