The Citizen of the World

The Citizen of the World is a highly readable yet deceptively sophisticated text, using the popular eighteenth-century device of the imaginary observer. Its main narrator, the Chinese philosopher Lien Chi Altangi, draws on traditional ideas of Confucian wisdom as he tries (and sometimes fails) to come to terms with the commercial modernity and spectacle of imperial London. Goldsmith explores a moment of economic and social transformation in Britain and at the same time engages with the ramifications of a global conflict, the Seven Years' War (1756-63). He also uses his travelling Chinese narrator as a way of indirectly addressing his own predicament as an Irish exile in London. This edition provides a reliable, authoritative text, records the history of its production, and includes an introduction and explanatory notes which situate this enormously rich work within the political debates and cultural conflicts of its time, illuminating its allusiveness and intellectual ambition.

《世界公民》是一本極易閱讀卻又深藏複雜的作品，運用了十八世紀流行的虛構觀察者的手法。主要敘述者是中國哲學家連濟·阿爾坦吉，他借鑒了儒家智慧的傳統觀念，試圖（有時也失敗）去理解帝國倫敦的商業現代性和壯觀景象。高斯密斯探索了英國經濟和社會轉型的時刻，同時也涉及到全球衝突七年戰爭（1756-1763）的影響。他還利用他旅行中的中國敘述者間接地討論了他自己作為一個在倫敦的愛爾蘭流亡者的困境。這個版本提供了可靠、權威的文本，記錄了其製作歷史，並包括一個介紹和解釋性註釋，將這部極其豐富的作品置於其時代的政治辯論和文化衝突中，闡明了它的暗示性和知識野心。