A new book of Job: In the Bible, Job is a wealthy and happy man who is put to test by God, in order to settle a bet with the Devil. Primrose, the vicar of Wakefield, seems to suffer the same fate: first, he loses all his money; then, a man seduces his daughter and all manners of trouble set upon he and his family. But the man will never surrender. His undestructible good humor and wit, his reliance on philosophy and religion, allow him to endure all kinds of calamities, until the happy end. This is not a moralizaing book: it is pure, intelligent fun, with a message not lectured to us, but insinuated. This novel deserves to be put out of the infamous "classic" shelf (the one that condemns masterpieces of art to become "boring" for lazy readers) and into the public. It's very much worth it.

A very fast, amusing read. A satire of romances, it is extremely clever. ( )

I had to confess I couldn't make up my mind about this book. I neither like nor dislike it and I still wonder if it was worth reading.
Dr. Primrose is a strange creature: sometimes naiv or simply-hearted (don't know which expresses my meaning best), that I want to shake him, or he is kind of dignified in a very arrogant manner (no, that's perhaps not the right description, but nearly and I'm lacking the right words even in German) so I did not wonder what happened to him. It's amazing or even refreshing that he founds happyness anyhow.
I don't think this to be moral literature (what I really mean is "Erbauungsliteratur" but how to translate this????) and I can't put it in a genre for myself. Strange literature is a category I would choose ;-) ( )

A short, flat-prosed 18th century "sentimental novel" that was widely read by subsequent authors. ( )

Delightful~I avoided this book for ages, and find I've only cheated myself of a great read. Truth to tell, I read the 1971 Folio Society edition first, with some fun plates depicting scenes from the story. ( )