Oliver Goldsmith: The Vicar of Wakefield

Goethe thought this "one of the best novels ever written", although most discriminating critics (and even the author, in his 'Advertisement') point to the faults of its fantastically-improbable plot, in which coincidence is heaped upon coincidence. It has enjoyed enduring popularity, and this is clearly due to the great charm of its style, its wealth of aphorisms, and the singular character of the hero: upright, trusting, innocent of guile, vain about his writing, faithful and courageous. I loved it.
Life is full of coincidences. Last week my friend MN used the valediction:

Ná díol do chearc lá fliuch!
(Never sell your hen on a wet day!)

This was new to me, but soon after I ran across a reference to the same proverb in Goldsmith's novel. When the vicar becomes anxious that his son Moses has been away so long at the fair, where he went to sell a horse, the vicar's wife says that he need not worry..."Depend on it, he knows what he is about. I'll warrant we'll never see him sell his sell a hen on a rainy day." Sadly, her confidence is misplaced, and Moses returns, having exchanged the price of the horse for some rubbish.