"Jose Francisco de Isla's 1758 Fray Gerundio de Campazas, a biting satire of bad preaching, was one of the most popular European works of fiction of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Fray Gerundio not only targets preachers' silly sermons and absurd antics in the pulpit, but also questions the political machinations and cultural norms that permit con men, rubes, and hacks to accede to positions of pastoral power. Yet decreasing numbers of late twentieth-century and early twenty-first-century readers are familiar with the novel, due to many factors including its length (six volumes), subject matter (preaching), and a legacy of critical evaluation as a narrative lacking plot and psychological depth. "--BOOK JACKET.