I am having a real problem with the humor (?) in this book. I think it is feeble at best. A few comments have provoked a slight smile, but I haven't had a good laugh yet (I've finished Chapter 14).

It's hard to have sympathy for unsympathetic characters. Mr. Primrose is as bad a father as Mr. Bennett! He attempts to instruct his children, but he is ineffective. Unless things change dramatically, I expect the children will suffer greatly (and probably unnecessarily) due to their father.

He is constantly condescending to his wife and daughters, but I can't decide if he's stupid, or lazy, or too gutless to stand up to his wife.

Stupid: he gets fleeced out of his horse

Lazy: knows his wife and daughters have heard of the squire's sleazy reputation with young women (from a neighboring farmer) yet sloughs off his duty by saying he is "...satisfied with just having pointed out danger, and leaving it to their own discretion to avoid it. That virtue which requires to be ever guarded is scarcely worth the sentinel." And yet, at the end of chapter 1, he has already characterized his children as 'credulous' and 'simple'.

Gutless: allows his wife to convince him he has a "cold" so Moses ought to go to the fair alone - and get fleeced; thinks the squire's women friends are common, coarse and crude, but goes along with his wife in allowing his daughters to accompany them to London (it is no plaudit to them that the girls DON'T go); allows the squire to insult George's former fiancee in front of the entire family.

I just haven't seen the wit or slyness I was expecting. It will be a pleasant surprise if this book improves in humor or if the plot evolves in a different manner than I am already predicting.

I am REALLY sorry to be negative about this book. I was looking forward to reading it eagerly. Maybe someone can give me an "attitude adjustment."