SOURCE: "The Book of Job," in The Vision of Tragedy, revised edition, Yale University Press, 1980, pp. 9-24.

[Sewall is an American critic and educator whose critical study The Vision of Tragedy, originally published in 1959, was lauded by critics and declared an "academic bestseller. "In the following essay from that work, Sewall discusses the concept of tragedy in The Book of Job in relation to several works of fiction, concluding that Job may be considered

William Blake's illustration to The Book of Job.

We look at a work of literature and call it "optimistic" or "pessimistic" or "epic" or "tragic." The book is there be-fore us, and we find the term to describe it. But the work comes first. It is not right to say that without the vision of life embodied in the Old Testament...