Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Setting out to make his fortune in a far-off country, a young traveller discovers the remote and beautiful land of Erewhon, and is given a home among its extraordinarily handsome citizens. But their visitor soon discovers that this seemingly ideal community has its faults - here crime is treated indulgently as a malady to be cured, while illness, poverty and misfortune are cruelly punished, and all machines have been superstitiously destroyed after a bizarre prophecy. Can he survive in a world where morality is turned upside down? Inspired by Samuel Butler's years in colonial New Zealand, and by his reading of Darwin's "Origin of Species", Erewhon (1872) is a highly original, irreverent and humorous satire on conventional virtues, religious hypocrisy and the unthinking acceptance of beliefs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

A strange utopia
Erewhon, as a satire and/or essay, is interesting and has some thought provoking ideas.Erewhon as a novel has a fairly thin but still interesting plot line in an intriguing environment.Unfortunately, meshing the two of these together makes for a difficult book to swallow at times.

I enjoyed the thought provoking elements of the satire that Butler presents.He turns the world upside down in order to have us explore just how "civilized" we truly are.He maintains the same basic structure...that a society should have a government with laws that people can be punished for, education to help them in society, religion to help with their conscience.However, he turns all of these "normal" conventions on their heads to get us to think not about the conventions themselves, but about the way we approach them.

For example, instead of being punished for what we crimes (theft, murder, etc.), the people of Erewhon are punished if they fall physically ill...sometimes being imprisoned or even sentenced to death.And conversely, if a person finds himself in the throes of robbery or some other 'crime', he is instead consoled and properly treated for the recovery of this behavior and looked on with sympathy from friends and family.In this satirical move, Butler asks us to examine our treatment of criminals.The Erewhonians provide rehabilitation for liars, thieves and murderers while simply shutting away those who commit "crimes" of physical illness.While we profess to offer rehabilitation for our criminals, what good does it do to stick them in an 8x8 box for years and then throw them out on the street with a black mark on their "permanent record?"Which system is better for helping with crime?As to illness, the Erewhonian treatment of illness is definitely ludicrous, but to a small degree it has logic in that it quarantines the truly ill and it also cuts down on people feigning illness or complaining over small headaches.In Erewhon, there is truly very little illness and no 'calling in sick', or making an excuse of "I've got a headache."

Butler also satirizes religious devotion (he alludes to religion in terms of the different types of money in the kingdom...the "religious" type having no earthly value yet being esteemed as of great personal worth...and yet citizens of Erewhon barely go through the motions with the 'religious' currency and have a completely different value system for each type of currency).

His lengthiest satirical discourse is with regards to the idea of consciousness.He takes it to the absurd (at least for his day) by suggesting a world in which machines would become self-aware and potentially overthrow mankind as the dominant race (a la Terminator or others).We're not there yet, but I think Butler would have a coronary if he saw how today's technology compared of that ~120 years ago.While the discussion on consciousness has some holes, it's also intriguing, especially when looking at the advancements of the last hundred years.He makes some good arguments and it's interesting to transition those arguments into the natural world and look at the advancements of mankind as a race or of other animals out there.The rise of consciousness or self-awareness is a very interesting topic.I'd be interested to read more of his thoughts since in the book he basically opens the can of worms and sets it on a shelf.

So in terms of the satire, Butler brings forth some interesting ideas.

In terms of the plot, it's a fairly basic adventure novel of the nineteenth century...a man in a distant British colony seeks fame and fortune through exploration and hopefully finding either a place to gain more wealth or to find savages to convert to Christianity or both.The first 50-100 pages contain standard Victorian descriptions of the landscapes and the travels.While poetic and pretty, they did drag on and I wanted to skip beyond them.As our narrator finally gets closer to Erewhon, his travels actually have some drama unfold.Once he finally arrives at the city, he's initially thrown into prison and has some moderate adventure.

The "adventures" he has in the country of Erewhon are very lightweight in terms of adventure.The level of excitement is pretty bland since it is often broken up by dozens of pages of satirical essay exploring strange elements of Erewhonian culture.Again, this is moderately typical of 19th century literature, but I was hoping for a bit more in terms of action within Erewhon itself.The "story" of the book could probably take ~1/3 of the pages (with probably a third of those devoted to description of the countryside and his initial travels) with the remaining 2/3 being devoted to thoughtful discourse on the various absurdities of society.

All in all, this was an interesting and thought provoking book...but I would've preferred the abridged version and/or simply reading the "essays" as essays rather than having them interjected into an adventure novel.

***
2 1/2 stars

Hamfisted and too long, even at ~150 pages
Erewhon, like Butler's other (magnificient and far more effective) novel The Way of All Flesh, is rife with social satire. The optimistic and devout explorer trots out all kinds of European imperialist platitudes and, as with most satirical characters, is almost totally one-dimensional. Most other characters- noble savages, squaws, and other racist or bigoted archetypes, are fodder for the author's wit more than flesh and blood. This would be fine if the satire were as proficient as, say, Voltaire's, but it is not.

As others have mentioned, the "justice" system in Erewhon whereby the sick are punished and criminals rehabilitated to health is the main punchline. In a short story this concept would have been brilliant but the length of the book grinds the joke into the ground well before the narrative draws to a close. It's a joke with a punchline that doesn't justify the extravagant buildup.

EREWHON by Samuel Butler
Originally published in 1872 and now billed as the "second great satire of the nineteenth century," Erewhon is a critique of Victorian society. In it, a British man comes across a never-before discovered society (which he is convinced is the lost tribes of Israel).

Erewhon has no plot to speak of. Here is its pattern: Butler gives us a bizarre scenario that seemingly makes no sense, takes us through it, and finally explains its parallel to Victorian life. Then this repeats. This is the whole book, book-ended by forty pages of setup (most of which is unnecessary) and a convenient and tidy ending. As such, the reader may feel like he is reading a work on nonsense philosophy rather than a work of fiction.

This is not to say that there is nothing worthwhile here. Occasionally, there are flashes of brilliance, and there are some thought-provoking elements. Erewhonians, for example, treat the sick like criminals and treat criminals like they have diseases. In a modern-day version, perhaps, those who have self-inflicted poor health, like some of the obese and diabetic, would be considered criminal.

On the whole, working through the philosophical meanderings of Butler's scenarios is tedious. It certainly does not help that many aspects of Victorian society are now foreign to us. Erewhon hasn't held up. Stick with Swift.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Excellent book
Aside from the possibility you will find this online, it is great to have either way. I wouldn't consider it better than Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (which is entirely different in structure,) however for a utopean novel it is pretty good. You should be able to sit down and read it all at once, as it is not only pretty short but also reads very quickly. The flow of the novel is sometimes very aesthetic and more visually oriented in discription. The author also writes from his experience in New Zealand (with story involving description of sheep, etc.) It wasn't necessarily a brilliant book, though it was more enjoyable than many books you'll find.

Unexpected Early Science Fiction - 3 1/2 Stars
I bought this book expecting strait social satire.It turns out that the first five chapters are more of an adventure story through a jungle, and are really quite boring.If I could re-edit the book today I would cut them out.When we finally enter Erewhon, the story and the satire pick up, and the read is much more pleasant.Then, unexpectedly, about two-thirds of the way into the book, it becomes a very interesting science fiction tale of why the Erewhonians abandoned technology for fear that the machines would evolve into intelligent, conscious, thinking machines able to reproduce and replace man at the top of the evelutionary ladder!I was pleasantly surprised by this because science fiction is my favorite genre, and in all my reading I've never heard of this concept being thought of more than 130 years ago!

If you can get through the first five chapters, I recommend this book.

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Product Description
Erewhon Revisited is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Samuel Butler is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Samuel Butler then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

very good and still relevant book
The book deals with Higgs' return to Erewhon. Some unpleasant surprises are in store for him, place is entirely unrecognizable due to new religion - sunchildism. Higgs, the Sunchild, finds it hard to beleive how his sayings got so corrupted and is unable to do anything about it. Declaration that he is the Sunchild only brings his life in danger, since professors of Music Banks are not going to let go new lucrative businees just like that.Fascinating book, dealing with rise of new religion out of one "miracle" (i.e. unexplainable event such as Higgs escape in a baloon) account of which grew out of proportion every year. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (37)

Outstanding late-19th Century literature: why this book is just tops! (details)
I'll share all the book details momentarily but here's the core of the story first:

Over the course of a century three generations of the Pontifex men transpired from solid and esteemed, to religiously fanatical and noxious, to naïve and repressed. Their respective spouses pretty much mirrored the husbands in both their outlook and their temperament.

The ultimate protagonist, (it takes a few chapters for him to clearly emerge as the human object of this compelling yarn), Ernest Pontifex, was the eldest son of an odious Church of England clergyman, Theobald Pontifex. Whatever amount of respect Ernest had fostered for his grandfather was notably exceeded in dimension by his contempt for his own sire. Theobald constrained even Ernest's most insignificant activities throughout the lad's youth and during his subsequent college years where this young unfortunate was compelled to study, (of course), theological subjects. Ernest's self-indulgent father also derived a perverse brand of joy from the Draconian disciplinarian acts that he perpetrated without cessation against his wretched son, ergo: "...spare the rod, spoil the child."

[But I must insert here that this is definitely not a gloomy Dickensian-type novel so don't quit reading quite yet!]

Ernest's most remarkable teen experience occurred on the day when an attractive, young household domestic was hastily driven from the home when it was revealed that she was soon to become a mother and the father was yet unknown to any but herself and her paramour. Ernest felt so bad for the girl that he chased after her carriage and gave the poor lass his watch and what little money that he possessed. This altruistic act, perceived as outright rebelliousness by Theobald and his nasty shrew of a wife, was rewarded with even further tyranny and psychological domination.

During his years away at a small but prestigious private school under the tutelage of one Dr. Skinner, an old profligate who ranked on a scale of malevolence only slightly less prominently than Theobald himself, Ernest's blameless nose was kept firmly applied to the collegiate grindstone although his marginal grades never reflected any marked fruits of such devoted toil. Only a singular figure within Ernest's extended family gave rise to hope towards any promise of future happiness: he had an aunt, (Theobald's sister), who in addition to being kind and motherly, was wealthy as well. She was also quite close to our narrator, Mr. Overton, a man of equal understanding and tolerance, tenoned with the highest of ethical standards.

And so it goes... Ernest works his way through college, into the clergy, (where he was as inept as he was miserable), and thence down numerous of life's pathways, chiefly as a consequence of events. Think of Ernest Pontifex as a Victorian version of Holden Caulfield, (the youthful and puerile protagonist of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.)

My copy of this remarkable novel is the Classics Club (Walter J. Black, New York) hardcover edition (no copyright date but pretty old), with a helpful Note by R.A. Streatfeild prefacing the work, the man who saw Samuel Butler's manuscript through to its initial publication (all with Butler's deathbed permission) in 1902. Butler actually completed the book in 1884 but Streatfeild had to re-write the fourth and fifth chapters following Butler's death from the original working notes as that small segment of manuscript had been lost. Streatfeild did a fine job with this brief but enigmatic task and I could detect no inconsistency whatever in this transitory text. There are eighty-six chapters in all, spread out over 389 pages.

This fictional account is conveyed in First Person, (all from Overton's perspective), and the prose and dialogues flow as does warm honey. The story is bulging with a subtle brand of typically British wit, all nicely mingled with a notably robust account of period English culture, with a marked emphasis on (fictional) prominent figures associated with the Church of England. One unique caveat of Butler's writing style was his clever literary handling of the principals: the protagonist is not the narrator as we traditionally encounter in First Person novels.

I'm pretty well read in this particular era of European fiction and Butler's work much parallel's many of the positive features which we encounter in Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native (Modern Library Classics); Anatole France's Penguin Island, and; Ivan Turgenev's Fathers and Sons (Penguin Classics). This is first-rate literature -- during his lifetime Samuel Butler (born, 1835) also penned the well-known Utopian satire Erewhon.

In summary, this book is one of those little treasures which devotees of classic literature have to occasionally pry out of historical obscurity. It's nice that this superlative work has now seen various reprintings. I cannot recommend it highly enough for those who, like me, foster an unbridled appreciation for outstanding literature of this compelling era.

Very good as an audio book
I have been working my way through the classics on my commute and I picked up this audio book because of the good reviews and I have always enjoyed satire.It turns out that I was very pleased with both the content of the novel and the reader of the audio book.

The audio book was narrated by Frederick Davidson, who has done many classic novels and always does a good job.He has a British accent that has the perfect tinge of sarcasm for a novel like this.He did an excellent job with having a different voice for each character and this helped me follow the novel and distinguish easily who was talking.The voice he used for the father was especially good and sounded like the uptight, unfeeling minister that he was.

I feel that the novel deserves to be on the many lists of classics that it is on.It truly is a great satirical work of fiction and it effectively pokes at many of the institutions in Victorian England.I also liked how he pointed out many truths while he was poking fun.I found myself agreeing with many of the points he brought up and sometimes I noted flaws in his characters that I have myself.

This novel taught me about human nature and interaction as a great novel should.I highly recommend this book and audio book.

Interesting Read
Very interesting character study of an abused boy in a dysfunctional family and how that played out in his life. A little tedious writing but worth staying with it.

The way of all flesh
Book is what my husband wanted.He read it when he was a young man.Just a review.

Scathing depiction of Victorian values
A slow, difficult read yet not without merit. At times scathing at others jocular yet always insightful.

The tale is of one Ernest Pontifex and 4 generations of his family beginning with his great-grandfather told by a family friend, Overton.

The reader is exposed to the hypocrisy of Victorian values inevitably consequential in the development of our protagonist and his overbearing bible thumping father.

Butler describes the twisted growth of the Pontifex family tree; one limb overshadowing the next letting it shrivel in darkness. One wonders whether the tree was planted outside the Munster residence.

At times I couldn't help but hate Ernest's father and reel in disbelief in Ernests' naivety. These conflicting emotions make the book enjoyable.

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Product Description
This book is first an essay in reassessment and rediscovery: there has been no rigorously comprehensive study of Butler in over a generation. It is also an essay in comparative criticism, which places Butler between his early twentieth-century heirs and his eighteenth-century precursors. While Butler is remembered chiefly as a novelist, he defies generic classification. With a lucidity and elegance that singularly befit the author of The Way of All Flesh, Dr. Jeffers leads the reader to comprehend Butler in all his facets: as theologian, moralist, and educationist, Butler was a writer who, with remarkable success not only in the Pontifex saga and Erewhon, but also in The Fair Haven, Life and Habit, and The Notebooks, addressed himself to matters of enduring relevance. Butler has long been recognized as an early exponent of ideas which certain twentieth-century thinkers, from Bergson to Whitehead to Freud, either wittingly borrowed or unwittingly reconceived. This line of study has, however, given the unwarranted impression that Butler was a lonely seer, a studious eccentric who exhumed and galvanized the ideas of forgotten theorists like Lamarck and turned them against the deep-rooted intellectual establishment of the late Victorian Age. This is to mistake his social for his spiritual position. His writings teem with ideas which are continuous with pre-Victorian traditions of libertarianism in education, hedonism in ethics, and a half-pious, half-iconoclastic agnosticism in theology. Writers such as Locke, Hume, Dr. Johnson, Chesterfield, and Cobbett helped variously to create and apply the philosophical assumptions which Butler found at hand when he needed a grounding different from his father's Pauline Christianity and public school 'hypothetics,' just as he himself went on to develop assumptions which Shaw, Forster, Virginia Woolf, and others would have at hand in their different times of need. ... Read more

Product Description
Setting out to make his fortune in a far-off country, a young traveller discovers the remote and beautiful land of Erewhon, and is given a home among its extraordinarily handsome citizens. But their visitor soon discovers that this seemingly ideal community has its faults - here crime is treated indulgently as a malady to be cured, while illness, poverty and misfortune are cruelly punished, and all machines have been superstitiously destroyed after a bizarre prophecy. In Erewhon, criminals are considered to be ill and are 'treated' by 'straightners' who make them well, whereas those who have physical illnesses (or suffer bad luck) are considered criminal and are tried and punished. Thus an embezzler will be treated for his 'illness' and the party who was robbed will be tried in the Court of Misplaced Confidence. The consistency with which Butler carries through with this conceit is impressive and consistently entertaining, and this is only one of the 'curious' conventions of Erewhonian society. Another fascinating chapter in Erewhon explains how machines are on an evolutionary track that will surpass and then come to dominate their human creators. The detail of the argument is impressive (the discussion of 'vestigial organs' in machines is hysterical and accurate), and no matter how far-fetched it must have seemed in 1872 when the book was published, it seems much less a satire and more a serious fear today. This is a book of great intelligence and wicked humor. As a simultaneous mind stretching exercise and laugh generating experience, there are few novels of any age that are its peer. ... Read more

Product Description
Since Samuel Butler published "Life and Habit" thirty-three {1} years have elapsed--years fruitful in change and discovery, during which many of the mighty have been put down from their seat and many of the humble have been exalted.


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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Classic novel given poor treatment
I won't waste your time with a synopsis of the book; that can be easily found elsewhere. I will tell you that you'll be getting the text without any spacing between chapters.For example, the copyright info runs into the introduction which runs into the text. Of course, you'll find no table of contents either. ... Read more

Product Description
"The Odyssey" is a classical epic poem about the events following the fall of Troy and the end of the Trojan War which is generally thought to have been written at the end of the 8th century BC. The story centers on Odysseus and his ten year journey to reach his home of Ithaca, following the Trojan War. Odysseus's death is assumed during this long absence, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of suitors, the Proci, who compete for Penelope's hand in marriage. Generally attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer, "The Odyssey" is a sequel to "The Iliad" and is considered one of the most important works of classical antiquity. Presented here in this edition is the prose translation of Samuel Butler. ... Read more

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"The Iliad" is a classical epic poem about the events during the last year of the Trojan War and the fall of Troy. The tale revolves around the Greek warrior Achilles, and his anger toward the king of Mycenae, Agamemnon. While the poem shows evidence of a long oral tradition and thus most likely multiple authors, the ancient Greek poet Homer is generally attributed as its author. "The Iliad", which is thought to be the oldest extant work of literature in the ancient Greek language, is considered one of the most important literary works of classical antiquity. Presented here in this edition is the prose translation of Samuel Butler. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The ground is dark with blood
With many books, translations are negligible, with two obvious exceptions, one is the Bible, and surprisingly the other is The Iliad. Each translation can give a different insight and feel to the story. Everyone will have a favorite. I have several.

For example:

"Rage--Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles,
Murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,
hurling down to the House of Death so many souls,
great fighters' souls. But made their bodies carrion,
feasts for dogs and birds,
and the will of Zeus was moving towards its end.
Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed,
Agamemnon lord of men and brilliant Achilles."
-Translated by Robert Fagles

"Sing, O Goddess, the anger of Achilles, son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a heroes did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures for so were the counsels of Zeus fulfilled from the day on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles first fell out with one another."
-Translated by Samuel Butler

"Rage:
Sing, Goddess, Achilles' rage,
Black and murderous, that cost the Greeks
Incalculable pain pitched countless souls
Of heroes into Hades' dark,
And let their bodies rot as feasts
For dogs and birds, as Zeus' will was done.
Begin with the clash between Agamemnon--
The Greek Warlord--and godlike Achilles."
-Translated by Stanley Lombardo

"Anger be now your song, immortal one,
Akhilleus' anger, doomed and ruinous,
that caused the Akhaians loss on bitter loss
and crowded brave souls into the undergloom,
leaving so many dead men--carrion
for dogs and birds; and the will of Zeus was done.
Begin it when the two men first contending
broke with one another--
the Lord Marshal Agamémnon, Atreus' son, and Prince Akhilleus."
-Translated by Translated by Robert Fitzgerald

"Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus' son of Achilleus and its devastation, which puts pains thousandfold upon the Achains,
hurled in the multitudes to the house of Hades strong souls of heroes, but gave their bodies to be the delicate feasting of dogs, of all birds, and the will of Zeus was accomplished since that time when first there stood the division of conflict Atrecus' son the lord of men and brilliant Achilleus."
-Translated by Richmond Lattimore

"Sing, goddess, of Peleus' son Achilles' anger, ruinous, that caused the Greeks untold ordeals, consigned to Hades countless valiant souls, heroes, and left their bodies prey for dogs or feast for vultures. Zeus's will was done from when those two first quarreled and split apart, the king, Agamemnon, and matchless Achilles."
-Translated by Herbert Jordan

"An angry man-there is my story: the bitter rancor of Achillês, prince of the house of Peleus, which brought a thousand troubles upon the Achaian host. Many a strong soul it sent down to Hadês, and left the heroes themselves a prey to the dogs and carrion birds, while the will of God moved on to fulfillment."
-Translated an transliterated by W.H.D. Rouse


You will find that some translations are easier to read but others are easier to listen to on recordings, lectures, Kindle, and the like.

Our story takes place in the ninth year of the ongoing war. We get some introduction to the first nine years but they are just a background to this tale of pride, sorrow and revenge. The story will also end abruptly before the end of the war.

We have the wide conflict between the Trojans and Achaeans over a matter of pride; the gods get to take sides and many times direct spears and shields.

Although the more focused conflict is the power struggle between two different types of power. That of Achilles, son of Peleus and the greatest individual warrior and that of Agamemnon, lord of men, whose power comes form position.

We are treated to a blow by blow inside story as to what each is thinking and an unvarnished description of the perils of war and the search for Arête (to be more like Aries, God of War.)

Troy - The Director's Cut [Blu-ray]
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Product Description
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free.This is an OCR edition with typos.Excerpt from book:Mrs. Pontifex had no sense of humour, at least I can call to mind no signs of this, but her husband had plenty of fun in him, though few would have guessed it from his appearance. I remember my father once sent me down to his workshop to get some glue, and I happened to come when old Pontifex was in the act of scolding his boy. He had got the lad—a pudding-headed fellow—by the ear and was saying, "What ? Lost again—smothered o' wit." (I believe it was the boy who was himself supposed to be a wandering soul, and who was thus addressed as lost.) "Now, look here, my lad," he continued, "some boys are born stupid, and thou art one of them; some achieve stupidity—that's thee again, Jim— thou wast both born stupid and hast greatly increased thy birthright—and some" (and here came a climax during which the boy's head and ear were swayed from side to side) "have stupidity thrust upon them, which, if it please the Lord, shall not be thy case, my lad, for I will thrust stupidity from thee, though I have to box thine ears in doing so," £ut I did not see that the old man really did box Jim's ears, or do more than pretend to frighten him, for the two understood one another perfectly well. Another time I remember hearing him call the village ratcatcher by saying, "Come hither, thou three-days-and- three-nights, thou," alluding, as I afterwards learned, to the rat-catcher's periods of intoxication; but I will tell no more of such trifles. My father's face would always brighten when old Pontifex's name was mentioned. "I tell you, Edward," he would say to me, "old Pontifex was not only an able man, but he was one of the very ablest men that ever I knew."This was more than I as a young man was prepared to stand. "My dear father," I answered, "what did he do? He could draw a little, but could he... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Pontifex generations
What's special about this book is the writing, which is a wonderful mix of satire, wit, perception and wisdom. There are a few tedious places where philosophy takes oever, but in general the narrative moves right along.

The Way of All Writers
The Way of All Flesh, a posthumous novel by Victorian author Samual Butler published in 1903, is amazingly modern in its outlook.It is, therefore, a "comfortable" read, and will feel familiar to early 21st century readers for its reliance on psychoanalysis of the main character that leans heavily on a study of both the parents and even the grandparents.The narrator is a writer and the main character eventually becomes one, and, in large part, it's a thoughtful novel about thoughtful novelists.Indeed, Butler has a very writerly feel to his prose, and I found myself marking many sections for their clever or humorous turn of phrase.His writing abilities are not in question.

But I'm a bit mystified at its #12 ranking on the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels.The Wikipedia entry on Samual Butler says his significance in literature is "difficult to pin down."So is The Way of All Flesh.Ultimately, this is a novel that draws no hard conclusions and offers little drama along the way.If you're looking for a satisfying critique of religion, this novel stays on safe ground, criticizing only obvious hypocrisy when false piety is a basis for career advancement and perhaps for placing too much of a stifling burden on children too early.

Worse, the largely anodyne struggles of the main character, Ernest Pontifex, are mitigated by an awaiting fortune when he turns 28.While this is unknown to Pontifex himself, it robs the reader of much anxiety that Pontifex being bilked in a stock scheme or getting thrown into prison or having troubles in marriage will have heavy financial impact and therefore much consequence at all.

I'm probably completely missing the point.This book might be interesting to dig into in some sort of a literature class, but I would not, ultimately, recommend it to friends.

The End of the Victorian Era
This novel marks the end of Victorian conventions, however, it is timeless in that it critiques hypocrisy and fundamentalism that is present in any age. It follows the dysfunctional Pontifex family and eventually focuses on Ernest Pontifex, an idiot savant without much savant. Despite its persisent criticism and cynicism regarding the mores of the day, the alternative the novel presents is a life of leisure with little responsibility (for example, Ernest's children are simply given to another family to raise with little consequence). This book is a very interesting view of the waning Victorian era.

The Definitive Book About Dysfunctional Families
It has been frequently observed that those who write history define it, and so it is with this wonderful novel which is, in large part, Butler's autobiography. Reviewers speak of it as having blown the lid off Victorian society; in fact, it is timeless, ruthlessly dissecting the behavior of several generations of an abusive family where the only rule is "Every man for himself." Those who grew up in that kind of family will find it truthful and insightful, those who grew up in happy families will be perplexed.

As some of the other reviews indicate, this is a book that is likely to offend conventional, especially fundamentalist, Christians. Butler's father was an ordained Anglican priest and he himself came close to being one (opting instead to run a sheep station in New Zealand for five years, an experience upon which he based "Erewhon"). Butler excoriates the hypocrisy and cant of that profession while questioning the Church's key doctrines.

If you can, purchase an edition with Theodore Dreiser's introduction.

Make no mistake, this is a great book. It is, with good reason, #12 on the Modern Library's list of the 100 Best Novels.

Good in unexpected ways,
I thought this was either going to be a heavy, slow society work, or an erotic, titillating one.If you have read it, you know I had no prior knowledge of Butler's work.This was a scathing, sarcasim filled commentary on traditional family hierarchy and expected life goals in the mid to late 1800's in England, which ended up being an enjoyable read.Doubtless it was atypical at the time - but from today's perspective it is almost the "normal" dysfunctional family. ... Read more

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The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler
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The classic tale of the Trojan War.The warriors Achilles, Hector, Ajax, Agamemnon, Ulysses, and Paris meet on the plains of Troy to return the kidnapped Helen to her husband, the King of Sparta. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

The First Anti-War Story?
You would think that The Iliad is about the war against Troy because Paris abducted Helen, wife of Menelaos - one of the greek commanders.
And yet Homerus begins his epos by asking the Muses to support him in - not in telling the Trojan war, as one might expect - but to tell about the quarrel between Agamemnon - the chief in command - and Achilles, one of the Greek commanders. The quarrel is about
a girl. Her name is Briseis, one of the slaves. Agamemnon took her away from Achilles.

In doing so, Homerus creates a parallel with Menelaos - one of the greek commanders- who lost his wife because Paris took her to Troy.
Instead of a war poem Homerus tells us the coming of age of Achilles.

In the beginning he's like a whining child making a quarrel with Agamemnon over a girl. He refuses to send his troops into the battle. But when things are going bad for the Greeks, some of the warlords go to the tent of Achilles and implore him to participate in the battle.He refuses but agrees that his friend Patroclus leads his troops to battle. ( It's noteworthy that Agamemnon plays second fiddle to Achilles from start to finish.)

When Hector - a Trojan commander - kills Patroclus, Achilles grieves for a long time and he finally understands that in a war there are no victors only losers. He becomes a man with understanding and compassion for the grief of others, even for his enemy. He has come a long way since his childish whining for Briseis.

The ground is dark with blood
With many books, translations are negligible, with two obvious exceptions, one is the Bible, and surprisingly the other is The Iliad. Each translation can give a different insight and feel to the story. Everyone will have a favorite. I have several.

For example:

"Rage--Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles,
Murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,
hurling down to the House of Death so many souls,
great fighters' souls. But made their bodies carrion,
feasts for dogs and birds,
and the will of Zeus was moving towards its end.
Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed,
Agamemnon lord of men and brilliant Achilles."
-Translated by Robert Fagles

"Sing, O Goddess, the anger of Achilles, son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a heroes did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures for so were the counsels of Zeus fulfilled from the day on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles first fell out with one another."
-Translated by Samuel Butler

"Rage:
Sing, Goddess, Achilles' rage,
Black and murderous, that cost the Greeks
Incalculable pain pitched countless souls
Of heroes into Hades' dark,
And let their bodies rot as feasts
For dogs and birds, as Zeus' will was done.
Begin with the clash between Agamemnon--
The Greek Warlord--and godlike Achilles."
-Translated by Stanley Lombardo

"Anger be now your song, immortal one,
Akhilleus' anger, doomed and ruinous,
that caused the Akhaians loss on bitter loss
and crowded brave souls into the undergloom,
leaving so many dead men--carrion
for dogs and birds; and the will of Zeus was done.
Begin it when the two men first contending
broke with one another--
the Lord Marshal Agamémnon, Atreus' son, and Prince Akhilleus."
-Translated by Translated by Robert Fitzgerald

"Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus' son of Achilleus and its devastation, which puts pains thousandfold upon the Achains,
hurled in the multitudes to the house of Hades strong souls of heroes, but gave their bodies to be the delicate feasting of dogs, of all birds, and the will of Zeus was accomplished since that time when first there stood the division of conflict Atrecus' son the lord of men and brilliant Achilleus."
-Translated by Richmond Lattimore

You will find that some translations are easier to read but others are easier to listen to on recordings, lectures, Kindle, and the like.

Our story takes place in the ninth year of the ongoing war. We get some introduction to the first nine years but they are just a background to this tale of pride, sorrow and revenge. The story will also end abruptly before the end of the war.

We have the wide conflict between the Trojans and Achaeans over a matter of pride; the gods get to take sides and many times direct spears and shields.

Although the more focused conflict is the power struggle between two different types of power. That of Achilles, son of Peleus and the greatest individual warrior and that of Agamemnon, lord of men, whose power comes form position.

We are treated to a blow by blow inside story as to what each is thinking and an unvarnished description of the perils of war and the search for Arête (to be more like Aries, God of War.)

Troy - The Director's Cut [Blu-ray]

what a story !!
Almsot everyone has heard the story of the Trojan War, or seen the various movies.But reading the entire story is so much better.Homer is a masterful storyteller, and you can almost hear the clash of spear on shield as he describes the warriors.A wonderful story and well worth the read.

This is the classic Butler translation, in prose.Some of the newer translations are in verse. Whether one prefers prose to verse is, I guess, a matter of individual taste.Me, I like the prose -- it reads more like a story and flows along much easier.As for the Kindle version that is linked here, it links to a different version by a different publisher.And apparently the other reviewer here is talking about that Kindle version, not this print version.It seems that Amazon links all the different versions of the same title together in its reviews -- a very confusing practice that I wish they would drop.

NOT the Translation by Fitzgerald!
This is the public domain translation by Butler, NOT the Fitzgerald translation that the excellent reviews clearly refer to.What's more, I arrived here after searching Amazon Books for "Fitzgerald, Iliad".This brought up the Fitzgerald paperback book, which claimed to be available in a Kindle version. Selecting this link brought up what--from the reviews--also seemed to be the Fitzgerald translation. Fortunately, I chose to get the trial, which turned out to be the old translation by Butler. Only then did I bother to check out the poor ratings only to find that that this is an error that Amazon should have known about and corrected long ago.

These translations are about as different as can be. The Butler translation is from 1898 and is in prose, while the Fitzgerald is a modern (1974) translation in verse.

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This collection includes: The Atlas of Ancient and Classical Geography, Cambridge Pieces, Canterbury Pieces, God the Known and God the Unknown ... Read more

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Over the past twenty-five years the work of Judith Butler has had an extraordinary impact on numerous disciplines and interdisciplinary projects across the humanities and social sciences. This original study is the first to take a thematic approach to Butler as a political thinker. Starting with an explanation of her terms of analysis, Judith Butler and Political Theory develops Butler’s theory of the political through an exploration of her politics of troubling given categories and approaches. By developing concepts such as normative violence and subversion and by elaborating her critique of heteronormativity, this book moves deftly between Butler’s earliest and most famous writings on gender and her more recent interventions in post-9/11 politics.

This book, along with its companion volume, Judith Butler's Precarious Politics, marks an intellectual event for political theory, with major implications for feminism, women’s studies, gender studies, cultural studies, lesbian and gay studies, queer theory and anyone with a critical interest in contemporary American ‘great power’ politics.

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I forget when, but not very long after I had published "Erewhon" in 1872, it occurred to me to ask myself what course events in Erewhon would probably take after Mr. Higgs, as I suppose I may now call him, had made his escape in the balloon with Arowhena. Given a people in the conditions supposed to exist in Erewhon, and given the apparently miraculous ascent of a remarkable stranger into the heavens with an earthly bride--what would be the effect on the people generally?

There was no use in trying to solve this problem before, say, twenty years should have given time for Erewhonian developments to assume something like permanent shape, and in 1892 I was too busy with books now published to be able to attend to Erewhon. It was not till the early winter of 1900, i.e. as nearly as may be thirty years after the date of Higgs's escape, that I found time to deal with the question above stated, and to answer it, according to my lights, in the book which I now lay before the public.

I have concluded, I believe rightly, that the events described in Chapter XXIV. of "Erewhon" would give rise to such a cataclysmic change in the old Erewhonian opinions as would result in the development of a new religion. Now the development of all new religions follows much the same general course. In all cases the times are more or less out of joint--older faiths are losing their hold upon the masses. At such times, let a personality appear, strong in itself, and made to seem still stronger by association with some supposed transcendent miracle, and it will be easy to raise a Lo here! that will attract many followers. If there be a single great, and apparently well-authenticated, miracle, others will accrete round it; then, in all religions that have so originated, there will follow temples, priests, rites, sincere believers, and unscrupulous exploiters of public credulity. To chronicle the events that followed Higgs's balloon ascent without shewing that they were much as they have been under like conditions in other places, would be to hold the mirror up to something very wide of nature.




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