The Way of All Flesh

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Aegypan, 2007 - Fiction - 356 pages

Samuel Butler was one of the Victorian era's greatest iconoclasts. Once, he said that after reading Darwin's The Origin of Species, that the theory of evolution had replaced Christianity for him. And this -- after Butler had originally studied for the clergy. Darwin also praised Butler for his clear understanding of Darwin's scientific work, as expressed in a series of popular articles contributed to the Canterbury Press. Butler's first literary success came in the form of the 1872 novel Erewhon, a work that was originally published anonymously, but which was an immediate popular and critical success in its satire of Victorian English mores and customs ("Erewhon" is "Nowhere" spelled backward). After Erewhon, Butler began writing the first draft of The Way of All Flesh, but put it aside after realizing that the scathing, autobiographical nature of the story would deeply hurt other family members. The Way of All Flesh was eventually published in 1903. It tells the story of Ernest Pontifex, based upon Butler himself, and his struggles with Victorian mores, his restrictive, highly-religious family, and Victorian society itself.

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About the author (2007)

Samuel Butler (1835 - 1902) was an iconoclastic English author of a variety of works. Two of his most famous works are the Utopian satire Erewhon and the semi-autobiographical novel The Way of All Flesh, published posthumously. He is also known for examining Christian orthodoxy, substantive studies of evolutionary thought, studies of Italian art and works of literary history and criticism. Butler made prose translations of the Iliad and Odyssey that remain in use to this day.

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