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Erewhon, or Over the Range: a satire on society and human gullibiity (Aziloth Books) - Couverture souple

Butler, Samuel

 
9781907523649: Erewhon, or Over the Range: a satire on society and human gullibiity (Aziloth Books)

Synopsis

Samuel Butler's irreverent satire, 'Erewhon', castigates the hypocrisy of both religion and conventional social mores, and pours scorn on the unthinking acceptance that makes such beliefs possible. In Erewhon (an anagram of 'Nowhere') 'normal' behaviour' consists of hospitalizing fraudsters and chastising the sick; of disregarding genius and praising the insane. Erewhonians are described as "meek and long-suffering, easily led by the nose, and quick to offer up common sense at the shrine of logic" - pointed criticism of both Victorian society and contemporary 'politically-correct' repression. Butler's imaginative tale sparkles with wit and prescient insights: his discussion of the dangers posed by increasingly intelligent machines has more relevance today than when it was first written over 130 years ago.

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Présentation de l'éditeur

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? Butler satirically describes a utopian society, using the civilization of ‘Erewhon’ (an anagram for ‘nowhere’) to satirize beliefs popular in the England of his day.

Biographie de l'auteur

Samuel Butler (1835 – 1902) was an iconoclastic Victorian-era English author who published a variety of works. Two of his most famous pieces are the Utopian satire Erewhon and a semi-autobiographical novel published posthumously, The Way of All Flesh. 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 also made prose translations of the Iliad and Odyssey which remain in use to this day. Butler never married, although he did for years make regular weekly visits to a prostitute, Lucie Dumas.

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