Erewhon - Softcover

Butler, Samuel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1684221161 ISBN 13: 9781684221165

Verlag: Martino Fine Books, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

2017 Reprint of 1935 Penguin Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition software. Originally published in 1872, the greater part of the novel consists of a description of Erewhon. The nature of this nation is intended to be ambiguous. At first glance, Erewhon appears to be a Utopia, yet it soon becomes clear that this is far from the case. Yet for all the failings of Erewhon, it is also clearly not a dystopia, such as that depicted in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. As a satirical utopia, Erewhon has sometimes been compared to Gulliver's Travels (1726), a classic novel by Jonathan Swift; the image of Utopia in this latter case also bears strong parallels with the self-view of the British Empire at the time. It can also be compared to the William Morris novel, News from Nowhere. Erewhon satirizes various aspects of Victorian society, including criminal punishment, religion and anthropocentrism. For example, according to Erewhonian law, offenders are treated as if they were ill, whereas ill people are looked upon as criminals. Another feature of Erewhon is the absence of machines; this is due to the widely shared perception by the Erewhonians that they are potentially dangerous. Inspired by Samuel Butler's years in colonial New Zealand and by his reading of Darwin's Origin of Species, Erewhon is a highly original, irreverent and humorous satire on conventional virtues, religious hypocrisy and the unthinking acceptance of beliefs.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

English novelist and critic Samuel Butler is best known for his semi-autobiographical book The Way of All Flesh, which was first published in 1964 under the title Ernest Pontifex or The Way of All Flesh, and for his satirical utopian novel Erewhon (1872), which was published posthumously in 1903 after significant revisions. Both books are still in print after their original releases. In additional research, he looked at Italian art, evolution theory, and Christian orthodoxy. He also translated the Iliad and Odyssey into language that is still used today. Butler was born in the rectory in the Nottinghamshire village of Langar on December 4, 1835. Rev was his father. Thomas Butler is the son of Dr. Samuel Butler, who was the bishop of Lichfield after serving as the headmaster of Shrewsbury School. Dr. Butler came from a family of yeomen and was the son of a trader, but his academic prowess was noticed early on, and he was sent to Cambridge and Rugby, where he excelled. Thomas, his only son, wanted to join the Navy but gave in to pressure from his father and joined the Church of England instead, where he had a mediocre career compared to his father's.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Martino Fine Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1684221161
• ISBN 13: 9781684221165
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 218
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Deutschland