Butler, Samuel (1835-1902), an English author, is best known for the satirical novel Erewhon (1872). Like Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Erewhon ridicules English institutions and customs through the eyes of a traveler in a strange new world. But Erewhon has a tone of cool amusement, unlike the tone of bitter scorn in Gulliver’s Travels.
Butler’s other major work is The Way of All Flesh (published in 1903, after his death). It is a realistic, autobiographical novel that presents a detailed picture of Victorian society. The book contains much wit and some likable characters, but is generally bitter in tone. The bitter tone reflects in part Butler’s own cheerless childhood, which his father dominated. Butler also wrote other satirical works, travel books, and essays that attacked various aspects of Charles Darwin’s theories of evolution.
Butler was born on Dec. 4, 1835, in Langar Rectory, Nottingham. He was the son of a clergyman. Butler died on June 18, 1902.
