Erewhon and Erewhon Revisited (Everyman's Library) [Hardcover]

Samuel Butler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1959 | ISBN-10: 0460008811 | ISBN-13: 978-0460008815

1927. Butler's satirical novels revealed his long interest in Darwin's theories of biological evolution, though he had spent a great deal of time criticizing him. Some now find these books prophetic in their discussion about machines becoming intelligent and the extent to which humans would become dependent on them, as well as their increasingly rapid development.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 408 pages
• Publisher: J M Dent & Sons Ltd (February 1959)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0460008811
• ISBN-13: 978-0460008815
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,598,338 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as 'The Iliad...' (ok, that's a bit unfair.), February 21, 2008

By 

Richard L. Lunde - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Erewhon and Erewhon Revisited (Everyman's Library) (Hardcover)

I must say, when I picked up 'Erewhon' at the public library two and a half months ago, I thought 'hmm, I vaguely recall this title' and 'Well, I laughed out loud at some parts of Butler's translation of 'The Iliad.' Should be a great read!'

To be fair, Butler's own 1901 preface to the combined edition apologizes for his youthful errors. I don't know what age he was when he translated Homer, but he must have been much older, and much more confident. His prose creaks with the layers of dried horse-glue that he's applied in polishing his extensive sentences. He is trying to satirize 19th Cent. English churchmen, Oxbridge dons and so forth, which is interesting academically, but... rather dry. Dry, dry, dry!

I did jot down one quote, which deals with the tendency of people to more jealously guard their purses than their ideas (or something like that) which made me smile. But that's one in 300 pages.

This work smells of youth. It's overthought and under-felt. Not one of the characters (including the narrator) inspires even a moment's empathy. And I'm a guy who cried at the 'Lavender blue, dilly-dilly' passage in 'London' a few years back. It doesn't take much to touch my outwardly stern, inwardly caramel-coated Norwegian-American psyche!

I agree with the other reviewer who said other 'dystopian' works have been done better. I might add, Orwell gets more laughs.

Does he get away with Arowhena? Yes, because he tells us several times through the work that he does. (Yawn.) How does he escape Erewhon? Who cares? I'll never find out, I stopped after 280 pages.

Back to the joys of Homer for me.

2.0 out of 5 stars I suppose I'm an idiot, May 4, 2004

By 

Jack Purcell (Placitas, NM USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Erewhon and Erewhon Revisited (Everyman's Library) (Hardcover)

I've tried several times to read and enjoy this piece of fantasy freshman English types have been forced to drudge through for the last century. I've never succeeded. I tried it as a young man, forced to write papers on it and hated it. I've tried it as a horrid old codger, discovering tome by tome that books I once found awful have now grown merit and become a source of joy. Not so with this one.

Likely as not Erewhon was imaginative when it was written. Today it's been superceded by thousands of better reads with the same theme. There's nothing here that won't be found more interestingly expressed on any library or bookstore shelf in America.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Attention all Atheist, Skeptics, Freethinkers etc. !!!, November 28, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Erewhon and Erewhon Revisited (Everyman's Library) (Hardcover)

Anyone willing to question tradition without any biases should read these books with an open-mind. I am not going to tell you about the books because you should read them yourself. They may offend many christians but thats what the truth does to some people I guess.