Erewhon (Erewhon, #1) in Reading 1001

Feb 19, 2016 Pip rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-challenge

Because Samuel Butler wrote this book while living in New Zealand it is well known, if not often read here. There is actually a high country sheep station named after the book, near to the station called Mesopotamia where Butler worked a young man. The description of the country where the protagonist goes exploring is familiar to me and I loved his evocation of a very special place. But then Butler veers off into an isolated country where civilisation is organised so differently from Victorian E Because Samuel Butler wrote this book while living in New Zealand it is well known, if not often read here. There is actually a high country sheep station named after the book, near to the station called Mesopotamia where Butler worked a young man. The description of the country where the protagonist goes exploring is familiar to me and I loved his evocation of a very special place. But then Butler veers off into an isolated country where civilisation is organised so differently from Victorian England, with which Butler compares it, that he is completely discombobulated. In describing how this society (Nowhere spelt backwards) tolerates criminal behaviour and works very hard to rehabilitate criminals but punishes ill health severely, Butler elegantly satirises Victorian England. The reader is forced to think how differently we traditionally treat mental illness as opposed to physical illness. He also satirises the Church of England with a description of a Bank where people go regularly, but without undertaking more than token transactions, and with a dissonance between what they profess to believe and what they really think. Another contrast is that the Erewhonians believe in a prelife rather than an afterlife, and beings have to worry prospective parents until they agree to have a child, who has to then sign a document to take responsibility for their existence. By reversing common practices Butler exposes hypocrisies and anomalies, but it is much more fun to read than I have made it sound.Because Samuel Butler wrote this book while living in New Zealand it is well known, if not often read here. There is actually a high country sheep station named after the book, near to the station called Mesopotamia where Butler worked a young man. The description of the country where the protagonist goes exploring is familiar to me and I loved his evocation of a very special place. But then Butler veers off into an isolated country where civilisation is organised so differently from Victorian England, with which Butler compares it, that he is completely discombobulated. In describing how this society (Nowhere spelt backwards) tolerates criminal behaviour and works very hard to rehabilitate criminals but punishes ill health severely, Butler elegantly satirises Victorian England. The reader is forced to think how differently we traditionally treat mental illness as opposed to physical illness. He also satirises the Church of England with a description of a Bank where people go regularly, but without undertaking more than token transactions, and with a dissonance between what they profess to believe and what they really think. Another contrast is that the Erewhonians believe in a prelife rather than an afterlife, and beings have to worry prospective parents until they agree to have a child, who has to then sign a document to take responsibility for their existence. By reversing common practices Butler exposes hypocrisies and anomalies, but it is much more fun to read than I have made it sound. ...more

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Oct 08, 2016 Tim Hickman rated it liked it

Shelves: owned, 1001-books-read

The satirical novel from 1872 was largely aimed at British victorian society and politics and much of its satire is lost on a contemporary reader. One aspect of Butler's imagined new society of Erewhon which continues to fascinate is his idea that these people had identified the risk of machines developing beyond humans and overtaking them.

Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk are talking of such things now and it is fascinating to see the germ of these ideas in this novel from the 19th century. He wro ...more

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Mar 14, 2008 Judith marked it as to-read

Shelves: literature-british, lists-501-books-to-read, 19th-century-literature, 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, lists-bloom-s-western-canon, kindle-edition, lists-guardian-s-1000-best, fiction

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Oct 20, 2010 Diane rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: victorian, guardian-1000, 1001, 1001-done, classics, western-canon, around-the-world-2015, 501-must-read-books, penguin-classics, 19th-century

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