Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #514022 in Books
• Published on: 1970-11-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Customer Reviews

Hamfisted and too long, even at ~150 pages
Erewhon, like Butler's other (magnificient and far more effective) novel The Way of All Flesh, is rife with social satire. The optimistic and devout explorer trots out all kinds of European imperialist platitudes and, as with most satirical characters, is almost totally one-dimensional. Most other characters- noble savages, squaws, and other racist or bigoted archetypes, are fodder for the author's wit more than flesh and blood. This would be fine if the satire were as proficient as, say, Voltaire's, but it is not.

As others have mentioned, the "justice" system in Erewhon whereby the sick are punished and criminals rehabilitated to health is the main punchline. In a short story this concept would have been brilliant but the length of the book grinds the joke into the ground well before the narrative draws to a close. It's a joke with a punchline that doesn't justify the extravagant buildup.

EREWHON by Samuel Butler
Originally published in 1872 and now billed as the "second great satire of the nineteenth century," Erewhon is a critique of Victorian society. In it, a British man comes across a never-before discovered society (which he is convinced is the lost tribes of Israel).

Erewhon has no plot to speak of. Here is its pattern: Butler gives us a bizarre scenario that seemingly makes no sense, takes us through it, and finally explains its parallel to Victorian life. Then this repeats. This is the whole book, book-ended by forty pages of setup (most of which is unnecessary) and a convenient and tidy ending. As such, the reader may feel like he is reading a work on nonsense philosophy rather than a work of fiction.

This is not to say that there is nothing worthwhile here. Occasionally, there are flashes of brilliance, and there are some thought-provoking elements. Erewhonians, for example, treat the sick like criminals and treat criminals like they have diseases. In a modern-day version, perhaps, those who have self-inflicted poor health, like some of the obese and diabetic, would be considered criminal.

On the whole, working through the philosophical meanderings of Butler's scenarios is tedious. It certainly does not help that many aspects of Victorian society are now foreign to us. Erewhon hasn't held up. Stick with Swift.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Unexpected Early Science Fiction - 3 1/2 Stars
I bought this book expecting strait social satire. It turns out that the first five chapters are more of an adventure story through a jungle, and are really quite boring. If I could re-edit the book today I would cut them out. When we finally enter Erewhon, the story and the satire pick up, and the read is much more pleasant. Then, unexpectedly, about two-thirds of the way into the book, it becomes a very interesting science fiction tale of why the Erewhonians abandoned technology for fear that the machines would evolve into intelligent, conscious, thinking machines able to reproduce and replace man at the top of the evelutionary ladder! I was pleasantly surprised by this because science fiction is my favorite genre, and in all my reading I've never heard of this concept being thought of more than 130 years ago!

If you can get through the first five chapters, I recommend this book.