A young traveller sets out to make his fortune and discovers the idyllic distant land of Erewhon. Its people welcome him with open arms, but this apparent utopia soon reveals its darker side.
In Erewhon, money has no value and disease is a crime, yet poverty is punishable and criminals are cared for as though sick. How can he survive in a land where morality makes no sense?
âErewhonâ is Samuel Butlerâs classic utopian satire about the hypocrisy of religion and Victorian society. Influenced by Darwinâs recently published âOn the Origin of Speciesâ, it is most famous for its ground-breaking idea of âmechanical consciousnessâ. In 1901, Butler published a sequel entitled âErewhon Revisitedâ. Both books are perfect for fans of âGulliverâs Travels.â
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) was a revolutionary English novelist and critic. He is best known for the utopian novel âErewhonâ (1872) and the posthumous, semi-autobiographical novel âThe Way of All Fleshâ (1903). Both of which have remained in print ever since.
âErewhonâ is renowned as one of the first books to explore the idea of machine evolution and the writer Aldous Huxley acknowledged its influence on his novel âBrave New World.'
George Bernard Shaw deemed Butler âthe greatest English writer of the latter half of the nineteenth century.â