Erewhon
Samuel Butler drew on his years as a sheep farmer in New Zealand to imagine Erewhon, a hidden country reached over a forbidding mountain range. Its name is a near-anagram of ‘nowhere,’ and its customs invert those of Victorian England: sickness is punished as a crime, while thieves and swindlers are treated as invalids and nursed back to health. The most startling section, ‘The Book of the Machines,’ argues that machines might one day evolve consciousness and supplant humanity, a strikingly early meditation on artificial intelligence. Butler aims his satire at religion, morality, and complacent respectability while keeping a perfectly straight face. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available here.
About the Author
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) was an English author, painter, and iconoclast who spent formative years sheep farming in New Zealand. A relentless critic of Victorian religion and morality, he is best known for the satire Erewhon and the posthumous novel The Way of All Flesh.
See all books by Samuel Butler →
Listen to Erewhon Audiobook Free
Listen to Erewhon by Samuel Butler free online. The full audiobook (8 hr 0 min, 30 chapters, read by volunteer narrators) streams free on this page.
Erewhon (1872) is a public domain work.
| # | Chapter | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Preface | 12:55 | |
| 2 | Waste Lands | 11:45 | |
| 3 | In the Wool-Shed | 8:30 | |
| 4 | Up the River | 10:24 | |
| 5 | The Saddle | 15:33 | |
| 6 | The River and the Range | 14:43 | |
| 7 | Into Erewhon | 15:30 | |
| 8 | First Impressions | 13:16 | |
| 9 | In Prison | 15:17 | |
| 10 | To the Metropolis | 19:43 | |
| 11 | Current Opinions | 19:21 | |
| 12 | Some Erowhonian Trials | 14:32 | |
| 13 | Malcontents | 18:35 | |
| 14 | The Views of the Erowhonians Concerning Death | 17:31 | |
| 15 | Mahaina | 8:49 | |
| 16 | The Musical Banks | 27:19 | |
| 17 | Arowhena | 16:35 | |
| 18 | Ydgrun and the Ydgrunites | 14:22 | |
| 19 | Birth Formulae | 11:54 | |
| 20 | The World of the Unborn | 16:01 | |
| 21 | What They Mean by It | 17:35 | |
| 22 | The Colleges of Unreason | 17:15 | |
| 23 | The Colleges of Unreason - Continued | 20:34 | |
| 24 | The Book of the Machines | 12:13 | |
| 25 | The Machines - Continued | 17:08 | |
| 26 | The Machines - Concluded | 23:46 | |
| 27 | The Views of an Erewhonian Prophet Concerning the Rights of Animals | 16:03 | |
| 28 | The Views of an Erewhonian Philosopher Concerning the Rights of Vegetables | 16:48 | |
| 29 | Escape | 20:33 | |
| 30 | Conclusion | 15:37 |
Prefer reading? Read Erewhon online free or download the PDF and EPUB above.
