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Erewhon

Downloads: Under 100
First published: 1872
Pages: 214

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8 h · 30 parts

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Preface
12:55
Waste Lands
11:45
In the Wool-Shed
8:30
Up the River
10:24
The Saddle
15:33
The River and the Range
14:43
Into Erewhon
15:30
First Impressions
13:16
In Prison
15:17
To the Metropolis
19:43
Current Opinions
19:21
Some Erowhonian Trials
14:32
Malcontents
18:35
The Views of the Erowhonians Concerning Death
17:31
Mahaina
8:49
The Musical Banks
27:19
Arowhena
16:35
Ydgrun and the Ydgrunites
14:22
Birth Formulae
11:54
The World of the Unborn
16:01
What They Mean by It
17:35
The Colleges of Unreason
17:15
The Colleges of Unreason - Continued
20:34
The Book of the Machines
12:13
The Machines - Continued
17:08
The Machines - Concluded
23:46
The Views of an Erewhonian Prophet Concerning the Rights of Animals
16:03
The Views of an Erewhonian Philosopher Concerning the Rights of Vegetables
16:48
Escape
20:33
Conclusion
15:37

Erewhon (1872) is a public domain work.

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About this book

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.

About the author

Samuel Butler

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.