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Erewhon Revisited

First published: 1901
Pages: 214

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About this book

Twenty years after his escape by balloon, the narrator Higgs slips back into the hidden country of Erewhon and finds it transformed. His flight, once a desperate act of survival, has been recast as a miraculous ascension into heaven, and a full religion called Sunchildism has grown up in his name, complete with priests, temples, and dogma. Butler uses the returning traveler to satirize how faiths are manufactured and how inconvenient facts get smoothed away by devout believers. Sharper and more openly anti-clerical than the first book, this sequel deepens the author's lifelong quarrel with organized religion and Victorian piety. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available here.

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.