Erewhon; Or, Over the Range (Dodo Press)

My rating:

add to my books

Erewhon; Or, Over the Range (Dodo Press)

by Samuel Butler

3.18 · rating details · 595 ratings · 78 reviews

Samuel Butler (1835-1902) was a British writer strongly influenced by his New Zealand experiences. He is best known for his utopian satire Erewhon; or, Over the Range (1872) and his posthumous novel The Way of All Flesh (1903). He went up to his father's alma mater, St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1854. Following graduation from Cambridge, Butler lived in a low-income pa...more

Paperback, 212 pages

Published February 29th 2008 by Dodo Press (first published 1872)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 1,443)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Mar 02, 2009

Chris rated it

· review of another edition

Erewhon, as a satire and/or essay, is interesting and has some thought provoking ideas. Erewhon as a novel has a fairly thin but still interesting plot line in an intriguing environment. Unfortunately, meshing the two of these together makes for a difficult book to swallow at times.

I enjoyed the thought provoking elements of the satire that Butler presents. He turns the world upside down in order to have us explore just how "civilized" we truly are. He maintains the same ...moreErewhon, as a satire and/or essay, is interesting and has some thought provoking ideas. Erewhon as a novel has a fairly thin but still interesting plot line in an intriguing environment. Unfortunately, meshing the two of these together makes for a difficult book to swallow at times.

I enjoyed the thought provoking elements of the satire that Butler presents. He turns the world upside down in order to have us explore just how "civilized" we truly are. He maintains the same basic structure...that a society should have a government with laws that people can be punished for, education to help them in society, religion to help with their conscience. However, he turns all of these "normal" conventions on their heads to get us to think not about the conventions themselves, but about the way we approach them.

For example, instead of being punished for what we crimes (theft, murder, etc.), the people of Erewhon are punished if they fall physically ill...sometimes being imprisoned or even sentenced to death. And conversely, if a person finds himself in the throes of robbery or some other 'crime', he is instead consoled and properly treated for the recovery of this behavior and looked on with sympathy from friends and family. In this satirical move, Butler asks us to examine our treatment of criminals. The Erewhonians provide rehabilitation for liars, thieves and murderers while simply shutting away those who commit "crimes" of physical illness. While we profess to offer rehabilitation for our criminals, what good does it do to stick them in an 8x8 box for years and then throw them out on the street with a black mark on their "permanent record?" Which system is better for helping with crime? As to illness, the Erewhonian treatment of illness is definitely ludicrous, but to a small degree it has logic in that it quarantines the truly ill and it also cuts down on people feigning illness or complaining over small headaches. In Erewhon, there is truly very little illness and no 'calling in sick', or making an excuse of "I've got a headache."

Butler also satirizes religious devotion (he alludes to religion in terms of the different types of money in the kingdom...the "religious" type having no earthly value yet being esteemed as of great personal worth...and yet citizens of Erewhon barely go through the motions with the 'religious' currency and have a completely different value system for each type of currency).

His lengthiest satirical discourse is with regards to the idea of consciousness. He takes it to the absurd (at least for his day) by suggesting a world in which machines would become self-aware and potentially overthrow mankind as the dominant race (a la Terminator or others). We're not there yet, but I think Butler would have a coronary if he saw how today's technology compared of that ~120 years ago. While the discussion on consciousness has some holes, it's also intriguing, especially when looking at the advancements of the last hundred years. He makes some good arguments and it's interesting to transition those arguments into the natural world and look at the advancements of mankind as a race or of other animals out there. The rise of consciousness or self-awareness is a very interesting topic. I'd be interested to read more of his thoughts since in the book he basically opens the can of worms and sets it on a shelf.

So in terms of the satire, Butler brings forth some interesting ideas.

In terms of the plot, it's a fairly basic adventure novel of the nineteenth century...a man in a distant British colony seeks fame and fortune through exploration and hopefully finding either a place to gain more wealth or to find savages to convert to Christianity or both. The first 50-100 pages contain standard Victorian descriptions of the landscapes and the travels. While poetic and pretty, they did drag on and I wanted to skip beyond them. As our narrator finally gets closer to Erewhon, his travels actually have some drama unfold. Once he finally arrives at the city, he's initially thrown into prison and has some moderate adventure.

The "adventures" he has in the country of Erewhon are very lightweight in terms of adventure. The level of excitement is pretty bland since it is often broken up by dozens of pages of satirical essay exploring strange elements of Erewhonian culture. Again, this is moderately typical of 19th century literature, but I was hoping for a bit more in terms of action within Erewhon itself. The "story" of the book could probably take ~1/3 of the pages (with probably a third of those devoted to description of the countryside and his initial travels) with the remaining 2/3 being devoted to thoughtful discourse on the various absurdities of society.

All in all, this was an interesting and thought provoking book...but I would've preferred the abridged version and/or simply reading the "essays" as essays rather than having them interjected into an adventure novel.

***
2 1/2 stars(less)

like 5 likes

· see review

May 31, 2008

Douglas Summers-stay rated it

· review of another edition

I admit I skimmed over a lot of this book. It's a satire about Victorian society and frankly I'm too far removed from a lot of the issues to get much out of his turning them upside down. But the three chapters on machines-- Wow! When I read Dune in the 80s the idea of the "Butlerian Jihad" struck me as a particularly unusual new idea. I never would have believed that the plot-- machines evolving through natural and artificial selection into a kind of artificial life, reproducing with...more

like 1 like

· see review

Jul 07, 2008

Nicole rated it

· review of another edition

So, I finally finished this 200 page book that I started reading in October! Well, although it took me a long time to get through the book, I think it was worth it. The thing is, it is a very, very thoughtful book - certainly not a light read, so I couldn't read it unless I really had the free time and energy to concentrate. And, if I didn't get through a chapter in one sitting, I usually had to start if over later because I couldn't follow the chapter otherwise. AT ANY RATE, I found this bo...more

like 1 like

· see review

Aug 22, 2008

John rated it

· review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

like 2 likes

· see review

Jul 29, 2011

Annette rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classics

Probably will not finish Erewhon, another classic I picked off the shelves of Project Gutenberg. It started out as a fairly pedestrian colonization / exploration story along the lines of something Louis L'Amor might write. But once our (unnamed) hero made it over the mountains and into Erewhon itself, it took and abrupt left turn and became something much closer to Gulliver's Travels. Many, endless chapters are devoted to the study of the peculiarities of Erewhonese culture, in which all illnes...more

· see review

Jul 23, 2011

Becky rated it

· review of another edition

My word, this one took me a good while! I enjoyed Erewhon at first, having not read anything quite like it. It begins with the tale of an adventure, where Higgs the explorer tries to discover a new country for farming over the mountains in New Zealand (perhaps). He's a bit of a haphazard traveller, left to rot by his native guide, but somehow manages to stumble into a beautiful tribe of people known as the Erewhonians. Believing them to be one of the long lost Hebrew tribes, he tries to lear...more

· see review

Oct 14, 2009

MisterFweem rated it

· review of another edition

Pardon me, but the English geek inside me is coming out. Remember as Dave Barry said, if you can easily come up with idiot interpretations of novels, you should major in English. I majored in journalism, meaning I could easily come up with idiot interpretations of news events. Same thing.

So here’s my idiot interpretation of Samuel Butler’s contribution to Frank Herbert’s Dune.

Herbert, author of the Dune novels, may have taken the name of Butler and the idea of a societal ...morePardon me, but the English geek inside me is coming out. Remember as Dave Barry said, if you can easily come up with idiot interpretations of novels, you should major in English. I majored in journalism, meaning I could easily come up with idiot interpretations of news events. Same thing.

So here’s my idiot interpretation of Samuel Butler’s contribution to Frank Herbert’s Dune.

Herbert, author of the Dune novels, may have taken the name of Butler and the idea of a societal rebellion against machines from Butler’s novel Erewhon into Herbert’s books as the Butlerian Jihad, in which sentient robots and thinking machines were banned, with the ensuing chaos and violence that the word jihad implies. This is certainly not an original thought, as many Dune enthusiasts (I hesitate to call them scholars, since there are no endowed chairs, at least that I know of, for the pupose of literary study of the Herbert canon, though it would not surprise me at all to find someone, several someones, who have focused on Herbert in masters or doctoral theses. I'll bet Comic Book Guy would have a few words to say on the subject.) have also come to the same conclusion. There’s a lot of disagreement, however, most of it superficial, such as this.

I believe there is strong evidence that supports Herbert’s drawing on Butler’s name and Erewhonian philosophy as background for the Butlerian Jihad.

Butler’s Erewhonians believed that an overreliance on machines would weaken humanity and cause natural selection to stumble in allowing weaker humans, aided by machines, to continue contributing to the gene pool. This belief is in line with the criminalization of illness in Erewhon, where diseases of the body were treated as crimes and justly punished, while what we consider to be crimes – embezzlement, tax evasion – are tolerated under Erewhonian law as proof that the minds that performed such activities are stronger than those that do not, pushing the drive to succeed by any means above the drive to succeed honestly.

In addition, Butler’s Erewhonian scholar writes:

The misery is that man has been blind so long already. In his reliance upon the use of steam, he has been betrayed into increasing and multiplying. To withdraw steam power suddenly will not have the effect of reducing us to the state in which we were before its introduction; there will be a general break-up and time of anarchy such as has never been known; it will be as though our population were suddenly doubled, with no additional means of feeding the increased number. The air we breathe is hardly more necessary for our animal life than the use of any machine, on the strength of which we have increased our numbers, is to our civilization; it is the machines which act upon man and make him man, as much as man who has acted upon and made the machines; but we must choose between the alternative of undergoing much present suffering, or seeing ourselves gradually superseded by our own creatures till we rank no higher in comparison with them, than the beasts of the field with ourselves.

Here we see the roots of and consequences of Herbert’s Butlerian Jihad. Erewhonians feared overreliance on steam. Herbert’s empire-dwellers feared the overreliance on thinking machines. Despite the fact that withdrawing the steam/thinking machines all at once would introduce a period of anarchy, both the Erewhonians and Herbert’s people chose war, rather than continue to become subject to the machines they created. Both there Erewhonians and Herbert’s people prepared alternatives – Erewhonians relied solely on men, judged by horse-power, to accomplish the work of the steam-engines; Herbert’s people used the mentats. But both in Erewhon and in the Empire, overreliance on machine became overreliance on the “machine” built to replace the machine, leading to the same general conditions the rejection of machinery and the jihad were meant to overcome.

Not until mélange is made synthetically – and never in Erewhon – is the paradigm shifted enough to bring about another revolution.(less)

like 1 like

· see review

Feb 12, 2011

stormhawk rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, buddy-read

Erewhon is one of those books that you know about and never quite get around to reading because you didn't take that particular English Lit class ... and then you graduate and think you won't read that kind of book on your own, until you join goodreads.com and someone suggests it as a buddy read and you think, well, why not?

And so, you read Erewhon, three syllables. Err-uh-wan. I wonder why that was important, other than maybe it's a poke at the precision of Upper Class Victorian Brit...more

like 1 like

· see review

Dec 04, 2009

C Nathanael JE Culver rated it

· review of another edition

Well-craft, albeit it fairly typical, 19th century fictional ethnologue in which the heroic traveler discovers a heretofore unknown race which, being in nearly all respects like unto us, serves as a foil for the author's exploration of some facet of our own culture. In this, Erewhon follows in the venerable footsteps of Gulliver's Travels (though the satire is more subtle) and Flatland.

What little plot there is is typically cookie cutter. The protagonist, driven to explore, or maroon...moreWell-craft, albeit it fairly typical, 19th century fictional ethnologue in which the heroic traveler discovers a heretofore unknown race which, being in nearly all respects like unto us, serves as a foil for the author's exploration of some facet of our own culture. In this, Erewhon follows in the venerable footsteps of Gulliver's Travels (though the satire is more subtle) and Flatland.

What little plot there is is typically cookie cutter. The protagonist, driven to explore, or marooned through unfortunate circumstance, finds himself living amongst an unknown people where he learns the language and culture before inconvenient circumstances force him to flee. Returning home, he makes the case of his journey before a skeptical European audience. But, of course, the plot is not the point.

The unknown race in this case is The Erewhonian society, located somewhere in the hinterlands of New Zealand's South Island(a terra sufficiently incognito in the 19th century to credibly hide a significant culture against prying continental eyes), and in the Erewhonian case, the idiosyncrasies are ethical and religious in nature. The Erewhonians treat infirmity and misfortune disease as we would moral failings, and vice versa. The ill, the unfortunate (and the just plain homely) are imprisoned for the crime of being sick or unlucky (or unappealing), while those succumbing to moral vice are plied with the sympathies of family and friends, while they seek out the assistance of "straighteners" -- sort of doctors for the soul. Theologically, the Erewhonians eschew notions of an afterlife in favor of belief in "pre-existence".

Erewhon is not much of a story, as plotlines go. If you tend toward exciting, fast paced adventure, you may find Erewhon a dull plod. For those like myself, however, who find their heads turned by explorations of a more cultural or philosophical character, Butler manages to craft a society of sufficient depth to keep the pages turning evening if you don't catch all of the Victorian satire.

Rating: 3/5(less)

· see review

Nov 08, 2011

Andrew Maccann rated it

· review of another edition

Erewhon certainly starts off well: the first third or so is a compelling adventure story of one man discovering an almost fantastical, hitherto unknown country. The narrator's journey through the land of Erewhon is classic fish-out-of-water narrative, as we learn more of the alien culture & exaggerated moralities these people live by. Very much a novel with Swiftian influences; it's all quite tongue-in-cheek and a little bit silly.

It all goes quickly downhill though by the latter half...more

· see review

Mar 20, 2010

Kaput rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, worth-reading

Eccentric is a word that best describes this book. It's quite strange and by turns manages to be both witty and wittering. Erewhon is a place where people do everything pretty much backwards - criminals treated like sick people, sick people treated like criminals - so that Butler can explore and mock the conventions of his time. The last few chapters are really strong. The people of Erewhon have banned machines because they are afraid that humans will become subservient to them. There are some r...more

· see review

Oct 04, 2011

Paul rated it

· review of another edition

It took me some time to finish this, as I was often distracted by other, flashier, more interesting books. This is often tauted as the first modern utopian novel, and in that respect it's interesting. It presages the computer age and the ethical dilemmas we're just beginning to face, while also telling something of an adventure tale.

It bogs down in many places, however, as Butler satirizes various aspects of Victorian society. It can be interesting to read these, and often, multiple viewpoints a...more

· see review

Sep 07, 2007

Chris Herdt rated it

· review of another edition

An important utopian/dystopian novel that, like Gulliver's Travels, critiques the author's contemporary society via a look at a topsy-turvy society, literally on the other side of the world in a New Zealand-ish geography. Features an excellent escape by hot air balloon.

like 1 like

· see review

Oct 31, 2011

Lucy rated it

· review of another edition

'My first feeling on reading it was that any amount of folly .....was justified by a desire to escape from such intolerable prosing'. Dead right, Mr Butler, intolerable prosing sums up a great deal of this classic...but then you come across very acute observations, such as 'so engrained in the human heart is the desire to believe that some people really do know what they say they know, and can thus save them from the trouble of thinking for themselves': spot on, Mr Butler! He had some sound thi...more

· see review

Jul 03, 2011

Dylan Mcintosh rated it

· review of another edition

My favorite section from the book was:

“Why,” asked one Professor, “should a man want to be better than his neighbours? Let him be thankful if he is no worse.”

I ventured feebly to say that I did not see how progress could be made in any art or science, or indeed in anything at all, without more or less self-seeking, and hence unamiability.

“Of course it cannot,” said the Professor, “and therefore we object to progress.”

I absolutely loved this book ...more

· see review

Jun 06, 2010

Harold rated it

· review of another edition

I found this book fascinating, but not as a fiction. While the description of Erewhon is creative, the story is thin, with little in the way of narrative. The book is more interesting to me as a window into the mind of a 19th century iconoclast. It is plain in reading this book that Butler largely wrote it as a means of airing his feelings about victorian England, very slightly veiled. The afterword claims that the utopian satire was a new concept at the time, so I have difficulty judging how th...more

· see review

Jan 09, 2012

Rob Zimmermann rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: possible-reading-list-for-2012

I wasn't sure what I was getting into when opening the book. I picked it up randomly one day a few years ago knowing I'd eventually read it. In ways I'm glad I did, in other ways I could have gone without it. There wasn't anything wrong with the story, aside from the last several chapters being accounts of histories of the culture the main character stumbled upon. With that said, the chapters on the machines really caught my attention. This book was published in 1872 and shows a prediction of "...more

· see review

Apr 16, 2011

Matt rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: those interested in 1800s-era satire

Shelves: classics, new-zealand

I decided to read Erewhon because we were going to New Zealand, and I thought it appropriate to have read some its (outdated) literature. (This being said, I still have a couple of others NZ books to read.)

Erewhon is the "second great satire of the nineteeth century" (following Gulliver's Travels). It follows Higgs as he travels to and meets the Erewhonians and their bizarre double-standards and lack of reason. It is meant as satire against Victorian culture. The only probl...more

· see review

Aug 08, 2010

Kristen rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, audiobook, novel-research

Let me say that the four-star review is because of the ideas contained within the book, in the context of the time that it was written, and no necessarily for the entertainment value of Erewhon as a novel. It's more of an essay/satire with some story bits thrown in here and there.

It's a surprisingly scathing satire of everything in Victorian society, including religion, politics, economics, and even belief in god. There is a chapter that addresses vegetarianism. There are severa...more

· see review

May 03, 2010

Marc Kozak rated it

· review of another edition

Trying to explain this book to someone inevitably results in some kind of "what the fuck are you reading" response. First of all, the title instantly makes you think Lord of the Rings (as in, "King Erewhon rode through Mordor while battling demons with his light saber"), but in actuality, it's a version of 'nowhere' spelled backwards. Secondly, trying to make a snap judgement about the plot after hearing it explained briefly will make your head explode. Not to mention the ass...moreTrying to explain this book to someone inevitably results in some kind of "what the fuck are you reading" response. First of all, the title instantly makes you think Lord of the Rings (as in, "King Erewhon rode through Mordor while battling demons with his light saber"), but in actuality, it's a version of 'nowhere' spelled backwards. Secondly, trying to make a snap judgement about the plot after hearing it explained briefly will make your head explode. Not to mention the assertion that this book is part Gulliver's Travels, part Darwin's "Origin of Species", part 1984, and part Francis Bacon. You really want to read it now, don't you?!?

The basic premise here is that a fine upstanding Englishman discovers a remote society of people tucked away in the mountains who have some pretty strange beliefs. Upon first meeting them, the narrator Higgs is impressed that everyone is beautiful, vibrant, and seemingly very happy. After learning their language and getting to know their customs, Higgs is shocked at the kind of things these people blindly believe in. For starters, physically ill or unwell people are disgraced and imprisoned, while criminals and murderers are sympathetically looked upon as ill, and sent to be rehabilitated by 'straighteners'. So someone who has a cold will try to conceal it from everyone so as not to be arrested, whereas the butchering of a house full of people is nothing more than a passing trifle in a person's head that can be corrected. Wacky!

While many of the people of Erewhon's beliefs may seem arbitrary, they all serve to satirize particular aspects of the English Victorian Era of the 1800's. As with most well-executed satire, an understanding of what is being poked fun at definitely adds to the story, but being completely clueless doesn't mean you won't find any enjoyment in reading it. However, the satire, when understood, is pretty funny - people's belief in the church of England is compared to Erewhon's system of 'musical banks': financial institutions that almost everyone uses, but only to keep up appearances with the enlightened society, and without any confidence or use for the bank in general.

The second half of the book is a fairly interesting (if not overly wordy) look at the theory of consciousness within machines - machinery was destroyed and forbidden in Erewhon hundreds of years ago, as they fear that machines will eventually evolve and take over (satirizing Butler's views of the Industrial Revolution). The argument laid down against machines may not be the most original anymore, but at the time, this was some pretty heavy stuff, and still holds up fairly well today.

Higgs gradually gets frustrated with Erewhon's willingness to believe things that sound good without questioning reason: at one point, a 'prophet' convinces everyone that eating meat is not moral, while another 'prophet' convinces everyone that eating vegetables is even worse, leading to quite a food problem. Eventually Higgs bails with his lover (part of a horribly underdeveloped bullshit love story subplot) and pledges to return and convert them all to Christianity. (LOL!)

This book, while short in pages, feels like it takes forever to get through due to Butler's unexciting and pedantic tone. While the book's topic admittedly wouldn't work as well with a lot of action and dialogue, it still feels like a chore at times to get through certain parts. Other complaints include a pretty weak escape scene, the aforementioned love story, and waaaay too long of a setup before Higgs even gets to Erewhon. Despite these style-related concerns, and not every aspect holding up as well as others since the time this book was written, Erewhon makes up for it in ideas. If anything, I'd suggest looking through 'The Book of Machines' section for a facsinating and still relevant look at technology's role in society.(less)

· see review

May 07, 2010

Dawn rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, dystopian, 1001

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I've had this book on reserve at the library for almost a year, but they only have one copy and it's lost. Since they clearly aren't going to be buying a replacement, I was happy to find Librivox and download a free audiobook version of Erewhon.

There were some parts that I really liked. In general, I like dystopin novels because I think it is an interesting way of questioning our current society by presenting an alternate society and having the reader compare/contrasts and draw conc...moreI've had this book on reserve at the library for almost a year, but they only have one copy and it's lost. Since they clearly aren't going to be buying a replacement, I was happy to find Librivox and download a free audiobook version of Erewhon.

There were some parts that I really liked. In general, I like dystopin novels because I think it is an interesting way of questioning our current society by presenting an alternate society and having the reader compare/contrasts and draw conclusions. In the Erewhonian society, those who are sick are considered sinners and put on trial, whereas those who are morally corrupt (theft, embezzlement) or a have bad temperament are considered pitiable and are rehabilitated. So if you have the typhoid fever you are shunned, but if you are acting like an asshole, people bring you presents to cheer you up. Backwards of course, but interesting. I also loved that people who are really sick pretend to be drunks for sympathy.

Erewhonians also detest machines because they believe they would eventually take over humans, and have thus destroyed all machines to prevent this. The College of Unreason was also interesting, the stamping out of individual thought and the "intellectual overindulgence" that progress could cause.

I was a little lost about the way children were raised and the weird post-birth ceremony where kids take the blame for being born? I thought it was a little but mocking of baptism, but then the beginning and ending had such a religious focus, that I'm sure this is incorrect. Thats is the problem with listening to books rather than reading them, sometimes my mind strays a bit and then it's hard to figure out where to start over from.

I was less impressed with the "love story" aspect. The narrator's love of Arowhena and his inability to marry her because of Erewhonian custom seemed a little weird. It ended up being such an important point and drove much of the action through the climax of the book. The Erewhonian marriage rule was different, but did not seem like such a big deal in comparison to a lot of the other things they believed in, so it seemed odd that it was such a sticking point. I liked the resolution of this plot point, but I will admit that I was left feeling kind of cold with the narrator's plan of converting the Erewhonians. I also didn't get the obsession with the lost tribes of Israel, and the narrator's self-importance about finding them. "I can find them and convert them and then I'll be famous!" Let it go dude, you have much worse problems...(less)

· see review

Jul 16, 2010

Josh rated it

· review of another edition

First, the bad: there was so much potential here for a more interesting/thorough storyline! What we get is a very watered-down plot which exists solely as a jumping off point for commentary and satire on society and whose main points are often plainly announced before they occur. Further, a fair bit of the commentary is thin and lacks much force due to the way in which it is presented.

But, there are some great ideas here! For me, the chapters near the end of the book provide the ...moreFirst, the bad: there was so much potential here for a more interesting/thorough storyline! What we get is a very watered-down plot which exists solely as a jumping off point for commentary and satire on society and whose main points are often plainly announced before they occur. Further, a fair bit of the commentary is thin and lacks much force due to the way in which it is presented.

But, there are some great ideas here! For me, the chapters near the end of the book provide the most interesting insights - particularly The Colleges of Unreason and The Book of the Machines. Since many reviewers have already commented on aspects of the satire here, I will just touch on some things I have not seen mentioned. While many correlate The Book of the Machines to the idea of future machines gaining consciousness, I find underlying this an attack (or, at least, an aggressive questioning) of our very notion of consciousness. Butler does the same, too, for our notions of intelligence, will, mechanical processes, and others as well. In regard to this, he anticipates the later work of Wittgenstein, though he's hardly the first to analyze language in this way. Butler seems to me to be pointing out that while we are different from animals, vegetables, and machines, we are not so different as we are accustomed to thinking. We believe that we are special, and we must believe so in order to have a better chance of survival. But, from some other standpoint, it's all potayto and potahto.

I also got a kick out of the fact that Butler anticipates the frustration that some readers would find in the book by making his narrator get frustrated with the writer of The Book of the Machines: "Here the writer became again so hopelessly obscure that I was obliged to miss several pages." Brilliant.

Lastly, a comment on Butler's feelings toward education. Since completing the book, I've thought a lot about a quote from The Colleges of Unreason in which the narrator says of England: "...our seats of learning aim rather at fostering mediocrity than anything higher...". I wonder if this isn't the case with every system of education. And, if so, I wonder whether it's right, wrong, or just plain inevitable.(less)

· see review

Feb 22, 2011

Oscar rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: clásicos, ciencia-ficción, utopía, propios, distopía

'Erewhon' podría enmarcarse en la llamada pre-ciencia ficción. El libro, escrito en 1872, nos cuenta el tiempo que vivió el protagonista y narrador en el país de Erewhon, una sociedad claramente distópica, pero que para sus habitantes es todo lo contrario, y aquí es donde entra en juego la parte utópica.

La historia comienza cuando el protagonista llega a una nueva región (aunque no se nombra en ningún momento, ésta parece ser Nueva Zelanda, lugar al que viajó el autor en su juventud)...more'Erewhon' podría enmarcarse en la llamada pre-ciencia ficción. El libro, escrito en 1872, nos cuenta el tiempo que vivió el protagonista y narrador en el país de Erewhon, una sociedad claramente distópica, pero que para sus habitantes es todo lo contrario, y aquí es donde entra en juego la parte utópica.

La historia comienza cuando el protagonista llega a una nueva región (aunque no se nombra en ningún momento, ésta parece ser Nueva Zelanda, lugar al que viajó el autor en su juventud), donde igual te encuentras zonas inhóspitas que montañas con nieves eternas. Su mayor ambición es encontrar buenas tierras para ganado, y es por ello que un buen día sale a explorar. Así es como da con un país oculto entre montañas del que no se tenía noticia alguna, Erewhon, cuyos habitantes tienen unas leyes y costumbres totalmente desquiciadas, y me quedo corto con el apelativo.

En Erewhon la enfermedad física está mal vista y según su gravedad puedes ir a la cárcel condenado a trabajos forzados. Sin embargo, la enfermedad moral no está tan mal vista. Si has estafado, el gobierno hará todo lo posible por rehabilitarte. El tema de los nacimientos tampoco tiene desperdicio. Un recien nacido es una gran ofensa para la familia, y más le valdría a éste haberse quedado en el reino de los nonatos. Con decir que el protagonista, a pesar de ser un extranjero, está bien visto por ser rubio, por ser inusual, está todo dicho. Y eso que llevaba un reloj de bolsillo, una aberración para los erewhonianos.

Los capítulos dedicados al Libro de las Máquinas son los mejores. En ellos se nos aclara porqué se prohibieron todas las máquinas en el país hace cientos de años. Es decir, que habiéndose adelantado al resto del mundo, renunciaron al progreso. Butler, el autor, realiza aquí un análisis sorprendente para la época: "¿No puede durar el mundo veinte millones de años todavía? Si así fuere, ¡qué no llegarán a ser las máquinas! ¿No sería más prudente cortar el mal de raíz prohibiendo los nuevos adelantos?"

El libro rezuma reflexiones de este tipo, la mar de interesantes. Pero también se hace muy aburrido. Butler se pone demasiado pedagógico a veces, y la historia se hace pesada. Una novela interesante sin más.(less)

· see review

Dec 08, 2008

Isil rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: angleterre, litterature, xixe, victorien, utopie-dystopie

La fan de Dune que je suis ne pouvait qu’être intriguée par la quatrième de couverture d’un auteur qui se nomme Butler et où il est question d’interdiction des machines. Le jihad butlerien d’Herbert, qui frappe d’interdit l’ordinateur, ne peut être une coïncidence, il a dû s’en inspirer pour son œuvre.
Erewhon est l’anagramme de « nowhere » (nulle part), dont le grec a servi à créer le mot « utopie ». Erewhon est dans la lignée des voyages de Gulliver de Swift. C’est en réalité une s...moreLa fan de Dune que je suis ne pouvait qu’être intriguée par la quatrième de couverture d’un auteur qui se nomme Butler et où il est question d’interdiction des machines. Le jihad butlerien d’Herbert, qui frappe d’interdit l’ordinateur, ne peut être une coïncidence, il a dû s’en inspirer pour son œuvre.
Erewhon est l’anagramme de « nowhere » (nulle part), dont le grec a servi à créer le mot « utopie ». Erewhon est dans la lignée des voyages de Gulliver de Swift. C’est en réalité une satire de la société victorienne, une critique de ses certitudes et de son hypocrisie. Mais là où l’utopie traditionnelle utilise la critique pour envisager un monde meilleur, Butler ne se fait guère d’illusions. En fait, il commente sans apporter d’alternative. Erewhon est considéré comme la première dystopie ( ou contre-utopie). Dans ce monde, il n’y a pas de société idéale. On juge un homme à sa beauté, la maladie et l’argent sont des enjeux importants de la société erewhonienne. L’hypocrisie sociale est un mode de vie, l’euphémisme est de mise pour éviter les sujets délicats. En outre, les habitants ne croient de toute évidence pas à tout ce qu’ils professent et il n’est pas admis de sortir du lot, c'est-à-dire d’avoir une pensée propre (ou tout au moins de la mettre en pratique). Butler va même plus loin en inversant les valeurs morales. Si vous détournez des fonds, on vous soigne et on vous réhabilite tandis que si vous êtes malade, vous êtes un criminel et la récidive est passible de la peine de mort.
Le sujet est donc très intéressant et porte à la réflexion mais hélas, la lecture en est très fastidieuse. D’abord, c’est daté sur certains thèmes, la religion par exemple. D’autres heureusement restent plus d’actualité. Mais surtout, l’écriture est très plate. Les personnages n’ont aucune substance, ne dégagent aucune vie. Même le héros narrateur n’a aucun intérêt. Il est donc très difficile d’entrer dans le récit si l’on n’est pas très intéressé par l’époque. Le récit n’en est pas un puisqu’il ne se passe rien. C’est une succession de chapitres descriptifs sur un thème : les erewhoniens face à la maladie, face à la religion, face aux machines (avec un parallèle avec la théorie darwinienne qui sert à développer d’autres thèmes…)
J’avoue avoir failli abandonner. J’ai même lu quelques chapitres en pensant à ma liste de courses. Heureusement, les derniers chapitres, à partir de la vision du monde universitaire est devenu plus attractif et même, la fin n’est pas sans humour avec l’hypocrisie d’une société végétarienne par obligation mais qui aime la viande, ce qui entraîne un taux de suicide très important chez les animaux (il est interdit de tuer un animal mais on peut manger ceux qui sont morts). Malgré l’intérêt que j’ai pu porter à certaines parties, cette lecture m’a été trop pénible pour que je puisse dire que j’ai aimé. Erewhon mérite peut-être une lecture, ne serait-ce que parce que c’est un des livres fondateurs d’un genre, mais il demande beaucoup de courage. Cela ressemble parfois plus à un essai qu’à une œuvre littéraire.(less)

· see review

Sep 05, 2011

Andrew rated it

· review of another edition

Erewhon is an 'undiscovered' community which follows quite a different (and often opposing) set of principles to those in the Western world (well, the western world when this was written). The book itself is a hodge-podge of travel diary, theoretical discussion, and philosophical musings which occasionally works and is occasionally turgid. The most interesting section deals with how this community dealt with the advancement of machinery. In many instances I felt the author had written himself in...more

like 1 like

· see review

Dec 08, 2010

Brian rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: satire

Samuel Butler's "Erewhon" is a philosophical satire of Victorian England's society, laws, and religion. Butler is no Swift, but makes some interesting points in this 186-page book. He is unsettlingly prophetic about machine evolution, bitingly funny on birth and the treatment of children, on the mark on the confusing roles of religion and banking, and unrepentant in ridiculing vegetarianism. Interesting, mostly on target, enjoyable, and still timely after 138 years.

· see review

Feb 09, 2010

Clint rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: unhappily-read

Eh. Ehhh! I was not impressed. Okay, I get it is a satire of Victorian society, but seriously I felt like I was getting beat over the head with how blatant the satire was. Samuel Butler tried to squeeze in much more than there was room for. It could have been a solid read, but I just wasn't feeling it. Compared to other authors of that time, it just doesn't compare. And don't even get me started on the Book of the Machines and the Rights of Animals and Vegetables...it just dove into a death spir...more

like 2 likes

· see review

Sep 26, 2007

Daniel Engesetter rated it

· review of another edition

If you think at all about the history of humans on this planet and the course of history- past, present, and future, you must read this book.
Buitler was privileged to be living in a world that was not yet entirely mapped, and he imagined a society existing across an Australian (or New Zealand) mountain range in order to make a criticism of his own, Victorian England. The sense of wonder and possibility in Butler's time is lost, I think, on us of the 21st century.
But don't think that ...more

· see review

May 27, 2010

Cmbrooks rated it

· review of another edition

The realistic account of exploration in the New Zealand bush of the beginning of this book sits oddly with the utopia that is Erewhon. Chatty and discursive with little attempt at plot. Some of the odder ideas have a strange up-to-dateness, such as the disquisitions on machine evolution and vegetarianism. Interesting.

· see review

Mar 12, 2010

Sarah rated it

· review of another edition

I have no idea how this book made it onto the Literary Criticism reading list. Samuel Butler basically took the idea for Gulliver's Travels and made it more boring, dumber, and with these really pointless essays scattered throughout. 'An Erewhonian's View on the Rights of Vegetables'? Honestly!

· see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 48 49 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Goodreads Librarians: Please merge these two records	3	17	Jan 23, 2012 06:26pm

combine
Other Editions (73)

More editions...

Genres

Classics

34 users

Fantasy

12 users

Science Fiction

10 users

Literature

10 users

Science Fiction > Dystopia

7 users

Literature > 19th Century

7 users

Science Fiction > Utopia

5 users

European Literature > British Literature

5 users

Speculative Fiction

2 users

Science Fiction Fantasy

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers Also Enjoyed

About Samuel Butler

Samuel Butler was an iconoclastic Victorian author who published a variety of works, including the Utopian satire Erewhon and the posthumous novel The Way of All Flesh, his two best-known works, but also extending to examinations of Christian orthodoxy, substantive studies of evolutionary thought, studies of Italian art, and works of literary history and criticism . Butler also made prose translat...more

More about Samuel Butler...

Books by Samuel Butler

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Pin It

last activity 35 minutes ago

shelf: read

Utopian and Dystopian Rea...

185 members

last activity Jan 01, 2012 08:39pm

shelf: to-read

title link	preview: Erewhon; Or, Over the Range
avg rating	preview: Erewhon; Or, Over the Range Goodreads rating: 3.18 (595 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3321521-erewhon-or-over-the-range?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1267934101m/3321521.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3321521-erewhon-or-over-the-range?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Erewhon; Or, Over the Range by Samuel Butler[/url]

Erewhon; Or, Over the Range (Dodo Press)

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

combine
Other Editions (73)

Genres

Readers Also Enjoyed

About Samuel Butler

Books by Samuel Butler

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About Erewhon: Or, Over...

Quotes from Erewhon

Groups That Shelved Erewhon