Samuel Butler was among the most wide-ranging of the accomplished crew of late Victorian writers to which be belonged -- a forceful controversialis...
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Feb 16, 2009
Carrie
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This is a true story about me reading The Way of All Flesh. Remember how I once mentioned that I nerdily read in the elevator on the way home (for the whole two minute trip)? Well, I was reading this book on my way down one evening at my old job when an older man that I didn’t know turned to me and asked what I was reading (Modern Library version, so the cover is blank, you dig?). I smiled uncomfortably (I may be a book nerd, but I do recognize that it’s a little odd to read in the elevator when
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Sep 03, 2008
Brandon
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I mean, yes it was a harsh upbringing, Butler, but did you have to take it out on us, the readers? I would have gladly taken a beating for you if you had just shortened the book by about 400 goddamned pages.
Were you supposed to be Ernest? So after all that, you abandoned your own kids to explore the world? Ugh. True, you married a prostitute, so you scored a few points there with me, and you forgave your batshit mother, but you abandoned your own kids after suffering through a shitt More...
Were you supposed to be Ernest? So after all that, you abandoned your own kids to explore the world? Ugh. True, you married a prostitute, so you scored a few points there with me, and you forgave your batshit mother, but you abandoned your own kids after suffering through a shitt More...
Jun 07, 2009
Anne Hawn
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I've read this book at least 5 times and I always come back to it. It has seemed to have something unique to say to me no matter what age I am when I read it. I first read it in my Freshman year of college and there were very few of us who really liked it. I couldn't understand why at the time, but I think I do now.
The book is very introspective and if you are looking for some kind of action or plot, this isn't the book for you. The main action takes place in the character's mind More...
The book is very introspective and if you are looking for some kind of action or plot, this isn't the book for you. The main action takes place in the character's mind More...
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May 15, 2009
Chad
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I enjoyed Butler’s semi-autobiographical novel far more than Sons And Lovers. (And much more than A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man. Was there some requirement that turn-of-the-century novelists from the British isles write such a work?) Although written some 30 years earlier, I found it much more accessible to the modern reader. Framing the entire story as a second-hand account from someone who was occasionally involved in the plot but in general was told about things long aft More...
Sep 20, 2010
Veronica
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What a pleasant surprise this book turned out to be. I must admit I wasn’t looking forward to reading a book written in the 1800′s and published in 1903 about repression and family life in mid-1800′s England.
This is a book to be read with focus as much could be lost without careful reading. One can certainly not steamroll through this novel without missing out on great humor from its marvelous author, Samuel Butler. Each page requires longer than usual time for reading, however, t More...
This is a book to be read with focus as much could be lost without careful reading. One can certainly not steamroll through this novel without missing out on great humor from its marvelous author, Samuel Butler. Each page requires longer than usual time for reading, however, t More...
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Aug 02, 2009
Nikki
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At first I was really enjoying this book, for I like the prolixity of Victorian novels and their comments on society. However, as the story of Ernest Pontifex wore on, and on and on, I found too much philosophizing with only occasional bits of dialogue, action and humor to break it up. The book was not published until 1903, years after the author's death, and is a good argument for the editor's blue pencil, which might have improved it. It was a book that was supposed to blow the lid off the Vic
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Jun 03, 2009
Tyler
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I'm of two minds about this latest addition to my classical reading because the book has uneven qualities. Depending on what you're looking for in a novel, you may like this one or dislike it.
What it's about: A narrator details the incidents of a young man's coming of age in Victorian England, that young man being his godson, Ernest. The satirical angle of this bildungsroman skewers to pointed effect an unctuous and self-righteous society.
The good: Butler manages good sat More...
What it's about: A narrator details the incidents of a young man's coming of age in Victorian England, that young man being his godson, Ernest. The satirical angle of this bildungsroman skewers to pointed effect an unctuous and self-righteous society.
The good: Butler manages good sat More...
Dec 02, 2008
D.M.
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Man, am I glad that's over! This had to have been one of the dullest, most tedious books I've ever read (excluding perhaps Sade, the painfully detailed biography of the Marquis de Sade...which I couldn't even finish).
This is a fictionalised autobiography which apparently has maintained a dignified status for being among the first books to capture the psychological mindset of the Victorian English. If that's true, then those Victorians must have been boooring!
Reading the misadventure More...
This is a fictionalised autobiography which apparently has maintained a dignified status for being among the first books to capture the psychological mindset of the Victorian English. If that's true, then those Victorians must have been boooring!
Reading the misadventure More...
Jul 21, 2009
Stephen
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A classic, obviously, but Butler is too chatty and didactic. His intrusiveness gets in the way of his narrative. We don't want to know the history of England's nineteenth-century High and Low churches and its concomitant preachers. Yes, we may want to know a thing or two, but not ten-pages worth! The book, ultimately, is more essay than novel. And yet, Butler is a brilliant stylist and satirist as he exposes Victorian hypocrisy. For example, a father may viciously flog his son for not knowing
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Dec 09, 2011
Moses
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After reading Theodore Dreiser's introduction to this book, I put it back to the library shelf and consciously staid away for well over two months. I had my reasons, but one of them was not that I didn't want to 'sink my mental teeth' into this, one of the finest and simple yet complex literary pieces. My main reason was Dreiser himself. It stands that one of the books that had a most profound effect on me was Sister Carrie, one among Dreiser's masterpieces. If he, - Mr. Dreiser, at whatever tim
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Nov 28, 2011
Daniel
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I found the storyline oddly familiar, as if I had been raised by religious people who didn't understand their own religion, as if I were disciplined by people who didn't know what discipline was, as if I learned letters and numbers by rote from people of little imagination, as if there were only a couple people in my life who seemed to understand and offered me a bit of compassion and understanding, as if I entered adult life almost completely unprepared for what lay in store, as if I made horri
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Nov 29, 2011
Mary
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This book was amazing, and I had a hard time putting it down, even when I was being sort of rude. I took it with me when I visited friends in Florida and kept picking it up whenever I could. It's about a child's emergence from a childhood with abusive and controlling parents into a confused early adulthood and ultimately rational manhood. Apparently, the author meant the book as a condemnation of certain Victorian views, especially about religion. The main character's father is a deeply flawed c
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Jul 14, 2011
Miriam
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This book is #12 on the list that started this whole project in the first place: the Modern Library's Top 100 Books of the 20th Century. And it's...fine. I wonder if the Modern Library had a bunch of copies in the warehouse that needed selling. My copy has footnotes by an editor who actually says that the book's final third is not that great because Butler never edited it. Methinks an admittedly weak ending is not a great place to start for a book so high on this list. Mostly, this means, "
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Jan 06, 2010
Greg
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I didn't expect too much from this book based on the overly dry-sounding description, and I was right. Described as an attack on Victorian hypocrisy, I was expecting a Dickensian-style tale where it might take a little bit of work, but in the end the humanity of the characters would make all the work worthwhile. Perhaps that does end up being the case - however, I couldn't bear to struggle much further with it, and gave up a short way in.
In the portion of the book that I did read, More...
In the portion of the book that I did read, More...
Nov 08, 2010
Shannon
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When this book came up as the October selection for the Classics Book Club (a "real life" book club here in Toronto rather than on online one, run by Chris of Eclectic Indulgence), I was pretty pleased because it meant getting around to reading a book I've had on my shelf for about fifteen years. The reason I had this - which, let's face it, isn't one of the more famous Classics you've heard of - is rather silly but I'll tell you all the same. I grew up watching A Room With a View - I'
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Mar 06, 2010
Daniel
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All these ridiculously low, haughty reviews on goodreads just go on to prove Butlers point.
Everybody wants to be a critic, and most don't really even know what the hell they're talking about anyway
I'm sure it's precedence on goodreads is owing to the fact that it's some kind of english-major university reading.
Not everything is going to be Ayn Rand guys... Sorry.
It is fair to say he was well ahead of his time. If anything he should be appreciated and read for
Everybody wants to be a critic, and most don't really even know what the hell they're talking about anyway
I'm sure it's precedence on goodreads is owing to the fact that it's some kind of english-major university reading.
Not everything is going to be Ayn Rand guys... Sorry.
It is fair to say he was well ahead of his time. If anything he should be appreciated and read for
Sep 19, 2011
Mario
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I enjoyed this a lot. The sarcasm is pretty heavy but I think it fits in pretty well with the attitudes of myself and peers.
I'd recommend this if you are interested in English culture (late 1800s?) _and_ enjoy hearing an author totally mock society. The first few chapters had me in stitches a few times, really funny stuff. Although there are a few fun turns, the story drags on for a while after that (as these books do) and then it has a happy ending (as these books do).
I'd recommend this if you are interested in English culture (late 1800s?) _and_ enjoy hearing an author totally mock society. The first few chapters had me in stitches a few times, really funny stuff. Although there are a few fun turns, the story drags on for a while after that (as these books do) and then it has a happy ending (as these books do).
May 04, 2009
Doris
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An interesting look at a victorian era family and the results of rigid clerical up-bringing.
Unfortunately, the edition I read was an acid-paper, extremely poorly edited publication. Lots of errors which seemed to be of the 'word-processer' type. Many repeated phrases and typos. (I can't remember the publisher's name.) A most jarring reading experience, but a passibly good read, nevertheless.
Found the publisher's name: North Books, Wickford, RI
Unfortunately, the edition I read was an acid-paper, extremely poorly edited publication. Lots of errors which seemed to be of the 'word-processer' type. Many repeated phrases and typos. (I can't remember the publisher's name.) A most jarring reading experience, but a passibly good read, nevertheless.
Found the publisher's name: North Books, Wickford, RI
Jul 25, 2011
Karenbike
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Humorous and sad at the same time for "our hero"who is raised so naively that he doesn't know he is running a house of prostitution, that he doesn't know he entered into an invalid marriage, that he doesn't know that he doesn't like poor people. The list goes on. Considered a first of the "modern novel" type of writing because it shows the ugly side of the Victorian lifestyle.
May 26, 2010
Krisette
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This is the longest book about nothing that I've ever read. I give it two stars, because it was well written enough that I stayed with it until the end. However, I did skip several paragraphs at a time, since the author is rather fond of going off on tangents. The most oft repeated phrase in this book is "back to my story".
There are some great parts, but it will put you to sleep if you're not determined to add it to your "completed classic reading list".
There are some great parts, but it will put you to sleep if you're not determined to add it to your "completed classic reading list".
Apr 03, 2009
Vivien
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I haven't finished the book, but Samuel Butler is already high on my list of dead literary soul-mates. Anyone who was raised in Christianity and found themselves wracked with doubt and cast on their own resources will feel a kinship with the main character. This book is shockingly funny and frank to have been written by a Victorian... it could have been written yesterday.
Jan 11, 2012
Karen
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This novel had me at the description of the wallpaper (a mass of roses, in want of bees). Of course a child would imagine bees flitting from flower to flower, or crawling down the wall! There is a delight in the verbal descriptions of visual things, as well as the unfolding of the story of the Pontifex family and their generational flaws. Sure, there are PLENTY of digressions and tangents, but you get that with this particular era of writing. Although some might consider it stuffy (you have to d
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Mar 14, 2010
Jim
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This was an interesting book that I feel speaks a little to my life story. At times, I was able to identify quite well with some of the religious apprehension the protagonist, Earnest Pontifex, has throughout his life. It is comforting to read that people at the turn of the century had the same questions about life as we do today despite such different circumstances. While this is a thought-provoking read, it is a dense, rather dull read and I found myself reading something lighter simultaneou
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May 09, 2011
Penny
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Read for Classix in May 2011.
Just realized this club has been ongoing for 4 years this summer!
This was a somewhat autobiographical novel about the hardships of a young boy growing up and his family over 4 generations. What was interesting to me was the questions he had about the gospels and his faith that he supposedly wrote about back in the 1800's.
Just realized this club has been ongoing for 4 years this summer!
This was a somewhat autobiographical novel about the hardships of a young boy growing up and his family over 4 generations. What was interesting to me was the questions he had about the gospels and his faith that he supposedly wrote about back in the 1800's.
Jul 01, 2011
Bildungsroman. How a young man is crushed by his evangelical environment but eventually escapes it to become a writer.
Interesting in lots of ways, the narrowness and uncritical nature of the family's faith and that it's expression is very much class based. The crushing atmosphere that Butler manages to construct.
Interesting in lots of ways, the narrowness and uncritical nature of the family's faith and that it's expression is very much class based. The crushing atmosphere that Butler manages to construct.
Apr 21, 2009
Libby
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Boring. Nothing really happens. Ernest is a wishy washy archetypal wet noodle, he has a general hard time but I could only surmise that the stupid bastard deserved it. Apparantly the book was accepted as part of the general revulsion against Victorianism, unfortunately it has only given me a general revulsion for Butler.
May 01, 2009
Bamboo
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A long, often hysterical satirical rant, peppered with "Darwinian" ideas misapplied to social observations, psychology (*ahem* at current trends), etc.
5 stars to make up for the many haters on Goodreads. I suppose Butler would be happy to know that he did and still does make readers unhappy, be they Victorian or 21st centurians, even if the reasons for unhappiness are nowhere similar.
5 stars to make up for the many haters on Goodreads. I suppose Butler would be happy to know that he did and still does make readers unhappy, be they Victorian or 21st centurians, even if the reasons for unhappiness are nowhere similar.
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Aug 07, 2011
Ron
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I feel this book is the greatest of all 19th century British novels, and I can understand why he did not allow it to be published until after his death. It is shocking and exposes the dark underside of polite aristocratic society, and if it were not for the somewhat dull style would rank as an unqualified masterpiece.
May 30, 2011
Angela
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"I felt as I read it [a diary] that the author before starting had made up his mind to admire only what he thought it would be creditable in him to admire, to look at nature and art only through the spectacles that had been handed down to him by generation after generation of prigs and imposters."
May 23, 2011
Kristyn
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I got this book at a library sale. I read it a long time ago, so the most I remember about it is that it was funny. It is only funny though if you find old, dry, English humor, funny. I should read this one again. I just need to make sure I have plenty of benadryl handy, for it is a musty book.
