Butler-Erewhon

In a faraway land a traveler encounters a peculiar topsy-turvy society in which sickness is a punishable crime and crime is an illness for which criminals receive compassionate medical treatment. The English church is ridiculed as a musical bank which deals with a currency nobody believes in but which everyone pretends to value. University instructors teach courses on how to take a long time to say nothing and machines are banned for fear they will evolve and be the masters of man.First published in 1872 Erewhon (an anagram for nowhere) is perhaps the most brilliant example of Utopian novels taking aim at the humbug hypocrisy and absurdities surrounding such hallowed institutions as family church mechanical progress advances in scientific theory and legal systems. intelligent inventive and wickedly humorous the classic novel protests the blind acceptance of ideas and attitudes an aspect of Samuel Butler's work that made his fiction enduring entertaining and thought-provoking. His remarkable prescience in anticipating future sociological trends adds a special relevance for today's readers.