Erewhon Or Over The Range

Erewhon: or Over the Range is a novel by Samuel Butler which was first published anonymously in 1872. The title is also the name of a country supposedly discovered by the protagonist. In the novel it is not revealed where Erewhon is but it is clear that it is a fictional country. Butler meant the title to be read as nowhere backwards even though the letters h and w are transposed as it would have been pronounced in his day (and still is in some dialects of English). The book is a satire on Victorian society. The first few chapters of the novel dealing with the discovery of Erewhon are in fact based on Butler''s own experiences in New Zealand where as a young man he worked as a sheep farmer on Mesopotamia Station for about four years (1860–64) and explored parts of the interior of the South Island and which he wrote about in his A First Year in Canterbury Settlement (1863). Odin’s Library Classics is dedicated to bringing the world the best of humankind’s literature from throughout the ages. Carefully selected each work is unabridged from classic works of fiction nonfiction poetry or drama.