The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler Fiction Classics Fantasy Literary

<p><strong>Samuel Butler was one of the Victorian era's greatest iconoclasts. </strong>Once he said that after reading Darwin's <em>The Origin of Species</em> that the theory of evolution had replaced Christianity for him. And this -- after Butler had originally studied for the clergy. Darwin also praised Butler for his clear understanding of Darwin's scientific work as expressed in a series of popular articles contributed to the <em>Canterbury Press.</em> Butler's first literary success came in the form of the 1872 novel <em>Erewhon</em> a work that was originally published anonymously but which was an immediate popular and critical success in its satire of Victorian English mores and customs (Erewhon is Nowhere spelled backward). After <em>Erewhon</em> Butler began writing the first draft of <em>The Way of All Flesh</em> but put it aside after realizing that the scathing autobiographical nature of the story would deeply hurt other family members. <em>The Way of All Flesh</em> was eventually published in 1903. It tells the story of Ernest Pontifex based upon Butler himself and his struggles with Victorian mores his restrictive highly-religious family and Victorian society itself.</p>