Fiction | Samuel Butler | Way of All Flesh

Way of All Flesh

Name: Way of All Flesh
Author: Samuel Butler

Samuel Butler

Summary

Variously a parish helper to the London poor and a successful New Zealand sheep farmer, Samuel Butler did not treasure the attitudes of his time (the second half of the 19th century). His books were iconoclastic in their attitudes towards Victorian ideals and The Way of All Flesh is foremost among them. It is appropriate, then, that it was published after his death and Queen Victoria's, in 1903. It was completed in its original version in 1885 though the second half was never revised. It depicts the lives of four generations and is narrated by family friend Overton although it focuses on Ernest Pontifex and his respect for his great-grandfather John. His father Theo is the books initial concern, though,and he grows after ordination into cruel and disciplinarian attitudes to parenthood which affect young Ernest. As the story progresses we see the latter give his money to a pregnant maid, become a priest and imprisoned for mistaking a respectable lady for a whore. Ernest is released only to begin an unwise relationship with the maid, Ellen. The tale and its conclusion question the values of Victorian society and offer the solace of the individual mind when convention fails.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86

More by Samuel Butler

Erewhon

Other Fiction classics

Lady Chatterley's Lover — D.H. Lawrence
Crime and Punishment — Fyodor Dostoevsky
Billy Budd — Herman Melville
Ulysses — James Joyce
Dubliners — James Joyce
Little Women — Louisa M. Alcott

Way of All Flesh

Summary

Table of contents

More by Samuel Butler

Other Fiction classics