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The Way of All Flesh (1903)

by Samuel Butler

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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3,577413,518 (3.56)116
Classic Literature. Fiction. HTML:

Samuel Butler's The Way of All Flesh follows four generations of the Pontifex family. The novel is semi-autobiographical and attacks the hypocrisy that was characteristic in the Victorian era. It was written between 1873 and 1884, but Butler didn't risk publishing it in his life - it was instead finally released a year after Butler's death, in 1903.

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  1. 00
    As Good as God, as Clever as the Devil: The Impossible Life of Mary Benson by Rodney Bolt (nessreader)
    nessreader: Way of all flesh is a novel about monster victorian sanctimonious paterfamilias; Life of Mary Benson is about a real one, her husband the archbishop of canterbury. Both books are hilarity-propelled rants that are in the end touching.
  2. 00
    Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham (quartzite)
    quartzite: Similar tale
  3. 00
    An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser (quartzite)
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» See also 116 mentions

English (39)  Dutch (1)  All languages (40)
Showing 1-5 of 39 (next | show all)
$7. With a preface by G. Bernard Shaw proclaiming this book as an extaordinary posthumous study of English life.
  susangeib | Jun 30, 2023 |
Love it. Remarkable that a man can make such cold, heartless observations and still create characters that one loves and misses when they are gone. There is one image from the beginning of this book that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I even sat and read passages aloud to Megan so that someone else could enjoy them as much as I did. ( )
  Kiramke | Jun 27, 2023 |
FROM BARNES & NOBLE: Written between 1873 and 1884 and published posthumously in 1903, The Way of All Flesh is regarded by some as the first twentieth-century novel. Samuel Butler's autobiographical account of a harsh upbringing and troubled adulthood shines an iconoclastic light on the hypocrisy of a Victorian clerical family's domestic life. It also foreshadows the crumbling of nineteenth-century bourgeois ideals in the aftermath of the First World War, as well as the ways in which succeeding generations have questioned conventional values.
  Gmomaj | Jan 22, 2023 |
I don't know what I thought this book would be about from the title; I thought it could have been about the will being weaker than the flesh. It's not about that --it's about a boy whose father was a clergyman in England, and who of course shoved all his hypocritical beliefs down his throat, along with his mother. The boy, because of a family friend and his aunt Alethea, ends up having his eyes opened to reality as to his father and mother, and to the teachings of his religion. I loved that Butler shows the Bible's story of Jesus' resurrection to be malarkey. if you are like me and was brainwashed by the (Catholic) Church, you know what a battle it is to unbrainwashed yourself and open your eyes. I could have used well this book years ago, but maybe it will do it's good work to other minds that need enlightening. ( )
  burritapal | Oct 23, 2022 |
A hellscreen in the form of a bildungsroman, flecked throughout with wonderful humanist musings on religion, literature, education, economics, and ethics. Samuel Butler is a truly great thinker. ( )
  schumacherrr | Feb 21, 2022 |
Showing 1-5 of 39 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (22 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Samuel Butlerprimary authorall editionscalculated
Arnett, Curtis JamesIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Cochrane, JamesEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hoggart, RichardIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Streatfeild, R. A.Forewordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Weber, J. SherwoodAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Zabel, Morton DauwenIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.

—Rom. viii.28
Dedication
First words
When I was a small boy at the beginning of the century I remember an old man who wore knee-breeches and worsted stockings, and who used to hobble about the street of our village with the help of a stick. He must have been getting on for eighty in the year 1807, earlier than which date I suppose I can hardly remember him, for I was born in 1802.
Quotations
It is better to have loved and lost than never to have lost at all.
it seems to me that youth is like spring, an overpraised season - delightful if it happen to be a favourable one, but in practice rarely favoured and more remarkable, as a general rule, for biting east winds than genial breezes. Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers, we more than gain in fruits. (Chapter VI)
A pair of lovers are like sunset and sunrise: there are such things every day but we very seldom see them.  (Chapter XI)
The devil, in fact, when he dresses himself in angel's clothes, can only be detected by experts of exceptional skill, and so often does he adopt this disguise that it is hardly safe to be seen talking to an angel at all. (Chapter XIX)
those who are happy in this world are better and more lovable people than those who are not   (Chapter XXVI)
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Classic Literature. Fiction. HTML:

Samuel Butler's The Way of All Flesh follows four generations of the Pontifex family. The novel is semi-autobiographical and attacks the hypocrisy that was characteristic in the Victorian era. It was written between 1873 and 1884, but Butler didn't risk publishing it in his life - it was instead finally released a year after Butler's death, in 1903.

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Penguin Australia

An edition of this book was published by Penguin Australia.

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Tantor Media

An edition of this book was published by Tantor Media.

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