Samuel Butler

Samuel Butler was an English novelist and essayist whose satirical intelligence and willingness to challenge received ideas — in biology, in religion, in aesthetics — made him one of the most independent critical voices of the Victorian era. Born in 1835 in Langar, Nottinghamshire, the son of a clergyman, he emigrated to New Zealand in 1860 after refusing to take orders, sheep-farmed successfully for four years, and returned to England with enough capital to pursue writing. His satirical utopian novel Erewhon, published anonymously in 1872, attracted immediate attention. His semi-autobiographical novel The Way of All Flesh, written over many years and published posthumously in 1903, offered a devastating critique of Victorian family life and religious hypocrisy that influenced George Bernard Shaw and many others. He also published heterodox works on evolution, arguing against strict Darwinism, and provocative studies of Homer and Shakespeare. He died in 1902.

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