Overview
Erewhon is Samuel Butler’s satirical utopian novel about a traveler who discovers a strange country whose institutions deliberately invert many assumptions of Victorian society. In Erewhon, things that seem normal to the traveler may be considered absurd, while practices that would shock an…
This title is catalogued in Classics & Literature. Its reading profile is Medium and Moderate, with themes including literature, humor, ideas, social questions, adventure.
One-Page Summary
Erewhon is Samuel Butler’s satirical utopian novel about a traveler who discovers a strange country whose institutions deliberately invert many assumptions of Victorian society. In Erewhon, things that seem normal to the traveler may be considered absurd, while practices that would shock an English reader are treated as ordinary. Butler uses the reversal to criticize religion, education, criminal justice, economics, and the growing power of machinery. One of the most famous ideas involves machines evolving into something like a competing form of life, forcing the reader to ask whether technological progress is automatically beneficial.
The novel is playful, but its jokes are philosophical. A society that looks irrational may reveal the irrationality of the society doing the looking. The result is a classic satirical thought experiment about civilization and progress.
Key Themes
Literature: This title is tagged with literature as one of its main themes.
Humor: This title is tagged with humor as one of its main themes.
Ideas: This title is tagged with ideas as one of its main themes.
Social questions: This title is tagged with social questions as one of its main themes.
Adventure: This title is tagged with adventure as one of its main themes.