The Way of All Flesh (Dover Thrift Editions)
by Samuel Butler
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Book Summary Information
Author: Samuel ButlerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-08-11
ISBN: 0486434664
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Dover Publications
Book Reviews of The Way of All Flesh (Dover Thrift Editions)
Book Review: Outstanding late-19th Century literature: why this book is just tops! (details)
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll share all the book details momentarily but here's the core of the story first:
Over the course of a century three generations of the Pontifex men transpired from solid and esteemed, to religiously fanatical and noxious, to naïve and repressed. Their respective spouses pretty much mirrored the husbands in both their outlook and their temperament.
The ultimate protagonist, (it takes a few chapters for him to clearly emerge as the human object of this compelling yarn), Ernest Pontifex, was the eldest son of an odious Church of England clergyman, Theobald Pontifex. Whatever amount of respect Ernest had fostered for his grandfather was notably exceeded in dimension by his contempt for his own sire. Theobald constrained even Ernest's most insignificant activities throughout the lad's youth and during his subsequent college years where this young unfortunate was compelled to study, (of course), theological subjects. Ernest's self-indulgent father also derived a perverse brand of joy from the Draconian disciplinarian acts that he perpetrated without cessation against his wretched son, ergo: "...spare the rod, spoil the child."
[But I must insert here that this is definitely not a gloomy Dickensian-type novel so don't quit reading quite yet!]
Ernest's most remarkable teen experience occurred on the day when an attractive, young household domestic was hastily driven from the home when it was revealed that she was soon to become a mother and the father was yet unknown to any but herself and her paramour. Ernest felt so bad for the girl that he chased after her carriage and gave the poor lass his watch and what little money that he possessed. This altruistic act, perceived as outright rebelliousness by Theobald and his nasty shrew of a wife, was rewarded with even further tyranny and psychological domination.
During his years away at a small but prestigious private school under the tutelage of one Dr. Skinner, an old profligate who ranked on a scale of malevolence only slightly less prominently than Theobald himself, Ernest's blameless nose was kept firmly applied to the collegiate grindstone although his marginal grades never reflected any marked fruits of such devoted toil. Only a singular figure within Ernest's extended family gave rise to hope towards any promise of future happiness: he had an aunt, (Theobald's sister), who in addition to being kind and motherly, was wealthy as well. She was also quite close to our narrator, Mr. Overton, a man of equal understanding and tolerance, tenoned with the highest of ethical standards.
And so it goes... Ernest works his way through college, into the clergy, (where he was as inept as he was miserable), and thence down numerous of life's pathways, chiefly as a consequence of events. Think of Ernest Pontifex as a Victorian version of Holden Caulfield, (the youthful and puerile protagonist of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.)
My copy of this remarkable novel is the Classics Club (Walter J. Black, New York) hardcover edition (no copyright date but pretty old), with a helpful Note by R.A. Streatfeild prefacing the work, the man who saw Samuel Butler's manuscript through to its initial publication (all with Butler's deathbed permission) in 1902. Butler actually completed the book in 1884 but Streatfeild had to re-write the fourth and fifth chapters following Butler's death from the original working notes as that small segment of manuscript had been lost. Streatfeild did a fine job with this brief but enigmatic task and I could detect no inconsistency whatever in this transitory text. There are eighty-six chapters in all, spread out over 389 pages.
This fictional account is conveyed in First Person, (all from Overton's perspective), and the prose and dialogues flow as does warm honey. The story is bulging with a subtle brand of typically British wit, all nicely mingled with a notably robust account of period English culture, with a marked emphasis on (fictional) prominent figures associated with the Church of England. One unique caveat of Butler's writing style was his clever literary handling of the principals: the protagonist is not the narrator as we traditionally encounter in First Person novels.
I'm pretty well read in this particular era of European fiction and Butler's work much parallel's many of the positive features which we encounter in Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native (Modern Library Classics); Anatole France's Penguin Island, and; Ivan Turgenev's Fathers and Sons (Penguin Classics). This is first-rate literature -- during his lifetime Samuel Butler (born, 1835) also penned the well-known Utopian satire Erewhon.
In summary, this book is one of those little treasures which devotees of classic literature have to occasionally pry out of historical obscurity. It's nice that this superlative work has now seen various reprintings. I cannot recommend it highly enough for those who, like me, foster an unbridled appreciation for outstanding literature of this compelling era.
Summary of The Way of All Flesh (Dover Thrift Editions)
Hailed by George Bernard Shaw as "one of the summits of human achievement," Butler's autobiographical account of a harsh upbringing and troubled adulthood satirizes Victorian hypocrisy in its chronicle of the life and loves of Ernest Pontifex. Along the way, it offers a powerful indictment of 19th-century England's major institutions.
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