BUTLER, Samuel (Junior). - English writer, b. 4 Dec. 1835 at Langar (Bingham), d. there 18 June 1902. Grandson and son of Anglican pastors, he was directed toward an ecclesiastical career, which he soon abandoned following doubts about the faith; he then attempted to become a painter, but, hindered by his family, he emigrated to New Zealand to raise sheep. In 1864 he returned to England, where he resumed his activity as a painter and began his critical and literary activity. He violently attacked all the principles of Victorian society: religion, morality, traditions and sentiments.
His major work is Erewhon (1872), an anagram of Nowhere, a utopia that does not configure a better world, but presents, deformed and mocking, the image of this one. In it are satirized religious institutions, mechanical progress and Darwinian theories. The posthumous novel The Way of All Flesh (1903) is a ferocious indictment against the family institution and the ecclesiastical environment in which the author spent his youth. The fruit of his annual travels in Italy is the collection of impressions Alps and Sanctuaries of Piedmont and Canton Ticino (1881). B.'s style is bare, as caustic is his thought. B. Shaw derived many ideas from him for his theater.
Bibliography7 worksWorks: The Shrewsbury Edition of the works of S. B., ed. H. F. Jones and A. T. Bartholomew, 20 vols., London 1923 ff. - Studies: H. Festing
BIBL.: Works: The Shrewsbury Edition of the works of S. B., ed. H. F. Jones and A. T. Bartholomew, 20 vols., London 1923 ff. - Studies: H. Festing Jones, S. B., Author of Erewhon (1835-1902), a Memoir, 2 vols., London 1920; A. J. Hoppé, A Bibliography of the Writings of S. B. and of Writings about him, New York 1925; C. G. Stillman, S. B., a Mid-Victorian Modern, London 1932; J. B. Fort, S. B. Etude d'un caractère et d'une intelligence, Bordeaux 1934; id., S. B.: l'Ecrivain, Etude d'un style, ibid. 1935; M. Muggeridge, The Earnest; A study of S. B., London 1936.
Ornella Giannotti. “Butler, samuel (junior).” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III, coll. 250–251. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949. https://azioneromana.com/article/butler-samuel-junior.
MLA
Ornella Giannotti. “Butler, samuel (junior).” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. III, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1949, coll. 250–251. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/butler-samuel-junior.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec3_butler_samuel_junior,
author = {Ornella Giannotti},
title = {Butler, samuel (junior)},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {III},
pages = {250--251},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1949},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/butler-samuel-junior}
}
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