BUTLER, SAMUEL (JUNIOR) - Enciclopedia Cattolica, Vol. III, p. 171

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

BUTLER, SAMUEL (junior). — English writer, b. Dec. 4, 1835 at Langar (Bingham), d. there June 18, 1902. Grandson and son of Anglican pastors, he was directed toward an ecclesiastical career, which he soon abandoned due to doubts about faith; he then tried his hand at painting, but, hindered by his family, emi-

grated 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 work. He violently attacked all the principles of Victorian society: religion, morals, traditions, and sentiments.

His major work is Erewhon (1872), an anagram of Nowhere, a utopia that does not depict a better world but presents, distorted and mocking, the image of this one. It satirizes religious institutions, mechanical progress, and Darwinian theories. The posthumous novel The Way of All Flesh (1903) is a fierce indictment against the family institution and the ecclesiastical environment in which the author spent his youth. The result of his annual trips to Italy is the collection of impressions Alps and Sanctuaries of Piedmont and Canton Ticino (1881). Butler’s style is stark, as caustic is his thought. B. Shaw derived many ideas from him for his theater.

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 (1835–1901), a Memoir, 2 vols., London 1920; A. J. Hoppé, A Bibliography of the Writings of S. B. and of Writings about him, New York 1923; C. G. Stillman, S. B., a Mid-Victorian Modern, London 1932; J. B. Fort, S. B. Étude d'un caractère et d'une intelligence, Bordeaux 1934; id., S. B.: l'Écrivain, Étude d'un style, ibid. 1932; M. Muggeridge, The Earnest; A study of S. B., London 1936.