Define Containing Books The Way of All Flesh

Title	:	The Way of All Flesh
Author	:	Samuel Butler
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Deluxe Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 315 pages
Published	:	August 11th 2004 by Dover Publications (first published 1903)
Categories	:	Classics. Fiction. Literature

The Way of All Flesh Paperback | Pages: 315 pages

Description During Books The Way of All Flesh

Written between 1873 and 1884 and published posthumously in 1903, The Way of All Flesh is regarded by some as the first twentieth-century novel. Samuel Butler's autobiographical account of a harsh upbringing and troubled adulthood shines an iconoclastic light on the hypocrisy of a Victorian clerical family's domestic life. It also foreshadows the crumbling of nineteenth-century bourgeois ideals in the aftermath of the First World War, as well as the ways in which succeeding generations have questioned conventional values.
Hailed by George Bernard Shaw as "one of the summits of human achievement," this chronicle of the life and loves of Ernest Pontifex spans four generations, focusing chiefly on the relationship between Ernest and his father, Theobald. Written in the wake of Darwin's Origin of Species, it reflects the dawning consciousness of heredity and environment as determinants of character. Along the way, it offers a powerfully satirical indictment of Victorian England's major institutions—the family, the church, and the rigidly hierarchical class structure.

Mention Books As The Way of All Flesh

Original Title:	The Way of All Flesh
ISBN:	0486434664 (ISBN13: 9780486434667)
Edition Language:	English
Characters:	Ernest Pontifex

Rating Containing Books The Way of All Flesh

Ratings: 3.61 From 8230 Users | 447 Reviews

Judgment Containing Books The Way of All Flesh

The Way of All Flesh is a sharp social commentary on the age the author lived through, told in the space of three generations of one family. It's brisk and farcical throughout yet along the way Butler sets out some painful confrontations between father and son. This psychological realism puts forward a depressing account of family life and the bourgeois pressures of keeping ones "station" stable across the generations. Butler uses the learned voice of the protagonist's kindly, bachelor uncle to

The Way of All Flesh is the anti-Victorian novel. In the clergymans house the daughters play cards to determine which of them will get to marry the single suitor lured in through the front door (view spoiler)[and England expects every man to do his duty in luring him in no matter how far Jane Austen turns round in her grave (hide spoiler)], there is no weeping round the death bed (view spoiler)[ in a lovely moment the children of George Pontifex compose the following epitaph for him, pregnant

What a pleasant surprise this book turned out to be. I must admit I wasnt looking forward to reading a book written in the 1800s and published in 1903 about repression and family life in mid-1800s England.This is a book to be read with focus as much could be lost without careful reading. One can certainly not steamroll through this novel without missing out on great humor from its marvelous author, Samuel Butler. Each page requires longer than usual time for reading, however, the payback is well

Another entertaining Victorian novel where the solution to existential and familial misery lies in inheriting a fortune from your long-dead auntie.

There's a poem by Kahlil Gibran which goes like this:"Your children are not your children.They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.They come through you but not from you,And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts.You may house their bodies but not their souls,For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.You may strive to be like

I enjoyed this a lot. The sarcasm is pretty heavy but I think it fits in pretty well with the attitudes of myself and peers.I'd recommend this if you are interested in English culture (late 1800s?) _and_ enjoy hearing an author totally mock society. The first few chapters had me in stitches a few times, really funny stuff. Although there are a few fun turns, the story drags on for a while after that (as these books do) and then it has a happy ending (as these books do).

Honestly, this was pretty aggravating. It suffers the most criminal defect: it's plain boring. The characters aren't unique enough to make me care. It's narrated by Mr. Overton, who's friends with the Pontifex family. The first third is a dry breakdown of the past three or four generations of the Pontifex family and how they fit into their local community (or don't), and how Mr. Overton has a thing for Alethea Pontifex.Didn't care.The next two-thirds are about Ernest Pontifex, who is Alethea's