Samuel Butler
Erewhon; Or, Over the Range
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4057664173560
Table of Contents
PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION
CHAPTER V: THE RIVER AND THE RANGE
CHAPTER VII: FIRST IMPRESSIONS
CHAPTER XI: SOME EREWHONIAN TRIALS
CHAPTER XIII: THE VIEWS OF THE EREWHONIANS CONCERNING DEATH
CHAPTER XVII: YDGRUN AND THE YDGRUNITES
CHAPTER XIX: THE WORLD OF THE UNBORN
CHAPTER XX: WHAT THEY MEAN BY IT
CHAPTER XXI: THE COLLEGES OF UNREASON
CHAPTER XXII: THE COLLEGES OF UNREASON—Continued
CHAPTER XXIII: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINES
CHAPTER XXIV: THE MACHINES—continued
CHAPTER XXV: THE MACHINES—concluded
CHAPTER XXVI: THE VIEWS OF AN EREWHONIAN PROPHET CONCERNING THE RIGHTS OF ANIMALS
CHAPTER XXVII: THE VIEWS OF AN EREWHONIAN PHILOSOPHER CONCERNING THE RIGHTS OF VEGETABLES
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
The Author wishes it to be understood that Erewhon is pronounced as a word of three syllables, all short—thus, Ĕ-rĕ-whŏn.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
Having been enabled by the kindness of the public to get through an unusually large edition of “Erewhon” in a very short time, I have taken the opportunity of a second edition to make some necessary corrections, and to add a few passages where it struck me that they would be appropriately introduced; the passages are few, and it is my fixed intention never to touch the work again.
I may perhaps be allowed to say a word or two here in reference to “The Coming Race,” to the success of which book “Erewhon” has been very generally set down as due. This is a mistake, though a perfectly natural one. The fact is that “Erewhon” was finished, with the exception of the last twenty pages and a sentence or two inserted from time to time here and there throughout the book, before the first advertisement of “The Coming Race” appeared. A friend having called my attention to one of the first of these advertisements, and suggesting that it probably referred to a work of similar character to my own, I took “Erewhon” to a well-known firm of publishers on the 1st of May 1871, and left it in their hands for consideration. I then went abroad, and on learning that the publishers alluded to declined the MS., I let it alone for six or seven months, and, being in an out-of-the-way part of Italy, never saw a single review of “The Coming Race,” nor a copy of the work. On my return, I purposely avoided looking into it until I had sent back my last revises to the printer. Then I had much pleasure in reading it, but was indeed surprised at the many little points of similarity between the two books, in spite of their entire independence to one another.
I regret that reviewers have in some cases been inclined to treat the chapters on Machines as an attempt to reduce Mr. Darwin’s theory to an absurdity. Nothing could be further from my intention, and few things would be more distasteful to me than any attempt to laugh at Mr. Darwin; but I must own that I have myself to thank for the misconception, for I felt sure that my intention would be missed, but preferred not to weaken the chapters by explanation, and knew very well that Mr. Darwin’s theory would take no harm. The only question in my mind was how far I could afford to be misrepresented as laughing at that for which I have the most profound admiration. I am