Samuel Butler - Classic Literature Samuel Butler
Samuel Butler was born in December of 1835 in Nottinghamshire, England. His father had his parish there and Butler came from a long line of clerics. His grandfather was Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. Samuel’s father Thomas had planned that Samuel would continue the line.
Samuel went to Shrewsbury School, then to St. John’s College, Cambridge. There he won a First in Classics in 1858, at the age of 23. He left Cambridge prepared to take up life in the priesthood as his father had planned. His father was domineering and had put both physical and psychological pressure on Samuel as he grew.
In preparation for the priesthood, Butler spent 1858 and 1859 working in a poor London parish. He began to believe that there were no detectable differences in the morals or behavior between those who had been baptized and those who had not, and he began to question his faith and whether he wanted the priesthood. These themes come into play in a later satire ‘The Fair Haven".
Butler decided he wanted to be painter but suffering the anger of his father, he departed for New Zealand in 1859, planning to become a sheep farmer, which he subsequently did. He took Gibbon’s "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" with him to read on the trip.
He became relatively successful at sheep farming and did some writing for the Christchurch Press. He also wrote a pamphlet on the Resurrection, which was published in 1866 after his return. His father published Butler’s letters home in 1863 as "A First Year at Canterbury Settlement".
Butler returned to England in 1864, having doubled the initial outlay for the project. While there he had read Darwin’s "On the Origin of Species" and had begun a correspondence with Darwin. He was a convert to the theory of evolution.
He moved to London and took rooms at 15 Clifford’s Inn, where he would live for the balance of his life. He took art classes and there met Eliza Savage in 1867. She would become his closest confidante and critic until her death in 1885. It is unclear as to the true nature of the relationship, but Butler did publish their lively correspondence in her honor after her death.
He continued to paint and wrote as well. One of his most successful novels, "Erewhon" was published in 1872 to critical acclaim. It was the only book to make him money until "Erewhon Revisited" published in 1900. He followed "Erewhon" with "The Fair Haven" which was not well understood, and his notice quickly died down.
He began to work on his novel "The Way of All Flesh" in 1874 although for him it was just another project. Butler was becoming more interested in other questions, particularly about evolution.
Butler wrote a book called "Life and Habit" in 1878 in which he contended that much of inheritance was based on repetitive habit making a given behavior or characteristic ingrained. This idea of "use-inheritance" was part of Darwin’s original theory and Butler felt his book would help.
When Butler discovered the work of Lamark, he felt somewhat betrayed by Darwin, as it became clear that Darwin had borrowed much from prior theories of Lamark. He continued to write books and letters attacking Darwin. All of these were very unsuccessful and his finances began to fail as well.
He continued writing ‘The Way of All Flesh" and, as had always been his habit, had each chapter reviewed by and approved by Eliza Savage. After her death in 1885, he grew too depressed to continue with the book and put it aside.
His father died in 1886 and his financial problems were resolved. He continued to write and paint and also tried musical composition, but was poor at this as well. He traveled to Italy and wrote about the landscape and other scenes, and in 1896 wrote an affectionate memoir of his grandfather., the Bishop.
He continued to do more and more writing and in 1898 published a popular translation oft he "Illiad" and one of "The Odyssey" in 1900. He became convinced that Homer had been a woman and wrote on this as well. He wrote the sequel to "Erewhon" called "Erewhon Revisited" in 1901. This, like its predecessor, was very successful and turned a profit for Butler.
After a spring holiday in 1902, Butler returned to Clifford’s Inn. He fell ill and died shortly afterward. Ironically, had it not been for a set of events, Butler would have been a barely remembered minor figure as a writer. The uncompleted manuscript of "The Way of All Flesh" was discovered in a drawer at Clifford's Inn. His friend, following Butler’s written instruction, revised and published it in 1903 to great acclaim. This led to a reassessment of his works, particularly his notebooks, and he was finally seen as a Victorian writer of the highest order.
