Samuel Butler was an iconoclastic Victorian author whose work spanned literary criticism, evolutionary thought, and art studies. He is celebrated for his Utopian satires and profound examinations of societal norms and religious orthodoxy. Butler's distinct voice and keen insights into the human condition continue to resonate with readers.
The book explores the concept of unconscious memory, a topic that has held significance throughout human history. Alpha Editions has republished this classical work in a modern format, ensuring its preservation for future generations. The text has been reformatted and retyped for clarity, providing a readable experience without relying on scanned copies of the original work.
Erewhon, set in a thinly disguised New Zealand, ended with the escape of its protagonist from the native Erewhonians by balloon. In the sequel, narrated by his son John. Higgs returns to Erewhon and meets his former lover Yram, who is now the mother of his son George. He discovers that he is now worshipped as "the Sunchild." He finds himself in danger from the villainous Professors Hanky and Panky, who are determined to protect Sunchildism from him. With George's help Higgs escapes from their clutches and returns to England.
Homer’s monumental epic set at the end of the Trojan War explores love, heroism, and the intricate relationship between gods and mortals—now in a beautiful clothbound hardcover edition designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith. The Iliad is the first and the greatest literary achievement of Greek civilization—the cornerstone of Western culture and an epic poem without rival in world literature. The story centers on the critical events in the last year of the Trojan War, which lead to Achilleus’s killing of Hektor and the fall of Troy. But Homer's theme is not simply war or heroism. With compassion and humanity, he presents a universal and tragic view of the world: human life lived under the shadow of suffering and death set against a vast and largely unpitying divine background. This edition presents Penguin Classics founder E. V. Rieu’s lively translation of Homer’s great epic. Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Describes the adventures of Odysseus, Greek warrior, as he strives to return to his home island of Ithaca after the Trojan War. This poem also describes his endurance, his love for his wife and son.
Following the great success of the very first Gothic Fantasy, deluxe edition short story compilations, Ghosts, Horror and Science Fiction, this latest in the series is packed with tales set in bleak and paradisiacal worlds of boundless imagination from classic authors and exciting budding contemporary writers.
"One of the time bombs of all literature" (V.S. Pritchett). Written in the 1880s and not published until 1903 after Butler's death, the semi-autobiographical story of the Pontifex family savages the bourgeois Victorian family and its values. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
Erewhon (an anagram for "nowhere") is a faraway land where sickness is a punishable crime, criminals receive compassionate medical treatment, and machines are banned (for fear they'll evolve and become the masters of man). Butler's entertaining and thought-provoking Utopian novel takes aim at such hallowed institutions as family, church, and mechanical progress; its remarkable prescience in anticipating future sociological trends adds a special relevance for today's readers.
The Way of All Flesh traces four generations of the Pontifex family. The story is narrated by Overton, godfather to the central character Ernest. Beginning in the late eighteenth century, story traces Ernest's emergence from previous generations of the Pontifex family. John Pontifex was a carpenter; his son George rises in the world to become a publisher; George's son Theobald, pressed by his father to become a minister, is manipulated into marrying Christina, the daughter of a clergyman; the main character Ernest Pontifex is the eldest son of Theobald and Christina. Ernest has an antagonistic relationship with his hypocritical and domineering parents. His aunt Alethea is aware of this relationship, but dies before she can fulfill her aim of counteracting the parents' malign influence on the boy. However, shortly before her death she secretly passes a small fortune into Overton's keeping, with the agreement that once Ernest is twenty-eight, he can receive it.
