Satirist’s novel

Press, 4 July 1983, Page 18

Satirist’s novel

The first in a series of 15 readings of the novel, “The Way of All Flesh,” by the English satirist, Samuel Butler, who waged war against the suppression of originality and the hypocrises of Victorian England, can be heard on the National programme at 10.30 tonight. In the book Butler studies the relationship between parents and children. The novel, full of wit and irony and based to some extent on

Butler’s experiences as a child, expresses his views on the Victorian family, society and theology. It is the story of Ernest Pontifex, a young man growing up within the moral vigours of the Victorian era, who is trying to escape the domination of a hypocritical father. It follows his life through a series of successes and failures until eventually he finds a role in life that fulfils him.