D14. The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler (continued from C Session)

We will read Samuel Butler’s, The Way of All Flesh, an iconoclastic and hilarious novel that George Bernard Shaw described as “one of the summits of human achievement.” The survivor of a notably unhappy childhood, Butler distinguished himself as a student of classics at Cambridge, and this semi-autobiographical novel displays the psychological acuity of one who has dealt with his own share of adversity. It is also reflects ancient classical patterns in that it presents the life of Ernest Pontifex on a journey obstructed by latter-day Poseidons and Cyclopes, enlivened by Calypsos and ultimately salvaged by a benevolent Athena. In short, the story of Butler’s young protagonist may seem to recall the world of Homer while anticipating the achievement of James Joyce.

Required Reading: Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh. New York: Modern Library, 1998. ISBN: 0-375-75249-8.

Lillian Corti obtained her doctorate from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and went on to teach Italian, French, World Literature, Comparative Drama and Women’s Literature at various institutions including the Foreign Language Institute in New York, Tulsa University, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and the Athens Center in Greece.