The Way of All Flesh

 THE WAY OF ALL FLESH

Samuel Butler

Books for Bigots

Some books are just too enjoyable to recommend to a Bigot.  The idea that Bigots would be reading THE WAY OF ALL FLESH and trying to absorb an entire world different from their own, is simply not a feasible thought.  I haven't enjoyed a book as much as this in a long time.  Once again the English have excelled in writing novels that entertain, instruct, and vividly portray a world with which we are not familiar but certainly ought to be (and possibly emulate).

The book was published posthumously in 1903.   Butler must have realized anything that good would cause him immediate problems he really didn't need while alive.  Books are funny that way; they can cause the author all sorts of problems, especially good books.  It can be the authorities, it can be the clan of bigots always patrolling, it can be religious folk.  It has always been that what one thinks is what  gets one in trouble, especially if published.

A person can be just as obnoxious as possible, can be mean and  nasty, but you know - - live and let live; but write a book or publish thoughts different from the current ones, you are in trouble.  This is Bigotry as we know it - - the war against thought - - the inability to accept the fact that someone else may not agree with you or have a different opinion which would require you to question your own opinion.   And in the case of THE WAY OF ALL FLESH, it being an accurate representation of a particular society at a particular time there is something in it for all Bigots to despise, especially in that it is an accurate depiction rather than some comic book version.

The narrator of this story, the teller of the tale, is quite thoughtful in a very accommodating fashion in both first person commentary and example - an author obviously well-acquainted with most human foibles and who is not opposed to illustrating them in great detail.  The hero of our story from birth and a miserable childhood through Cambridge and ordination and then into a series of  unfortunate experiences, including the gaol,  with a proclivity of making really poor  decisions, and finally to a time of wealth unearned, is a rather interesting fellow as you watch him get bounced around by fate and the characters he meets and interacts with.  Of course, the inability to make decent decisions rather than to commit simple impulsive acts gave Mr. Butler the opportunity to relate the adventures and descriptions of life in London that he did and is a rather good technique of enlivening a story .

Once you get past the misery of growing up in a rectory with really awful parents, it becomes a book with plenty of adventure and description of life in England in all its flavors  Again, though, I refuse to recommend this book to Bigots for the simple reason they don't deserve to read it.

Richard E H Phelps II

Mingo