Erewhon

Erewhon is a satirical novel, meaning that it uses humor and irony to highlight and criticize the issues, mistakes, and foolish aspects that the author, Samuel Butler, observes in his own world. In this case, Butler is satirizing Victorian England, and much of the content of Erewhon reflects Butler’s thoughts and opinions on the state on England in the late 19th century, during and following the Industrial Revolution. Satire itself is a genre that is used frequently in English literature as a means of humorously yet incisively criticizing society’s many flaws and foibles. Such precursors of Erewhon in this genre are early 18th-century works such as Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and Alexander Pope’s The Dunciad. Although influenced by both of these titles, Erewhon is most closely tied to Gulliver’s Travels, as both Butler’s work and Swift’s use the setting of a fictional country and population to mock and mimic the trends and thoughts that were common in England during the authors’ respective time frames.

Generally speaking, satirical works often use cues such as hyperbole, parody, or

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