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Samuel Butler

File:Samuel_Butler_by_Charles_Gogin.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Samuel Butler

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Also known as Cellarius

English novelist and critic (1835–1902)

OverviewAI-generated

Samuel Butler was a male writer, novelist, painter, and farmer from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Born in Langar, Nottinghamshire, in 1835, he died in London in 1902. He was educated at Shrewsbury School and St John's College. Butler worked in Great Britain and wrote in English, focusing on philosophy and the utopia genre.

His notable works include *Erewhon; or, Over the range*, *The note-books of Samuel Butler*, *The humour of Homer, and other essays*, and *Selections from The note-books of Samuel Butler*. His writings are held in the collections of the Tate and the National Gallery. He is described by the *Encyclopædia Britannica* 11th edition. Butler was related to Anna Worsley Russell.

Synthesized by Vinony from 39 facts across 8 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, Wikiquote, Europeana Sparql, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
1835-12-04
Died
1902-06-18
Works
175

Top works

  • Erewhon; or, Over the range
  • The note-books of Samuel Butler ...
  • The humour of Homer, and other essays
  • Selections from The note-books of Samuel Butler
  • Selections from previous works with remarks on Mr. G.J. Romanes' "Mental evolution in animals" and a psalm of Montreal

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
United States
Active from
1939-12-08
Active to
2025-02-20
r&bsoul

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
54
Total plays
560

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Samuel+Butler">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · Samuel Butler

Quotes

  • The man who lets himself be bored is even more contemptible than the bore.
  • A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg.
  • Stowed away in a Montreal lumber roomThe Discobolus standeth and turneth his face to the wall;Dusty, cobweb-covered, maimed and set at naught,Beauty crieth in an attic and no man regardeth:O God! O Montreal!
  • The Discobolus is put here because he is vulgar — He has neither vest nor pants with which to cover his limbs.
  • Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.
  • Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures, for so were the counsels of Jove fulfilled from the day on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, first fell out with one another.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Works in European collections

3 objects attributed to Samuel Butler, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana

~25 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Samuel Butler (4 December 1835 – 18 June 1902) was an English novelist and critic, best known for the satirical utopian novel Erewhon (1872) and the semi-autobiographical novel The Way of All Flesh (published posthumously in 1903 with substantial revisions and published in its original form in 1964 as Ernest Pontifex or The Way of All Flesh). Both novels have remained in print since their initial publication. In other studies he examined Christian orthodoxy, evolutionary thought, and Italian art, and made prose translations of the Iliad and Odyssey that are still consulted.

Early life

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Samuel Butler” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (3)