Samuel Butler (writer)
Samuel Butler (born December 4, 1835 in Langar near Bingham , Nottinghamshire , † June 18, 1902 in London ) was a British writer, composer , philologist , painter and scholar.
Life
Butler studied at Cambridge and, after an argument with his father, emigrated to New Zealand in 1859 , where he raised sheep. In 1864 he returned to England and lived at Clifford's Inn near London's Fleet Street for the rest of his life . He died in London in 1902.
Act
Butler dealt with, among other things, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution , which he criticized:
"The hen is just a trick of the egg to produce a new egg."
At the end of the 19th century, in his satirical novel " Erewhon ", he exposed the religious and social double standards of his contemporaries as the wrong world. He remained an outsider in many ways, including his rejection of the unbroken belief in progress of the Victorian Age . Butler has often been compared to Swift and was particularly influential on Somerset Maugham , DH Lawrence , HG Wells, and James Joyce . His initial admiration for Darwin was followed by later distancing; at the same time he approached the church again in later years, but at the same time criticized its orthodoxy .
He is best known for his funny and critical aphorisms , e.g. B .:
"All animals, except man, know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it."
"All living beings except humans know that the main purpose of life is to enjoy it."
His close interest in the art of the Sacri Monti is reflected in the Alps and sanctuaries of Piedmont and the canton of Ticino (1881) and Ex Voto (1888).
bibliography
- Erewhon (novels)
- 1 Erewhon, or, Over the Range (1872; also: Erewhon , 1926)
- German:
- Ergindwon, or Beyond the Mountains. Based on the fifth edition of Samuel Butler's Erewhon by JD Barth, Leipzig 1879.
- Beyond the Mountains or Strange Journey to the Land of Aipotu. After the 18th, revised edition of Erewhon. Translated by Herberth E. Herlitschka . Phaidon-Verlag, Vienna 1928, DNB 365316229 .
- Erewhon. Translated by Fritz Güttinger . Manesse Verlag, Zurich 1961, DNB 450728528 .
- Strange trips to the land of Erewhon. Translated by Gertrud Lugert. Modifications made by Horst Höhne. With an afterword by Joachim Krehayn. Rütten & Loening, 1964, DNB 450728536 .
- Erewhon or beyond the mountains. Translated by Fritz Güttinger. Eichborn (The Other Library # 120), Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-8218-4120-6 .
- German:
- 2 Erewhon Revisited Twenty Years Later Both by the Original Discoverer of the Country and by His Son (1901; also: Erewhon Revisited: A Satire , 1926)
- Erewhon and Erewhon Revisited (Collective Edition of 1 and 2; 1927)
- The Way of All Flesh (novel)
-
The Way of All Flesh (1903)
- German:
- The way of all flesh 2 vols. Translated by Herberth E. Herlitschka. Phaidon-Verlag, Vienna 1929.
- The way of all flesh. Translated by Hans Kauders. Gutenberg Book Guild , Zurich 1946, DNB 572581130 .
- The way of all flesh. Translated by Helmut Findeisen. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1960, DNB 450728544 .
- German:
- Writings and essays
- Darwin among the Machines (1863)
- Lucubratio Ebria (1865)
- The Fair Haven (1873, essay)
- Life and Habit (1878)
- Evolution, Old and New; Or, the theories of Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck, as compared with that of Charles Darwin (1879)
- Unconscious Memory (1880)
- Alps and Sanctuaries of Piedmont and the Canton Ticino (1881)
- Luck or Cunning as the Main Means of Organic Modification? (1887)
- Ex voto; An Account of the Sacro Monte or New Jerusalem at Verallo-Sesia (1888)
- The Humor of Homer (1892)
- The life and letters of Dr. Samuel Butler: Head-master of Shrewsbury School 1798-1836 and afterwards Bishop of Lichfield, in so far as they illustrate the scholastic, religious and social life of England, 1790-1840 (1896, 2 vols., Biography about his grandfather Samuel Butler , an English scholar)
- The Authoress of the Odyssey (1897, essay)
- The Iliad of Homer, Rendered into English Prose (1898, translation)
- Shakespeare's Sonnets Reconsidered (1899, essay)
- The Odyssey of Homer (1900, translation)
- God the Known and God the Unknown (1909, posthumous)
- Collections
- Selections from Previous Works: With remarks on GJ Romanes' "Mental evolution in animals", and A psalm of Montreal (1884)
- Cambridge Pieces (1903)
- Essays on Life, Art and Science (1908)
-
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1912)
- English: Woolly Pig and Silverware: Notes of a Victorian Maverick Thinker. Edited and translated by a team of English students from the Free University of Berlin under the direction of Manfred Pfister . Stutz (KritBrit # 6), Passau 2005, ISBN 3-88849-093-6 .
- A First Year in Canterbury Settlement With Other Early Essays (1912)
- The Humor of Homer and Other Essays (1913)
- Canterbury Pieces (1914)
- The Essential Samuel Butler (1950)
- An annotated edition of the Characters of Samuel Butler (1612-1880) with textual, critical and historical introduction (1965)
German compilation:
- Of gossips, enthusiasts and scoundrels: character images and aphorisms. Edited by Anselm Schlösser. Translated by Jutta Schlösser. Dieterich (Dieterich Collection # 399), Leipzig 1984, DNB 850097754 .
- individual essays and short stories
- Andromeda (1971, in: Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares (eds.): Extraordinary Tales )
- The Book of the Machine (1969, in: Fairy Tales for Computers )
- The Menace of the Machine (1966, in: IO Evans (Ed.): Science Fiction Through the Ages 1 )
literature
- Hans Joachim Alpers , Werner Fuchs , Ronald M. Hahn , Wolfgang Jeschke : Lexicon of Science Fiction Literature. Heyne, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-453-02453-2 , p. 294.
- Hans Joachim Alpers, Werner Fuchs, Ronald M. Hahn, Jörg M. Munsonius, Hermann Urbanek: Lexicon of Fantasy Literature. Fantasy Productions, Erkrath 2005, ISBN 3-89064-566-6 , p. 89.
- John Clute , David I. Masson : Butler, Samuel. In: John Clute, Peter Nicholls : The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction . 3rd edition (online edition), version dated September 22, 2017.
- James G. Paradis: Samuel Butler, Victorian Against the Grain: A Critical Overview . University of Toronto Press, 2007.
- Peter Raby: Samuel Butler: A Biography . University of Iowa Press, 1991.
- Darko Suvin: Butler, Samuel . In: Noelle Watson, Paul E. Schellinger: Twentieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers. St. James Press, Chicago 1991, ISBN 1-55862-111-3 , pp. 110-112.
- Donald H. Tuck : The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy through 1968. Advent, Chicago 1974, ISBN 0-911682-20-1 , pp. 83 f.
Web links
- Literature by and about Samuel Butler in the catalog of the German National Library
- Samuel Butler in the German biography
- Samuel Butler in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)
- Samuel Butler in Fantastic Fiction (English)
- Samuel Butler in the bibliography of German science fiction ( books , stories )
- Works by Samuel Butler in Project Gutenberg ( currently not usually available for users from Germany )
- Literature by and about Samuel Butler in the WorldCat bibliographic database
- Works by and about Samuel Butler at Open Library
- Samuel Butler in the database of Find a Grave (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Quoted from Gerhard Vollmer: Evolutionary Epistemology . S. Hirzel, Stuttgart, 2nd edition 1980, ISBN 3-7776-0366-X , p. 167
- ^ Samuel Butler on ticinarte.ch
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Butler, Samuel |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Cellarius (pseudonym) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British writer, composer, philologist, painter and scholar |
DATE OF BIRTH | 4th December 1835 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Langar at Bingham , Nottinghamshire , England |
DATE OF DEATH | June 18, 1902 |
Place of death | London , England |