Erewhon Revisited

Twenty Years Later, Both by the Original Discoverer of the Country and by His Son

Samuel Butler

• Publisher: Aeneas Press
• Year: 2026
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9785486323270
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

Higgs returns to Erewhon twenty years after escaping by balloon, and finds that his ascent has become a religion — Sunchildism — with temples, a priesthood, relics and a professional interest in his never coming back. Butler quarrelled with his clergyman father, made money farming sheep in New Zealand, and spent the rest of his life attacking respectable opinion; this 1901 sequel is his coldest joke about how religions are actually made.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Erewhon Revisited Twenty Years Later, Both by the Original Discoverer of the Country and by His Son
• Chapter I: Ups and Downs of Fortune—My Father Starts for Erewhon
• Chapter II: To the Foot of the Pass Into Erewhon
• Chapter III: My Father While Camping Is Accosted by Professors Hanky and Panky
• Chapter IV: My Father Overhears More of Hanky and Panky’s Conversation
• Chapter V: My Father Meets a Son, of Whose Existence He Was Ignorant; and Strikes a Bargain with Him
• Chapter VI: Further Conversation Between Father and Son—The Professors’ Hoard
• Chapter VII: Signs of the New Order of Things Catch My Father’s Eye on Every Side
• Chapter VIII: Yram, Now Mayoress, Gives a Dinner-Party, in the Course of Which She Is Disquieted by What She Learns from Professor Hanky: She Sends for Her Son George and Questions Him
• Chapter IX: Interview Between Yram and Her Son
• Chapter X: My Father, Fearing Recognition at Sunch’ston, Betakes Himself to the Neighbouring Town of Fairmead
• Chapter XI: President Gurgoyle’s Pamphlet “On the Physics of Vicarious Existence”
• Chapter XII: George Fails to Find My Father, Whereon Yram Cautions the Professors
• Chapter XIII: A Visit to the Provincial Deformatory at Fairmead
• Chapter XIV: My Father Makes the Acquaintance of Mr. Balmy, and Walks with Him Next Day to Sunch’ston
• Chapter XV: The Temple Is Dedicated to My Father, and Certain Extracts Are Read from His Supposed Sayings
• Chapter XVI: Professor Hanky Preaches a Sermon, in the Course of Which My Father Declares Himself to Be the Sunchild
• Chapter XVII: George Takes His Father to Prison, and There Obtains Some Useful Information
• Chapter XVIII: Yram Invites Dr. Downie and Mrs. Humdrum to Luncheon—A Passage at Arms Between Her and Hanky Is Amicably Arranged
• Chapter XIX: A Council Is Held at the Mayor’s, in the Course of Which George Turns the Tables on the Professors
• Chapter XX: Mrs. Humdrum and Dr. Downie Propose a Compromise, Which, After an Amendment by George, Is Carried Nem. Con.
• Chapter XXI: Yram, on Getting Rid of Her Guests, Goes to the Prison to See My Father
• Chapter XXII: Mainly Occupied with a Veracious Extract from a Sunch’stonian Journal
• Chapter XXIII: My Father Is Escorted to the Mayor’s House, and Is Introduced to a Future Daughter-In-Law
• Chapter XXIV: After Dinner, Dr. Downie and the Professors Would Be Glad to Know What Is to Be Done About Sunchildism
• Chapter XXV: George Escorts My Father to the Statues; the Two Then Part
• Chapter XXVI: My Father Reaches Home, and Dies Not Long Afterwards
• Chapter XXVII: I Meet My Brother George at the Statues, on the Top of the Pass Into Erewhon
• Chapter XXVIII: George and I Spend a Few Hours Together at the Statues, and Then Part—I Reach Home—Postscript
• About the Author