Classic Novels Library

Erewhon; Or, Over the Range

Erewhon; Or, Over the Range

by Butler, Samuel, 1835-1902

BookID: 1906

Language:English

Reading Level:Reading ease score: 55.0 (10th to 12th grade). Somewhat difficult to read.

Copyright Status:Public domain in the USA.

SatireUtopias -- FictionUtopian fiction

Description

"Erewhon; Or, Over the Range" by Samuel Butler is a satirical novel published in 1872. A traveler discovers a strange fictional country where society operates by inverted rules: illness is treated as crime, while criminals receive medical treatment. The book satirizes Victorian England while pioneering speculations about machine consciousness and artificial intelligence in its famous "Book of the Machines" section. Drawing on Butler's experiences as a sheep farmer in New Zealand, this darkly comic work imagines a world where compassion and punishment are bizarrely reversed, and where machines may evolve beyond human control. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Class:PR: Language and Literatures: English literature

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