The Way of All Flesh is one of the time-bombs of literature," said V. S. Pritchett. "One thinks of it lying in Samuel Butler's desk for thirty years, waiting to blow up the Victorian family and with it the whole great pillared and balustraded edifice of the Victorian novel." Written between 1873 and 1884 but not published until 1903, a year after Butler's death, his marvelously uninhibited satire savages Victorian bourgeois values as personified by multiple generations of the Pontifex family. A thinly veiled account of his own upbringing in the bosom of a God-fearing Christian family, Butler's scathingly funny depiction of the self-righteous hypocrisy underlying nineteenth-century domestic life was hailed by George Bernard Shaw as "one of the summits of human achievement."

The 1957 book contributes greatly to our knowledge of the character and ideas of Burke.

Discover the innermost thoughts and reflections of Samuel Butler, a prominent figure in English literature, through his personal notebooks. Edited by Henry Festing Jones, this collection offers a rare glimpse into Butler's creative process, musings, and observations on life. From philosophical ponderings to candid insights, these pages reveal the mind of a literary genius, making it an invaluable resource for scholars and fans of Butler's work.