Erewhon · Chapters
Chapters explained
Chapter companions for Erewhon by Samuel Butler.
Chapter 1
Epigraph
The chapter presents an epigraph from Aristotle's Politics, suggesting that all human actions are motivated by the appearance of good, and a paraphrase emphasizing that no action is taken without weighing considerations.
Chapter 2
Preface to First Edition
The author provides a brief note on the pronunciation of the word 'Erewhon', indicating it should be spoken as three short syllables: Ĕ-rĕ-whŏn.
Chapter 3
Preface to Second Edition
In the preface to the second edition, the author addresses corrections made, clarifies the independence of 'Erewhon' from 'The Coming Race', defends the chapters on Machines against misinterpretation as a mockery of Darwin, and discusses the intentional use of inaccuracies and the difficulty of understanding the Erewhonians.
Chapter 4
Preface to the Revised Edition
Samuel Butler recounts the genesis and evolution of Erewhon over thirty years, from its origins as newspaper articles on machines and the Unborn to its publication in 1872, its unexpected success, and the revisions made for this edition, including reflections on literary technique and the contrast with Erewhon Revisited.
Chapter 5
Erewhon
The narrator recounts his journey into the remote and mysterious land of Erewhon, where he discovers a society that inverts many conventional moral and legal norms, particularly regarding illness and crime. He is captured, imprisoned, and gradually introduced to the strange customs and philosophies of the Erewhonians, including their unique views on health, morality, and the relationship between machines and humanity.
Chapter 6
Waste Lands
The narrator, a young Englishman seeking fortune in a new colony, describes his journey to a remote pastoral settlement near a vast mountain range. He works as a cadet watching sheep on a high mountain, and becomes obsessed with exploring the unexplored territory beyond the second range, hoping to find workable land or precious minerals.
Chapter 7
In the Wool-Shed
The narrator, during shearing season, attempts to extract information from the native Chowbok about the mountains beyond the nearer ranges. After a tense negotiation, Chowbok performs a terrifying ritual on wool bales, then flees in fear. The narrator resolves to explore the mountains after shearing and persuades Chowbok to accompany him as a guide.
Chapter 8
Up the River
The narrator and Chowbok explore the river valley, facing difficult terrain and dangerous gorges. After weeks of exploration, the narrator discovers a potential pass over the main range, but Chowbok deserts him. The chapter reflects on the beauty and peril of the wilderness, and the narrator's determination to continue despite challenges.
Chapter 9
The Saddle
The narrator, abandoned by Chowbok, decides to continue alone up a valley toward a mountain saddle. After a difficult ascent, he reaches the top and glimpses a new land beyond. He descends through a dangerous chasm and camps alone, struggling with fear and isolation.
Chapter 10
The River and the Range
The narrator continues his journey, descending to a river and constructing a raft to cross it. He reflects on his failed attempts to convert Chowbok to Christianity, including baptizing him, and laments Chowbok's absence. After a perilous crossing, he lands safely on the left bank and prepares for the next stage of his journey.
Chapter 11
Into Erewhon
The narrator descends from the mountain pass into a hidden, inhabited country, where he is discovered by two young women and subsequently taken in by a group of men. He observes that the people, their customs, and their environment are strikingly similar to Europe, yet subtly different, and he realizes he is now a captive in this unknown land.
Chapter 12
VII: First Impressions
The narrator is taken through an Alpine village and imprisoned after his watch is confiscated and placed in a museum of broken machinery, revealing the Erewhonians' deep suspicion of mechanical inventions. He observes their physical beauty, polite customs, and the presence of shrines honoring human excellence.
Chapter 13
VIII: In Prison
The narrator, imprisoned in Erewhon, describes his initial despair and gradual adaptation to captivity. He learns the language with the help of Yram, the jailor's daughter, and receives visitors. He reflects on the Erewhonians' strange attitudes toward machinery and illness, and is told he may be sent to the capital to meet the King and Queen.
Chapter 14
To the Metropolis
The narrator is invited to stay with Mr. Nosnibor, a wealthy embezzler, and is shocked to learn that in Erewhon, embezzlement is not a crime but poverty is. He reluctantly accepts the invitation. During the journey to the metropolis, he learns about the Erewhonian prohibition of machinery, which stems from a book predicting machines would supplant humans. He also hears about the statues on the pass, once used in sacrifices to avert ugliness and disease. Upon arrival, he is greeted by the Mayor and Mr. Nosnibor, and begins to adapt to Erewhonian customs, including their treatment of ill temper as a physical ailment.
Chapter 15
Current Opinions
The narrator describes Erewhonian attitudes toward crime and morality, where criminal acts are treated as illnesses requiring treatment by 'straighteners' (soul-craft practitioners) rather than punishment. He explains the social etiquette of discussing moral health instead of physical health, and recounts Mr. Nosnibor's case of embezzlement, which was treated with fines, diet, and flogging rather than imprisonment.
Chapter 16
XI: Some Erewhonian Trials
The narrator describes the Erewhonian legal system, where misfortune is treated as a crime. He witnesses trials for bereavement and consumption, highlighting the inverted morality where illness and bad luck are punished while health and fortune are revered.
Chapter 17
XII: Malcontents
The narrator reflects on the trial of a consumptive man, grappling with Erewhonian justice that punishes illness as a crime. He considers the arguments of reformers who advocate for more humane treatment of the diseased, drawing parallels to English practices like quarantine and the treatment of maniacs. The chapter explores the relativity of justice and the influence of societal norms on moral judgment.
Chapter 18
XIII: The Views of the Erewhonians Concerning Death
The narrator describes Erewhonian attitudes toward death, which they regard with less abhorrence than disease, considering it beyond the reach of law. They believe many who die have never truly been born into the unseen world. Death is seen as more frightening than harmful, and the precise moment of death is unknowable. The dead are cremated and their ashes scattered over chosen land, often a childhood garden. Statues are made during life with flattering inscriptions, but public statues are destroyed after fifty years unless a jury votes to retain them. Condolences are expressed through boxes of artificial tears. The chapter also discusses Erewhonian secrecy and shame around childbirth, which is treated as an illness to be concealed.
Chapter 19
XIV: Mahaina
The narrator continues his stay with the Nosnibors, observing their social circle and the peculiar Erewhonian attitudes toward illness and morality. A visit from Mahaina, who claims to suffer from dipsomania, sparks a lengthy and contradictory discussion among the women about whether her intemperance is real or feigned. The narrator becomes increasingly disturbed by their convoluted reasoning and the societal pressure to conceal bodily weakness, reflecting on the impossibility of honest discourse about health in Erewhon.
Chapter 20
The Musical Banks
The narrator accompanies the Nosnibor ladies to a Musical Bank, observing the Erewhonian dual currency system. He notes the bank's ornate architecture and the peculiar social pressure to maintain a balance in a currency with no commercial value. The cashiers appear strained and unhappy, trapped in a false position from which retreat is impossible. The narrator learns that while everyone professes respect for the Musical Banks, in practice they rely on the other currency for real transactions, and the system is maintained through hypocrisy and social conformity.
Chapter 21
XVI: Arowhena
The narrator reflects on his time with the Nosnibor family, expressing his dislike for Mr. Nosnibor, Mrs. Nosnibor, and Zulora, but his deep affection for Arowhena. He falls in love with her but faces a cultural obstacle: the custom that the eldest unmarried daughter must marry first, which would require him to marry Zulora. He also recounts his interactions with the King, including a conversation about machines where he mentions balloons to avoid revealing advanced technology. The chapter delves into Erewhonian religious beliefs, including idolatry and the personification of human qualities as deities, and describes a theological debate between the narrator and Arowhena about the nature of justice and hope.
Chapter 22
Ydgrun and the Ydgrunites
The narrator describes the Erewhonians' true religion centered on the goddess Ydgrun, a practical and powerful deity worshipped through deeds rather than formal rituals, contrasting with their superficial professed gods. He distinguishes between Ydgrunites, low Ydgrunites, and high Ydgrunites—the latter being gentlemen of high moral character who live by self-respect and consideration for others, yet lack belief in an afterlife. The narrator reflects on the difficulty of converting them and the potential consequences of displacing Ydgrun.
Chapter 23
Birth Formulae
The narrator describes the Erewhonian belief in preexistence and their practice of making newborns sign a 'birth formula' that absolves parents of responsibility for the child's birth, placing blame on the unborn child. The chapter details the ceremony, the legal document, and the narrator's critique of this practice, including a conversation with a Professor of Unreason about the necessity of compromise.
Chapter 24
XIX: The World of the Unborn
The narrator describes the Erewhonian conception of the unborn, who are disembodied souls living in a ghostly world. They can only enter the living world by 'suicide'—a voluntary act of leaving the unborn state. The unborn must accept harsh conditions: loss of memory, random assignment of dispositions and bodies, and the risk of being born to wicked or unsympathetic parents. Wise elders lecture them on the misery and risk of birth, but only the foolish choose to be born. The chapter includes a philosophical reflection on time, the past and future, and the inevitability of death.
Chapter 25
XX: What They Mean by It
The narrator reflects on the Erewhonian mythology of the unborn, noting that the Erewhonians do not fully believe their own grim portrayal of life but use it to justify punishing people for moral and physical ailments. He observes that parent-child relations are less affectionate than in Europe, attributing this to the failure of parents to remember their own youth. He criticizes compulsory education as a fetish that burdens families and leads to infanticide, advocating instead for early earning and practical training. He also discusses the Erewhonian reverence for wealth as a symbol of duty and the radical proposal to alternate authority between old and young.
Chapter 26
The Colleges of Unreason
The narrator, now living with the Nosnibors for several months, grapples with his love for Arowhena and the impossibility of marrying her in Erewhon due to strict customs. After a painful conversation, he resolves to run away with her to Europe. He accepts an invitation from Mr. Thims to visit the city of the Colleges of Unreason, where he learns about their educational system, which emphasizes 'hypothetics'—the study of imaginary and impossible contingencies—and the deliberate cultivation of unreason as a complement to reason.
Chapter 27
XXII: The Colleges of Unreason—Continued
The narrator continues his account of the Colleges of Unreason, describing the Erewhonian disdain for originality and genius, the suppression of independent thought, and the examination system that rewards vagueness and conformity. He learns about the historical revolution that destroyed most mechanical inventions, led by the anti-machinists, and is given a copy of the work that sparked the upheaval.
Chapter 28
XXIII: The Book of the Machines
The narrator translates a portion of the Book of the Machines, which argues that machines may eventually develop consciousness and surpass humans, urging that their advancement be checked before it is too late.
Chapter 29
XXIV: The Machines—Continued
The narrator continues reading the Erewhonian book on machines, which argues that machines are evolving and may eventually surpass humans. The text warns that machines are gaining power over humanity, using humans to struggle and advance on their behalf. It draws analogies between machines and living organisms, suggesting machines have reproductive systems and may become quasi-animate. The chapter explores the idea that man's soul and body are machine-made, and that humanity risks becoming parasitic on machines.
Chapter 30
XXV: The Machines—Concluded
The narrator concludes his translation of the Erewhonian treatise on machines, which argues that machines are evolving life forms that will eventually surpass humanity. The treatise warns against mechanical progress, leading to the destruction of all inventions from the previous 271 years. A counter-argument that machines are merely extra-corporeal limbs is dismissed, and the chapter ends with mention of the resulting civil wars.
Chapter 31
XXVI: The Views of an Erewhonian Prophet Concerning the Rights of Animals
The narrator recounts the history of an Erewhonian prophet who, claiming divine inspiration, preached against killing animals for food, leading to a series of laws and evasions. The chapter explores the conflict between common sense and rigid morality, the unintended consequences of prohibition, and the suffering caused by a conscience-driven legal system that outlaws meat-eating, including a tragic story of a young man who hanged himself after being caught breaking the law.
Chapter 32
The Views of an Erewhonian Prophet Concerning the Rights of Vegetables
The narrator recounts the history of Erewhonian dietary laws, focusing on a philosopher who argued that plants and animals share a common ancestry and thus deserve equal moral consideration. He proposed that only naturally dead vegetables should be eaten, but an oracle's ambiguous response ultimately led to the repeal of meat prohibitions, restoring common sense. The chapter critiques the human tendency to follow prophets and faddists rather than think independently.
Chapter 33
Escape
The narrator finalizes his plan to escape Erewhon with Arowhena via a balloon, using the Queen's curiosity and the King's disbelief to gain permission. After a perilous ascent and a desperate battle against sinking, they are rescued by a ship, ultimately finding safety and freedom.
Chapter 34
Conclusion
The narrator concludes by outlining a scheme to exploit Erewhon for profit and evangelization, proposing to transport Erewhonians to Queensland as laborers under the guise of religious instruction. He recounts his return to England, his discovery that Chowbok had reported him dead, and his subsequent life writing tracts. The chapter ends with a postscript describing his encounter with Chowbok, now a missionary named Rev. William Habakkuk, at Exeter Hall.
Chapter 35
Endnotes
The endnotes provide commentary on Erewhonian myths, language, and the personification of machines, noting the use of terms that imply vitality and idiosyncrasy in machines, and referencing a future collection of examples.
Chapter 36
List of Illustrations
This chapter lists the illustrations included in the book, beginning with a reference to a score for a harpsichord composition by Handel.
