Samuel Butler: A Sketch

In Short

Henry Festing Jones presents a biographical sketch of Samuel Butler, tracing his development from an English country rectory to sheep-farming in New Zealand, and ultimately to a long career as an iconoclastic author, artist, and composer in London. Butler lived by strict routines while constantly challenging the orthodoxies of his era. Through a chronological summary of his published works, personal habits, and key relationships, the portrait reveals a man driven by deep personal passions—most notably for the music of Handel—who applied sharp, original critical thinking to evolution, religion, and classical literature.

The Story

The narrative follows the chronological trajectory of Samuel Butler’s life, beginning with his birth in 1835 at Langar Rectory in Nottinghamshire. Raised in a clerical family, his early years included a transformative boyhood journey through Italy and education at Shrewsbury School and Cambridge. Intended for the ministry, Butler questioned traditional religious doctrines and refused ordination. In 1859, supported by his father, he emigrated to New Zealand to establish a sheep-run named Mesopotamia along the Rangitata River. His four and a half years in the colony brought financial success and provided the physical health and mental freedom that shaped his later career.

Returning to London in 1864 with capital from his colonial enterprise, Butler settled into chambers at Clifford's Inn, where he resided for the rest of his life. He initially pursued a career as a painter, studying at Heatherley’s Art School and exhibiting at the Royal Academy. However, his intellectual interests rapidly expanded into writing and speculative theory. His early essays on Darwinism, drafted in New Zealand and published in local newspapers, evolved into his celebrated satirical book Erewhon (1872), followed by The Fair Haven (1873).

During the 1870s and 1880s, disastrous investments in Canadian companies depleted his capital, causing a decade of acute financial stress. Despite these difficulties, Butler produced a series of books challenging prevailing scientific theories, arguing against Charles Darwin's mechanism of natural selection in favor of theories of organic memory and design, articulated in Life and Habit and subsequent volumes.

Alongside his written works, Butler maintained a lifelong devotion to the composer George Frideric Handel. Together with the author, Henry Festing Jones, he composed Handelian music, including a humorous secular oratorio titled Narcissus. In his later years, Butler turned his attention to classical scholarship, publishing translations of the Iliad and Odyssey, and advancing a controversial thesis in The Authoress of the Odyssey that the poem was written by a young woman in Sicily. He also undertook extensive photographic and historical documentation of Italian sanctuaries, resulting in his book Ex Voto. Shortly before his death in 1902, he completed Erewhon Revisited. The narrative ends with Butler’s cremation and the unrecorded burial of his ashes at Woking, reflecting his desire for simplicity at the close of a singular life.

How It Unfolds

An ecclesiastical upbringing Born the son of a country rector and grandson of a famous headmaster, Butler grows up in an English rectory and travels through Italy as an eight-year-old child. He attends Shrewsbury School and St. John's College, Cambridge, where he excels at rowing and discovers a lifelong passion for Handel's music.

Emigration and sheep-farming Refusing to enter the ministry due to religious doubts, Butler travels to New Zealand in 1859 to establish the Mesopotamia sheep station. During his four years in the colony, he prospers financially and begins publishing essays on Darwinism and mechanical evolution in local newspapers.

Return to London art and literature Settling in Clifford's Inn in 1864, Butler studies painting at Heatherley's School of Art, exhibits at the Royal Academy, and publishes his satirical masterpiece Erewhon. He also writes an anonymous pamphlet questioning the gospel accounts of the Resurrection.

Scientific controversy and financial anxiety Bad investments in Canadian enterprises strain his finances for a decade, forcing him to live with extreme frugality. He publishes Life and Habit and Unconscious Memory, engaging in a bitter public dispute with Charles Darwin over evolutionary theory.

Musical composition and Italian travels Butler spends his summers exploring the Canton Ticino and Northern Italy, documenting local art and sacred statues for his book Ex Voto. In London, he collaborates with Henry Festing Jones on Handelian musical compositions, including the secular oratorio Narcissus.

Classical theories and final works In his sixties, Butler translates Homer, travels to Sicily, and publishes his theory that the Odyssey was written by a Sicilian woman. He completes Erewhon Revisited before his health fails, dying in 1902 with his ashes buried without a marker.

The People

Samuel Butler The central subject, Butler is an independent scholar, author, artist, and composer who rejects conventional career paths in favor of intellectual freedom. He seeks absolute honesty in his work and personal life, living frugally according to strict daily routines while producing controversial books on evolution, religion, and literature. He dies having secured his financial independence, leaving behind a vast body of diverse work.

Rev. Thomas Butler Butler's father, the Rector of Langar and later Canon of Lincoln, is a learned botanist and strict traditionalist. He directs his son's early education and supplies the capital for his New Zealand venture, representing the conventional Anglican establishment from which Butler spent his life diverging.

Henry Festing Jones The author and Butler's close friend, travel companion, and musical collaborator. He joins Butler on annual summer tours through Italy, co-composes Handelian music with him, and acts as his biographical chronicler and executor.

Miss Eliza Mary Anne Savage A witty friend whom Butler meets at Heatherley's Art School. She acts as his primary literary critic, reading his manuscripts, offering candid advice, and encouraging him to write the novel that becomes The Way of All Flesh.

Alfred Cathie Butler's devoted clerk and personal assistant, who manages the daily household affairs at Clifford's Inn, prepares meals, handles correspondence, and maintains Butler's strictly timed schedule.

In Its Own Voice

Before his return to England, Butler spent quiet Sundays in his mountain hut alongside a diverse group of colonial companions.

"I sleep in a bunk on one side of the fire; Mr. Haast, a German who is making a geological survey of the province, sleeps upon the opposite one; my bullock-driver and hut-keeper have two bunks at the far end of the hut, along the wall, while my shepherd lies in the loft among the tea and sugar and flour."

Butler maintained a firm rule regarding literary style from his earliest college essays.

"Most readers will have anticipated me in admitting that a man should be clear of his meaning before he endeavours to give it any kind of utterance, and that, having made up his mind what to say, the less thought he takes how to say it, more than briefly, pointedly and plainly, the better."

His personal philosophy prioritized the human presence behind any artistic creation over the technical product itself.

"It was always the author, the work of God, that interested him more than the book--the work of man; the painter more than the picture; the composer more than the music."

What It's Really About

The central theme of the work is the pursuit of intellectual autonomy against the weight of institutional orthodoxy. Butler continuously tests established authorities—whether the Victorian Church, the scientific consensus around Charles Darwin, or classical academic scholarship on Homer. Underneath his varied pursuits in literature, biology, art, and music lies a unified belief that true understanding requires direct personal observation rather than uncritical acceptance of convention. The text highlights how a life organized around modest habits, financial prudence, and artistic integrity permitted an individual thinker to express entirely original ideas without relying on institutional approval or popular applause.

Why Read It Today

This sketch offers a clear, affectionate, and unvarnished portrait of one of the 19th century's most original minds. Readers interested in Victorian literary history, the evolution of satire, or non-conformist biographical writing will find it particularly rewarding. The narrative moves at a brisk pace, free from dense academic jargon, relying instead on concrete details of daily routines, travel logs, and personal correspondence.

The prose style is remarkably accessible, though modern readers must navigate historical references to 19th-century evolutionary debates, minor regional Italian geography, and classical literary arguments. The portrait captures the atmosphere of Victorian London's artistic subculture, the roughness of early colonial New Zealand, and the quiet routines of a scholar living on his own terms. What remains with the reader is the image of a man who managed to balance strict daily order—balancing his accounts to the halfpenny and timing his daily cigarettes—with an unquenchable, rebellious curiosity about the world.