THE WAY OF ALL FLESH-Finis

I have finally finished THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler, I was not happy with the ending but I guess if a man has not completed his life and you are no longer around to write about it then you do not get a satisfactory ending. It seemed that the front of the book was so filled with detail, but as we got to the closing it seemed rushed. All events wrapped up in one or two pages.

The characters in the book were based on the acquaintances of Samuel Butler. In fact, I am pretty sure the narrator is Mr. Butler, expressing himself about his life events in the form of fiction. Throughout the book are pictures from Mr. Butlers life, that coincide with the events in the book. For example in my copy, from the New York Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. published in 1957, there is a picture opposite page 242, that shows Samuel Butler with his friend Henry Festing Jones, who later wrote his biography. He gave him 200 Lbs per year to be his companion. In the story, to help Mr. Pontifex, his godfather who has been left the executor of Miss Althea Pontifex trust for Ernest, hires him to look after his books for a similar amount, they become good friends. Our narrator is tasked with the writing of Ernest's biography.

I do not agree with the parenting techniques of Ernest's parents Christina and Theobald, but it made Ernest a richer man once he broke with them. It is hard to imagine why they became parents, except that it was expected. Theobald certainly did not like being a father to any of  his children, though he pretended very well in front of his congregation. Christina seemed to care but only to the point that she got them to tell their secrets so she could share them with her husband, who then punished them.

But I liked the booked, wished it ended differently. This book was heavy in its critique of class differences, religion and politics. I believe that Samuel Butler was a freethinker and the people who come off the sincerest are the freethinkers. Everyone else is bottled up in what they think the current religion should be and how they are better for being in that religion. I am a Methodist, so it was fun to read about Wesley and the Methodist family that lived up above Ernest. He liked them so much that he thought maybe I should be a Methodist. They religions were divided in to  high and low religions, with Methodism being considered low, Church of England and the Catholics considered high.

I loved the history portrayed and the characters were well developed, but I was not sure I liked the timing of the book. Sometimes it read a little haphazard to me. I also was not a fan of the Latin phrases strewn throughout the book that I had to figure out. I wanted them explained, I had to find my husbands Latin book to figure out some of the context.

I will be finishing my next book by the end of the weekend, with a post Sunday.