One of Samuel Butler's most famous works, "Erewhon" is the story of a fictional country in which Butler satirizes the Victorian society of the time in which he lived. An anagram of the word "nowhere," "Erewhon" upon first impression appears to be a utopian society. However as the country is further detailed is becomes apparent that this is clearly not the case. The titular setting of the novel is loosely based on Butler's experiences as a young man...

Erewhon, set in a thinly disguised New Zealand, ended with the escape of its protagonist from the native Erewhonians by balloon. In the sequel, narrated by his son John. Higgs returns to Erewhon and meets his former lover Yram, who is now the mother of his son George. He discovers that he is now worshipped as "the Sunchild." He finds himself in danger from the villainous Professors Hanky and Panky, who are determined to protect Sunchildism from him....

In Erewhon, an anagram for "nowhere," sickness is a punishable crime, criminals receive compassionate medical treatment, and machines are banned, lest they evolve and take over. Originally published in 1872, the proto-steampunk novel Erewhon won its author immediate recognition as a satirist. SamuelButler followed in the tradition of Voltaire and Swift in creating Erewhon and Erewhon Revisited, which are widely recognized as the nineteenth century's...

Erewhon Revisited Twenty Years Later, Both by the Original Discoverer of the Country and by His Son (1901) is a satirical novel by Samuel Butler, forming a belated sequel to his Erewhon (1872). The Cambridge History of English and American Literature judges that it "has less of the free imaginative play of its predecessor…but, in sharp brilliance of wit and criticism, in intellectual unity and coherence, it surpasses Erewhon"