Erewhon, or Over the Range

Abandoned by his guide in the mountains of a newly colonized island, Butler's narrator climbs "over the range" and stumbles upon an undiscovered civilization, Erewhon. The Erewhonians have useless banks, their schools teach nothing, and they stopped eating animals — and then vegetables — for ethical reasons.


In Erewhon we encounter a number of principles turned inside out and upside down, and, in the encounter, our mind stretches accordingly. But Samuel Butler's Erewhon is first and foremost — like even the greatest works of art — meant to be fun. Take the name itself: "Erewhon" is an anagram for "nowhere."


With a new foreword by Timothy Wirkman Virkkala.