The Way of All Flesh (Modern Library 100 Best Novels) (urspr publ 1903; utgåvan 1998)

Reading a book written over a century ago is a very different experience than reading our modern, high-impact, explicit stories of today. This book is a bit wordy. It is filled with the author's philosophy on life, morals, and religion. However, the characters are wonderful and full of life, and the message that men and women are mere mortals and full of flaws remains the same no matter how the text is worded. Poor Ernest Pontifex lives a interesting, eventful , and sometimes tragic life. Raised by parents who seemed to care more for money than their children, he suffers from poor self-esteem and a loss of identity. After enduring incarceration, an alcoholic wife, and many years of searching, he finally finds peace in following his heart. ( )

I find it quite hard to read and understand, with its theological and philosophical themes. The characters are quite tedious too like Ernest and his parents. And the most amiable character, Ernest's aunt, had to die young. However, I did learn one thing from the book - compound interest works. Ernest's godfather had invested the money from his aunt for him and the money grew over the years, thus leaving more money for Ernest to inherit. ( )

Witty, sarcastic attack on the institutions of Victorian England published in 1903 (but written decades earlier). Most of the humor still holds up, and I really enjoyed most of the book. I don't seek out novels of that period as a rule, because I generally dislike their prolixity and find their themes dated and uninteresting. This is an exception. It's on the 5 side of 4 stars.

SORTA SPOILER ALERT

I found the description of how alcohol destroys one poverty-stricken female character to be annoying, but perhaps Butler was just trying to avoid being overly politically correct (i.e., because opponents of religion, say, also had to believe that the poor were more virtuous than the wealthy). ( )

Review pending ( )

Another novel from my Victorian Novels class, which I loved, reveling in the satire. My copy is heavily underlined, with various enthusiastic marginalia. "Ha!" "Ironic" "Lecture on English Clergy" "!" "Weepy, rather" "Really!" "Ernest tries to publish""Coincidence!" "Ernest is still innocent!" "Ernest goes independent" "Hypocritical" "Sounds like his mother"

I wrote "This doesn't make sense" in 1971 to this remark by Pryer: "...If a vice in spite of such efforts can still hold its own among the most polished nations, it must be founded on some immutable truth or fact in human nature, and must have some compensatory advantage which we cannot altogether afford to dispense with."

It does now. Just wasn't cynical enough back then ( )