The Way of All Flesh

The Way of All Flesh is Samuel Butler’s semi-autobiographical novel that follows Ernest Pontifex’s journey from a repressive Victorian upbringing to intellectual and personal emancipation. With irony and insight, it sharply critiques the rigidity of religious dogma, parental tyranny, and social conventions of 19th-century England. A pioneering work of psychological realism, it profoundly influenced modern literature by championing individual freedom over inherited tradition.