Talk:Samuel Butler (novelist)

Disambiguator
"Erewhon" as a middle name is an amusing way to disambiguate, but that's a slangy usage not really appropriate for a serious work. Stan 16:57, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Sodomite?
Is there really any evidence that he was, sir-reverence, a sodomite?
 * According to Butler's friend and biographer, Henry Festing Jones, Samuel Butler was homosexual.
 * That statement is NOT TRUE. I just read Jones's 2-vol biography as well as his short life-sketch at Gutenberg and found nowhere the statement that "Samuel Butler was a homosexual."  People should be more careful about their statements here, especially in delicate points like this.  Samuel Butler's sexuality--like everything else about him--was complex and mysterious.... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ron.

Herbert Sussman's speculations are without evidence. Typical Wikipedia agenda-pushing.173.72.63.150 (talk) 02:16, 17 December 2013 (UTC)Daitorio


 * It is insane that even any talk of a persons potential sexual orientation is relevant as if it matters. It is clearly an agenda to sexual people and categorize them. First there is zero evidence of anything and it's all speculation. When I speculate on a wiki article it is trashed but for some reason others can do it when it comes to this type of BS. It's not as if it's mentioning a person, say like Elton John, being married to a man which is factual... this is 100% speculation and it seems the people that write these things are obsessed with other humans sexual life or there is another agenda going on. Don't expect it to get better. 2603:8081:8000:79F:7CC3:906A:F5DB:4331 (talk) 18:30, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

Biography and Criticism
Samuel's friend Henry Festing Jones wrote the authoritative biography: the two-volume Samuel Butler, Author of Erewhon (1835-1902): A Memoir (commonly known as Jones's Memoir), published in 1919 and now only available from antiquarian booksellers. Project Gutenberg [2] hosts a shorter "Sketch" by Jones. More recently, Peter Raby has written a life: Samuel Butler: A Biography (Hogarth Press, 1991). The best edition of The Way of All Flesh (the only authentic one) is edited by Daniel F. Howard as "Ernest Pontifex, or The Way of All Flesh." It first came out in 1965 and is in print again. It, of course, should be the only version read as the early edition of 1903 contained numerous revisions and deletions by the editor at the time. For a critical study, mostly about The Way of All Flesh, see Thomas L. Jeffers, Samuel Butler Revalued (University Park: Penn State Press, 1981).

Roy Harmon 18:13, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

Cellarius
Darwin among the Machines had the pseudonym "Celarius" changed from a link to a disambiguation page to a pipe to this one, which has the ambiguous statement, "...signed Cellarius, which can be construed as his name in Latin...." The dab says it is Latinized form of "Keller," to which I add, in English, Cellar. Whoever construed it as "Butler" should be cited as an Authority who was a contemporary of our Butler, and who gives a reason. Absent such, or a reference to Butler's own intention, readers should construe it for themselves. The dab page has Butler's usage in chronological order following Weimar classical scholar Christoph Keller, 1638-1707, who signed himself Christoph Cellarius. His Universal History Divided into an Ancient, Medieval, and New Period popularized this tripartite division, which then became a standard, and which would have been known to Butler's more scholarly contemporary readers. It also adds a scholarly panache to Butler's theme. I drew that conclusion as a Wiki'd user, not as a scholar, but because the dab page enabled me. Others readers should be given the same opportunity.--Pawyilee (talk) 07:28, 27 October 2012 (UTC)
 * Created Cellarius (name) with template #REDIRECT Cellarius to redirect to the "Cellarius"  disambiguation page, which does not include "(disambiguation)" in its name. --Pawyilee (talk) 12:09, 29 October 2012 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 05:22, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

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