Book contents
- The British Novel of Ideas
- The British Novel of Ideas
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Dedication
- Introduction The British Novel of Ideas
- Part I 1850–1900
- Chapter 1 Moral Ideation in the Nineteenth-Century British Novel
- Chapter 2 George Eliot
- Chapter 3 Samuel Butler
- Chapter 4 George Gissing
- Part II 1900–1945
- Part III 1945–1975
- Part IV 1975–Present
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 3 - Samuel Butler
Ideas against Themselves
from Part I - 1850–1900
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2024
- The British Novel of Ideas
- The British Novel of Ideas
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Dedication
- Introduction The British Novel of Ideas
- Part I 1850–1900
- Chapter 1 Moral Ideation in the Nineteenth-Century British Novel
- Chapter 2 George Eliot
- Chapter 3 Samuel Butler
- Chapter 4 George Gissing
- Part II 1900–1945
- Part III 1945–1975
- Part IV 1975–Present
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Samuel Butler sharply divides critics, some seeing him as a relativist and thus a precursor of modernism, others as a purveyor of outdated scientific and philosophical dogma. This essay situates him as a transitional figure, straddling modern and Victorian paradigms in the tradition of the novel of ideas. Butler’s relativistic tendencies emerge through distinctive formal techniques, his chief influence on the modern novel: enigmatic use of satire; rapid, dissonant tonal shifts; defamiliarization of commonplace ideas; and fierce iconoclasm – techniques that fuel his radical questioning both of rationality and of ideas themselves. But Butler also affirmed common sense, instinct, and faith – in opposition to rationality – by conceiving them in Lamarckian evolutionary terms: that is, as repositories of intellectual choices made over the course of millennia and preserved in collective unconscious memory. Butler thus believed that ideas always fall short of truth, even as they facilitate an open-ended, interminable progress toward it.
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- The British Novel of IdeasGeorge Eliot to Zadie Smith, pp. 64 - 79Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024