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Audiobook edition · 18 h 18 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the people teaching you goodness are the ones you must learn to resist?
Ernest Pontifex wants to be good. His father, Theobald, believes a child's will must be broken; his mother, Christina, dreams of a holy career for him. In Samuel Butler's The Way of All Flesh, a shy young man's upbringing becomes a sharp examination of family duty, faith and the cost of obedience.
Edward Overton, Ernest's godfather, tells the story with dry humor and growing concern. His account reaches across four generations of the Pontifex family, tracing how money, ambition and fear shape parents and children. Beneath polite manners lie small cruelties, and Ernest faces a difficult question: how can he learn to judge goodness for himself?
What you’ll discover
- A family under scrutiny Watch habits and wounds pass from father to son, each time disguised as duty.
- An ironic guide Enjoy Overton's calm, witty eye for the gap between respectable manners and hurtful deeds.
- The weight of obedience Follow Ernest through rules, lessons and prayers that make childhood a place of fear.
- Faith under pressure Explore what happens when religious conviction leaves little room for doubt or choice.
- A quietly independent aunt Meet Alethea, whose wit and kindly interest offer a contrast to her family's pretenses.
Who will love it
Readers who love family sagas, sharp social comedy and stories of a young person breaking free. It suits anyone curious about Victorian church life and anyone who enjoys a narrator with opinions.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A village carpenter founds a family of climbers
- A rich father uses his will as a whip
- Theobald wins a wife by a hand of cards
- A child is trained like a weed to be pulled
- A kind aunt rescues a boy for a little while
- One kind act brings a boy to a crisis
- Faith, flattery and a swindler lead a young man to prison
- Parents hand on their habits long before they speak
- Honest belief counts for more than respectable belief
- A gossiping old friend tells the story with a smile
Who’s who
- Ernest PontifexThe sallow, musical son of a clergyman, beaten into obedience, who wants to find a life that is truly his.
- Theobald PontifexErnest's father, a timid, bullied clergyman who expects total obedience from his children and calls it duty.
- Christina PontifexErnest's mother, fond of him in her fashion, who dreams of glory and sees no harm in the cane.
- OvertonThe narrator and Ernest's godfather, a bachelor playwright who watches the family with wit and growing affection.
- Alethea PontifexTheobald's lively sister, who sees Ernest's promise and tries to give him happiness and a chance to grow.
- George PontifexTheobald's father, a rich publisher of religious books, who keeps his children in line with threats about his will.
- Dr SkinnerThe pompous headmaster of Roughborough, who rages at his pupils and wears a wig that fades with the years.
- PryerA High Church curate who persuades Ernest that a college for spiritual science needs a great deal of Ernest's money.
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- Large print hardcover
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El camino de toda carne
by Samuel Butler · 1903
After beatings, schooling, ordination and jail, Ernest Pontifex breaks with the parents whose upbringing harms him.
Challenging10–20 hours to readEspañol
Aprende un idioma con clásicos de nivel challengingEspañolFrancésAlemánItalianoJaponésPortuguésInglésCómo medimos los niveles
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In short
What happens to a boy whose father starts training him in obedience before he can crawl? Ernest Pontifex is a small child when the lessons and the whippings begin, and the book asks how a boy raised that way can ever become himself.
El camino de toda carne de un vistazo
- Tiempo de lectura
- Unas 10 h 30 min8 h 20 min fast, 12 h 25 min slow
- Duración
- 149.400 palabras
- Nivel en la biblioteca
- Exigente long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- Primera publicación
- 1903by Samuel Butler
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Cuánto se tarda en leer los clásicos · Actualizado
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A village carpenter founds a family of climbers
The story begins in Paleham, where Overton grows up as the rector's son. There lives old Mr Pontifex, a carpenter who taught himself to draw. He builds the church organ with his own hands, and the village children think him the cleverest man alive after their own papa.
Overton's father calls the old man one of the ablest he ever knew. The young Overton asks why: what did a village carpenter actually do? The rector answers that you should judge a man by what he makes you feel he could do, not only by what he has done.
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- 15-minute summary
- Las ideas clave de todo el libro en unos 15 minutos. Una buena introducción o un repaso.
Detalles
- First published
- 1903
- Language
- Español
- Reading time
- 11 h 55 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cita esta edición
Butler, Samuel. The Way of All Flesh. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-way-of-all-flesh.
Butler, S. (2026). The way of all flesh. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-way-of-all-flesh (Original work published 1903)
Butler, Samuel. The Way of All Flesh. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-way-of-all-flesh.
@book{butler2026way,
author = {Butler, Samuel},
title = {The Way of All Flesh},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-way-of-all-flesh},
note = {First published 1903}
}
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What is The Way of All Flesh about?
It follows Ernest Pontifex from a bullying clergyman's home through school, Cambridge and a failed curacy, set against the rise of four generations of his family. It examines how parents shape children and how faith, money and habit pass down.
Who is Overton in The Way of All Flesh?
Overton is the narrator, a bachelor friend of the Pontifex family and Ernest's godfather. He writes for the stage, knew Theobald as a boy, and tells the story with humour and affection, as well as some sharp opinions.
Is The Way of All Flesh a true story?
It is a novel, though Butler drew heavily on his own family and upbringing. He wrote it over many years in the nineteenth century, and it was published in 1903, after his death in 1902.
The author
Samuel Butler
1835–1902 · English novelist and critic
Samuel Butler (1835–1902) was an English novelist and critic. He was born in Langar, Nottinghamshire, lived in New Zealand from 1859 to 1864, and then settled in London. He published Erewhon in 1872 and The Authoress of the Odyssey in 1897. The Way of All Flesh appeared after his death, in 1903.
More by Samuel Butler
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