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The way of all flesh - Samuel Butler You can just tell from the cover that this book is a real keeper right? Wow, what a boring book. Somehow though, it ranks as the #12 book on Modern Library's list of top 100 from the 20th Century. This should be a misnomer, as the book itself was written in the 1870s, but not published until 1903. It makes the list mostly for its attack on Victorian ideals and the rejection of Calvinism. I know, you are really starting to get a literary boner. Believe you me, it was hard to keep it in my pants while reading, luckily I was outfitted with my cranial chastity belt - this prevented my brain from being too understimulated while reading the book.

To be fair, it is simply a case that the book's slow pace is basically antiquated. The ideas themselves are quite progressive for the time, but read today, it takes a person of supreme patience (or someone equipped with my aformentioned cranial chastity belt) to slog through the book.

Conclusion: Unless you are reading all the ML top 100, no real reason to pick this one up. 
18 October 2017 at 04:21