The Way of All Flesh

The Way of All Flesh
by Samuel Butler
read: 2013
Modern Library #12, Guardian 1000 Novels

The Way of All Flesh, like a lot of old books (and while not published until 1903, it was written between 1873-1884), is a bit tough for a modern reader to get into, but once I got used to the prose style I really liked it. It was very funny at times; the narrator's tale of his meal of "bread and butter" (which turns out to be a feast complete with oysters) with pompous school director Dr. Skinner is cutting satire, and the doctor's prescription of a palliative zoo visit late in the book (with the note that large animals are better for healing) is bizarre, absurd, and hilarious. Is it the twelfth-greatest novel of all time, as the Modern Library / New York Times folks named it? I don't think so, but I did enjoy it.