Samuel Butler
Author
Series
Lexile measure
1340L
Language
English
Formats
Description
Relationships within the Pontifex family reflect the hypocrisy of middle-class life in Victorian England.
Butler's novel satirizes Victorian hypocrisy in its chronicle of the life and loves of Ernest Pontifex. Along the way, it offers a powerful indictment of 19th-century England's major institutions. Beginning with the life of John Pontifex, a carpenter, the novel traces four generations of the Pontifex family, each of which perpetuates the frustration...