He was born on a family estate in Nottingham in the family of a priest (the writer’s grandfather was Samuel Butler, Bishop of Litchfield). He graduated from Cambridge, against the will of his father, who intended him for a spiritual career, began to engage in music and drawing; after a break with his father, he left for New Zealand, where he founded his own farm. At one time he was fond of Darwinism, but gradually cooled to this teaching. In 1864, Butler returned to England and settled in London,
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He was born on a family estate in Nottingham in the family of a priest (the writer’s grandfather was Samuel Butler, Bishop of Litchfield). He graduated from Cambridge, against the will of his father, who intended him for a spiritual career, began to engage in music and drawing; after a break with his father, he left for New Zealand, where he founded his own farm. At one time he was fond of Darwinism, but gradually cooled to this teaching. In 1864, Butler returned to England and settled in London, where he began to lead the life of a hermit, occasionally arranging exhibitions of his paintings. In addition, he tried to compose music, wrote polemical articles and treatises "Woman - author" Odyssey ", 1897; "Interpretation of Shakespeare's sonnets", 1899.
In the history of literature, Butler entered as the author of the dystopian novel "Edgin" (1872), written in the spirit of Swift's "Travels of Gulliver" ("Edgin" - an anagram of the word "nowhere"), and as the creator of the posthumous masterpiece "The Way of All Flesh" (1903). This novel critics unanimously call "quintessential butlerism".