Originally published in 1953, this comprehensive assessment of Samuel Butler was undertaken with the approval and co-operation of Butler’s trustees and incorporated much hitherto unpublished material. Family letters made available threw much fresh light on Butler’s relations with his father, who played such a crucial part in his development and who appears as such a forbidding figure in The Way of All Flesh. As man and author Butler was one  of the most brilliant, unconventional and challenging figures of the Victorian Age, and this book shows why.