The Way of All Flesh
semi-autobiographical Novel (1903) by Samuel Butler
The Way of All Flesh (originally titled Ernest Pontifex or the Way of All Flesh) is a semi-autobiographical novel by Samuel Butler that attacks Victorian-era hypocrisy. Written between 1873 and 1884, it traces four generations of the Pontifex family. Butler dared not publish it during his lifetime, but when it was published posthumously in 1903 as The Way of All Flesh it was accepted as part of the general reaction against Victorianism. Butler's first literary executor, R. A. Streatfeild, made substantial changes to Butler's manuscript. The original manuscript was first published in 1964 as Ernest Pontifex or the Way of All Flesh by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, edited by Daniel F. Howard.
The title is a quotation from the Douay–Rheims Bible's translation of a Biblical Hebrew expression that is literally translated "to go the way of all the earth" and which signifies "to die". It is found in the First Book of Kings: "I am going the way of all flesh: take thou courage and shew thyself a man." (1 Kings 2.2).
In 1998, the Modern Library ranked The Way of All Flesh twelfth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
Main characters
Pontifex family
First generation
"Old" John Pontifex (16 August 1727 – 8 February 1812)
Ruth Pontifex (13 October 1727 – 10 January 1811; wife of Old Pontifex; married 1750).
Second generation
George Pontifex (c.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Way of All Flesh” is semi-autobiographical Novel (1903) by Samuel Butler. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Flesh, semi-autobiographical and Novel, not as a finished interpretation.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q255074. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1873, 1884, 1903 and 1964.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Way of All Flesh” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.