Erewhon: Prose style
17 lenses on prose style for Erewhon by Samuel Butler. Count lenses are exact for our text. AI lenses are our reading and cite only quotes that passed a word for word check.
Jump to: H1 H2 H3 H4 H5 H6 H7 H8 H9 H10 H11 H12 H13 H14 H15 H16 H17
H1. Readability score per chapter. Count
Flesch reading ease for the whole book is about 51 (higher is easier; 60 to 70 is plain English).
Reading ease per chapter, chapter by chapter
H2. Vocabulary range. Count
7,611 different words. On average 49 in every 100 words are new within a 500 word stretch. 3,559 words appear only once.
H3. Signature words: what this author uses far more than others. Count
machines, system, balloon, mechanical, animals. See the full lens on the book page.
H4. Adverb and adjective rates. Count
About 15.65 words ending in 'ly' and 12.02 likely adjectives per 1,000 words. (rough estimate from word lists)
'ly' words per 1,000, chapter by chapter
H5. Share of weak verbs such as "was" and "had". Count
'Was', 'were', 'had', 'is' and 'are' make up 4.2% of all words.
H6. Passive voice rate. Count
About 20.4% of sentences use a passive form such as 'was taken'. (rough estimate from word lists)
H7. Variety of sentence openings. Count
The five most common first words start 38% of sentences: i, the, it, he, they.
| First word | Sentences |
|---|---|
| i | 403 |
| the | 237 |
| it | 121 |
| he | 97 |
| they | 86 |
| but | 68 |
| in | 61 |
| this | 55 |
| we | 55 |
| if | 50 |
H8. Rhythm: how much sentence length varies. Count
Sentence length varies by 0.66 of its mean on average (higher means a more varied rhythm).
Variation per chapter, chapter by chapter
H9. Similes and metaphors: how many, and of what kind. Both
129 likely similes ('like a', 'as ... as'): 1.57 per 1,000 words. (rough estimate from word lists)
Ch 1, para 10: It was a monotonous life, but it was very healthy and one does not much mind anything when one is well. The country was the grandest that can …
Ch 2, para 1: At last shearing came; and with the shearers there was an old native, whom they had nicknamed Chowbok—though, I believe, his real name was Kahabuka. He was a …
Ch 2, para 4: We had a hard fight: for more than two hours he had tried to put me off with lies but had carried no conviction; during the whole time …
Ch 2, para 5: I am afraid my description will have conveyed only the ridiculous side of his appearance; but the ridiculous and the sublime are near, and the grotesque fiendishness of …
Ch 2, para 5: I am afraid my description will have conveyed only the ridiculous side of his appearance; but the ridiculous and the sublime are near, and the grotesque fiendishness of …
Ch 2, para 8: I kept aloof from Chowbok for the next few days, and showed no desire to question him further; when I spoke to him I called him Kahabuka, which …
Butler uses similes sparingly but pointedly, comparing Chowbok's terror to fiendishness and the narrator's isolation to being cut off from humanity. Metaphors dominate: mountains as barriers, machines as living organisms, illness as crime, and Erewhon itself as an inverted moral mirror.
Chapters: Ch 2, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 23, Ch 24, Ch 25
the grotesque fiendishness of Chowbok’s face approached this last, if it did not reach it (Ch 2, para 5)
It is a dreadful feeling that of being cut off from all one’s kind (Ch 4, para 15)
The inhuman beings into whose hearts the Evil One had put it to conceive these statues, had made their heads into a sort of organ-pipe (Ch 5, para 22)
H10. Senses used: sight, sound, smell, touch, taste. Both
Share of sense words. sight 58%, touch 22%, sound 17%, taste 2%, smell 1%. (rough estimate from word lists)
| Sense | Words |
|---|---|
| sight | 408 |
| touch | 156 |
| sound | 121 |
| taste | 16 |
| smell | 8 |
Sight dominates throughout: the narrator observes beauty, statues, trials, and customs. Sound appears in mysterious music from statues and Chowbok's mime. Touch and taste are minimal; smell absent. Hearing serves psychological terror.
Chapters: Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 6, Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 11
on a sudden I remembered the noise which Chowbok had made in the wool-shed. Yes; it was that (Ch 4, para 21)
The inhuman beings into whose hearts the Evil One had put it to conceive these statues, had made their heads into a sort of organ-pipe (Ch 5, para 22)
their expression was courteous and benign (Ch 6, para 5)
H11. Repetition, lists of three and other patterns. Both
61 lists of three in the pattern 'a, b and c': 0.74 per 1,000 words. (rough estimate from word lists)
Lists of three appear in descriptions of Erewhonian customs and moral inversions. Repetition of key phrases like 'illness is crime' and 'straighteners' reinforce the inverted logic. Patterns of parallel trials and philosophical arguments structure chapters 11, 23 to 25.
Chapters: Ch 10, Ch 11, Ch 23, Ch 24, Ch 25
illness of any sort was considered in Erewhon to be highly criminal and immoral (Ch 8, para 9)
it stands to reason that no man should be allowed to be unlucky to more than a very moderate extent. (Ch 11, para 4)
You are a bad and dangerous person, and stand branded in the eyes of your fellow-countrymen with one of the most heinous known offences. (Ch 11, para 12)
H12. Old words that may trip modern readers. Count
Old forms that may trip a modern reader: art, nay, ere, whence, hither, wherefore.
| Word | Times |
|---|---|
| art | 23 |
| nay | 8 |
| ere | 5 |
| whence | 2 |
| hither | 1 |
| wherefore | 1 |
| doth | 1 |
| anon | 1 |
| whilst | 1 |
| thither | 1 |
H13. Showing against telling, with examples. AI
Butler shows rather than tells through scenes: the trial in chapter 11 demonstrates cruelty without editorialising; the Musical Banks visit shows hypocrisy through action. Yet he also tells directly about Erewhonian beliefs, balancing scene with summary.
Chapters: Ch 11, Ch 15, Ch 21, Ch 23
it stands to reason that no man should be allowed to be unlucky to more than a very moderate extent. (Ch 11, para 4)
all mercantile transactions were accompanied with music, so that they were called Musical Banks (Ch 15, para 2)
the amount so kept had no direct commercial value in the outside world (Ch 15, para 4)
H14. How much description comes before action. Both
Early chapters mix description with action: the narrator describes mountains while climbing them. Later chapters, especially 15 to 20, dump lore and philosophy before action resumes. Chapters 23 to 25 are almost pure exposition of machine theory.
Chapters: Ch 1, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 15, Ch 23, Ch 28
Never shall I forget the utter loneliness of the prospect—only the little far-away homestead giving sign of human handiwork (Ch 1, para 10)
I could not help speculating upon what might lie farther up the river and behind the second range (Ch 1, para 12)
There was an easy pass in the mountains directly opposite to me, through which I caught a glimpse of an immeasurable extent of blue and distant plains (Ch 4, para 8)
H15. Filter words such as "saw", "felt", "heard". Count
Filter words ('saw', 'felt', 'heard' and so on): 4.68 per 1,000 words.
| Word | Times |
|---|---|
| thought | 81 |
| saw | 70 |
| felt | 68 |
| seemed | 61 |
| heard | 46 |
| knew | 37 |
| wondered | 7 |
| noticed | 7 |
| watched | 6 |
| realised | 2 |
H16. Shifts in tone. AI
Tone shifts from adventure narrative in chapters 1 to 6 to satirical social critique in 7 to 20, then to philosophical argument in 23 to 27, and back to romantic escape in 28 to 29. The narrator's voice grows more ironic as he observes Erewhonian absurdities.
Chapters: Ch 1, Ch 7, Ch 10, Ch 23, Ch 28
when I left home it was with the intention of going to some new colony, and either finding, or even perhaps purchasing, waste crown land suitable for cattle or sheep farming (Ch 1, para 1)
illness of any sort was considered in Erewhon to be highly criminal and immoral (Ch 8, para 9)
Our duty is to ensure that they shall think as we do, or at any rate, as we hold it expedient to say we do. (Ch 22, para 4)
H17. How the comedy works. AI
Comedy works through inversion: treating illness as crime, worshipping abstract qualities, the Musical Banks' worthless currency, and the unborn mythology. Satire targets English hypocrisy by showing Erewhon's logic taken to absurd extremes.
Chapters: Ch 10, Ch 11, Ch 15, Ch 18, Ch 19, Ch 26
it stands to reason that no man should be allowed to be unlucky to more than a very moderate extent. (Ch 11, para 4)
all mercantile transactions were accompanied with music, so that they were called Musical Banks (Ch 15, para 2)
Not only this, but they would stick to it that the current coin of the realm was dross in comparison with the Musical Bank coinage. (Ch 15, para 22)
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