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Published in 1903, Samuel Butler’s great autobiographical novel sounded the death-knell of the Victorian age. At times with rancour, at times delicious irony and wit, Butler savaged Victorian values and beliefs in this thinly disguised account of his own childhood and youth 'in the bosom of a Christian family'. The world of Ernest Pontifex has passed away, but the power of Butler’s story to rouse vicarious anger, to amuse and shock, is undiminished. The cover shows a detail from the author’s painting «Family Prayers», by permission of the Master and Fellows of St John’s College, Cambridge,