Butler's satirization of Victorian society presents as a near-Utopia with a dystopia lurking underneath. Ererwhon is the story of a young man named Higgs who discovers the previously unknown country of the same name, loosely inspired by Butler's own travels to New Zealand. Though on the surface the society of Erewhon seems idyllic, the protagonist quickly discovers that everything is not quite as it seems: Erewhon offers praise for filibustering and hypocrisy, criminal punishment for the physically ill, and a deep fear that machinery will evolve and eventually enslave their human creators.

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