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Glite Dictionary
Erewhon

Erewhon

1 9.9
A novel about a made-up land that turns normal rules upside down
  • proper noun
  • /ˈɛrəˌwɒn/
  • Literature
: Erewhon
  • Butler's novel, Erewhon, satirizes Victorian society by presenting a world where traditional values are turned upside down.
  • Erewhon prison
  • Queen of Erewhon

Examples

  • When I was as dry of information as a squeezed fruit, he said: "It could have been any unhappy Queen of Erewhon."

    Fiction book (1999)

  • You are now an Erewhon inmate—a citizen of nowhere.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • The house at Erewhon could have been full of them for all anyone knows.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Erewhon had followed the rule for generations, not that I knew that.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • We stole away into the darkness, heading for Erewhon.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Sadry: The book Erewhon seemed strange, but not much stranger than the Rule.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Our oldest book, though, isn't medical - it's called Erewhon, but it's not about my house, but a dream, a nowhere place.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Sadry was Queen of Erewhon by inheritance, but if this case went against her, she could end up Queen of Nowhere.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • In Samuel Butler's book, the imaginary land of Erewhon challenges conventional social norms.

  • The protagonist found himself wandering through the surreal landscapes of Erewhon, where reality twisted into absurdity.

Surface Forms

Erewhon main

Etymology

Erewhon was invented by Samuel Butler as a playful change of the common English word nowhere. He used it for an 'imaginary land' that turns normal rules upside down, so Erewhon now means a made-up place that criticizes real society.