A Tale of a Tub

by
Jonathan Swift

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A Tale of a Tub

by Jonathan Swift

3.5 of 5 stars 3.50 · rating details · 388 ratings · 24 reviews

Swift's exuberant, bawdy fable is a unique satire on politics, religion, fashion, madness and on writing itself - one which can be seen as anticipating the postmodern age with its witty digressions and dissection of the art of fiction.

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Published by Dutton Books (first published 1704)

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Apr 03, 2013 Aaron Brame rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read A Tale of a Tub. Written for the Universal Improvement of Mankind for grad school, and it is one of the most unusual texts I have ever read. Swift published it anonymously in 1704--it was his first major work--and it is a rambling, disjointed, unintelligible book that challenges even the most careful reader. My professor said it was the most difficult work of the 18th century, and I believe him.

What's difficult about it? Well, the first indication that you're in for a rough few nights of...more I read A Tale of a Tub. Written for the Universal Improvement of Mankind for grad school, and it is one of the most unusual texts I have ever read. Swift published it anonymously in 1704--it was his first major work--and it is a rambling, disjointed, unintelligible book that challenges even the most careful reader. My professor said it was the most difficult work of the 18th century, and I believe him.

What's difficult about it? Well, the first indication that you're in for a rough few nights of reading is the Latin epigraph at the beginning of the work, which is attributed to Irenaeus:

Basima eacabasa irraurista, diarba da caeotaba fobor camelanthi.

What does that mean in English? Nothing. It's complete faux-Latin nonsense.

After the epigraph, Tub proceeds with an introductory letter from the bookseller, then a letter to the reader, then a dedication, then a preface, and finally an introduction. By the time the reader gets to the section entitled "A Tale of a Tub, &C.", he is utterly graspingfor what this book is about.

But there's more. Soon, the narrator of A Tale of a Tub makes his first of four digressions. First he has a digression about the purpose of critics, then, after a brief return to his "tale" (which is not a tale at all), he digresses again. This digression is called "A Digression in the Modern Kind." His third digression is entitled, what else?, "A Digression in Praise of Digressions," and his final digression is on the subject of madness.

There are also sections of the text that are entirely missing, and are replaced with asterisks.

What is the point of The Tale of a Tub? What is it satirizing? Well, it's in part a comment on the freedom of the press in 18th century London (which Swift opposed), the proliferation of disposable writing by hack writers, and the flooding of the market with pamphlets and newspapers that were little more than propaganda for the politicians of the day. It's also an argument against the "moderns" who felt that the "Augustans" 18th century England had a better understanding of the world than the ancient Greeks and Romans. Finally, it's also an elaborate distraction that stymies every reader who tries to interpret it.

In the last pages of the book, Swift's narrator states "I am now trying an Experiment very frequent among Modern Authors; which is to write upon Nothing." This is a fitting ending to a frustrating and confusing book.

See more at mrbramesblog.org(less)

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Aug 28, 2012 Arya rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, freebies

You know those moments when you, who learned English as a foreign language since you were young, think that you understand the language perfectly fine, and then you decide to read a book and realize that you know nothing? Well, this is basically how this book made me feel: utterly stupid, ignorant, humiliated and disappointed with myself. I'm pretty sure this is a darn good book and an intelligent critique once you're given the context and the political situation that serves as a background for...more You know those moments when you, who learned English as a foreign language since you were young, think that you understand the language perfectly fine, and then you decide to read a book and realize that you know nothing? Well, this is basically how this book made me feel: utterly stupid, ignorant, humiliated and disappointed with myself. I'm pretty sure this is a darn good book and an intelligent critique once you're given the context and the political situation that serves as a background for it. The thing is that I didn't understand a word of what was being said. Or better saying: I did understand all the words in the book, but put together they did not. make. any. sense.

You see, this is the problem with literature (or people like me trying to get the habit of reading more often) nowadays: the books are easy to understand. They are simple, they don't have "hidden meanings", most of them don't have metaphors or whatever you want to call it. This book is basically composed by them. Implicit things. Implicit things EVERYWHERE. And the writing style is not just plain phrases that make up a meaning. They just look like random thoughts thrown all together to form an idea of something so deep I couldn't understand after re-reading them three or four times. In the tenth page, I pretty much gave up and just ran my eyes through the words. The mini-stories in the middle of the book (the three brothers and the suits) did make sense for a while, but then Swift is lovely enough to abruptly interrupt the story to say more things that I could not understand. By the time he goes back to this story, I no longer know what the hell is going on here. And notice that I'm not even mentioning the classic English language used to write this book, which I never learned in school (remember, "English as a foreign language") and had to struggle to understand. Unlike in other books, deducing words' meanings by the context does not work here. You HAVE to run to a dictionary to find yourself in this one. Either that, or just abandon the book. My pride never allowed me to do that, so that wasn't an option for me, but I must say that after reading this book, I'm NEVER saying that I know English. Ever again.(less)

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Apr 01, 2013 Alexander Laser-robinson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A book about the vanity of books. Funny and perhaps more relevant than ever in the age of self-publishing via Twitter and Facebook. Swift was living through the advent of mass literacy. Although books and book audiences were proliferating rapidly in his time, Swift recognized that human ideas and sophistication were not developing apace. Mass literacy did not mean mass intelligence. So many writers in Swifts time, through their numerous nauseating preludes, digressions, and postludes, endeavored...more

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Nov 23, 2011 Ian rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books

Can't say I enjoyed this terribly much. As with other Swiftian satires, I felt as if there was much that I was not getting, that a good deal would have meant so much more to a contemporary audience.
The story itself is simple, an allegory of religious excess, with three prodigal sons disrespecting their father's will, each representing a part of the Christian faith. Much more interesting is the amount of prefaces, analysis, forewords and digressions that actually make up much of the work. The dig...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Momina Masood rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: essays

Very cumbersome with very little coherence. There are moments of clarity and truth, but they are few and far between. The main problem of this is that what could have been said in one line was said in a lot and there were too many digressions that the result felt to me a mere hodgepodge. The satire swam up to the surface at times but was quickly swept away by giant waves of the unsubstantial, the dull, and the impertinent; same goes for his humor.

But putting all of this aside, the allegory was...more

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May 21, 2013 Jake rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

To quote the late great Roger Ebert "I hated hated hated hated hated this" book. I give it two stars instead of one for the very simple but important issue: I didn't understand I word of it. So maybe it ain't Swift's fault.
Now, first of all, I consider myself an intelligent person. I have read "hard to understand" novels and treasties. I have understood forms of dry philosophy. I got through George Elliot.
But this... well this is a creature onto itself. Secondly, many people have stated that th...more

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Dec 03, 2012 Kerstin Smith rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: english-iv-top-ten-hardest-books

Jonathan Swift’s “A Tale of a Tub” is definitely not for a reader who is looking for something light and easy to pass the time with. Many elements of the book cause it to be difficult to follow and understand. It is satirical in nature, to the point that the author may be writing in first person as a satire of himself and his pride. While the author is attempting to tell an allegorical tale of three brothers, he interrupts the story frequently with digressions, most of which are completely irrel...more Jonathan Swift’s “A Tale of a Tub” is definitely not for a reader who is looking for something light and easy to pass the time with. Many elements of the book cause it to be difficult to follow and understand. It is satirical in nature, to the point that the author may be writing in first person as a satire of himself and his pride. While the author is attempting to tell an allegorical tale of three brothers, he interrupts the story frequently with digressions, most of which are completely irrelevant to the “main” story. The digressions tend to be longer than the sections of the story and by the end have taken over the book. While reading this book I found that Swift left it up to reader to divine if what they were reading was to be taken literally, had a deeper meaning, or was just utterly ridiculous and to be discarded as relevant to the story. That, and the fact that the book seems to have no true point or conclusion, can make it very frustrating to read for those who are attempting to keep track of the plot of the book. Many of the references and issues discussed in the book were relevant to Swift’s time period, so I would suggest reading a bit about that specific time period. Also, to understand the deeper meaning that the story of three brothers represents, the reader needs to be familiar with the history of the Christian church: Peter represents the Roman Catholic Church, Jack represents Protestant Churches, and Martin represents the Lutheran church.
I found that this book had some very interesting commentary on the nature of religion and man, and also on how authors and thinkers of Swift’s day behaved and wrote. It also, in its levels of parodies, makes fun of certain types of authors and philosophers. One point that Swift made, which I found to be interesting, was that many geniuses and great men were considered to be mad. He almost seems to take on the persona of a madman by the end of the book to reinforce the point.
I would recommend this book to readers who have enough time on their hands to really read (and re-read) and take the time to think about the content of this book, and to those who know enough about the context of when this was written to truly understand Swift’s social commentary.
(less)

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Feb 14, 2013 Aisha rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The following review is takend from another reader (Arya Deschain)because it is EXACTLY what I was thinking except English is my native language...

You know those moments when you, who learned English as a foreign language since you were young, think that you understand the language perfectly fine, and then you decide to read a book and realize that you know nothing? Well, this is basically how this book made me feel: utterly stupid, ignorant, humiliated and disappointed with myself. I'm pretty s...more The following review is takend from another reader (Arya Deschain)because it is EXACTLY what I was thinking except English is my native language...

You know those moments when you, who learned English as a foreign language since you were young, think that you understand the language perfectly fine, and then you decide to read a book and realize that you know nothing? Well, this is basically how this book made me feel: utterly stupid, ignorant, humiliated and disappointed with myself. I'm pretty sure this is a darn good book and an intelligent critique once you're given the context and the political situation that serves as a background for it. The thing is that I didn't understand a word of what was being said. Or better saying: I did understand all the words in the book, but put together they did not. make. any. sense.

You see, this is the problem with literature (or people like me trying to get the habit of reading more often) nowadays: the books are easy to understand. They are simple, they don't have "hidden meanings", most of them don't have metaphors or whatever you want to call it. This book is basically composed by them. Implicit things. Implicit things EVERYWHERE. And the writing style is not just plain phrases that make up a meaning. They just look like random thoughts thrown all together to form an idea of something so deep I couldn't understand after re-reading them three or four times. In the tenth page, I pretty much gave up and just ran my eyes through the words. The mini-stories in the middle of the book (the three brothers and the suits) did make sense for a while, but then Swift is lovely enough to abruptly interrupt the story to say more things that I could not understand. By the time he goes back to this story, I no longer know what the hell is going on here. And notice that I'm not even mentioning the classic English language used to write this book, which I never learned in school (remember, "English as a foreign language") and had to struggle to understand. Unlike in other books, deducing words' meanings by the context does not work here. You HAVE to run to a dictionary to find yourself in this one. Either that, or just abandon the book. My pride never allowed me to do that, so that wasn't an option for me, but I must say that after reading this book, I'm NEVER saying that I know English. Ever again(less)

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May 31, 2013 Ryon Shepard rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Books are organisms. They are living, breathing things made of consciousness. Sometimes the meaning of a book is not in what is explicitly written. Sometimes it is in the movement, it is the flow itself. It's music, it is sound, and it affects consciousness at a level that few of us are conscious of. This is one of those books. Along with Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, Cantos of Ezra Pound, Beckett, etc . . . this book is a living thing.

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Jul 14, 2011 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Witty, though I prefer the fantasticality of Gulliver's Travels.
Favorite quote: "... that, as Mankind is now disposed, he receives much greater Advantage by being Diverted than Instructed; His Epidemical Diseases being Fastidiosity, Amorphy, and Oscitation;..."

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Jul 10, 2012 Wendy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have generally liked Swift's works so far, but this one left me confused and lost...which from reading things about this work is, I suppose, his intention. But it just left me frustrated.

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Jul 26, 2011 Kingfan30 rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books

Sorry did not like this book at all, really hard going and I just did not get it. The only reason I managed to get through it is because I was away for the weekend and only had the one book with me.

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Oct 29, 2010 Ellee rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-megalist, less-than-200pgs

"For, to speak a bold truth, it is a fatal miscarriage so ill to order affairs as to pass for a fool in one company, when in another you might be treated as a philosopher; which I desire some certain gentlemen of my acquaintance to lay up in their hearts as a very seasonable innuendo."

And another: "I am now trying an experiment very frequent among modern authors, which is to write upon nothing, when the subject is utterly exhausted to let the pen still move on..."

This is one of those humorous pa...more

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May 19, 2011 Deanne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001bookstoreadbeforeyoudie, classicliterature, comedy, 1001-books-2008

Really enjoyed the satire of this quick read, the story of three brothers,(3 churches) and their relationship.

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Oct 01, 2009 Rob Roy rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1000-bucket-list, satire

It is often said that the best books are an author's first. Not so with Jonathan Swift.

1 like · like · see review

Feb 16, 2013 Gabriela rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Swift language and style are amazing, a big like for this one.

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Dec 14, 2012 Victoria rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, non-fiction, philosophy, read-in-2012

Um...I think I 'got' most of it...

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Apr 07, 2011 Juliantsk added it · review of another edition

Silly.

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Aug 13, 2011 Capsguy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-irish

I'm glad that this was his first work, and not his last. Certainly looks better on the author if they improve and learn from their previous writings. 2 stars isn't bad, just it was mediocre.

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Dec 26, 2010 Lisa rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-read, 18th-century, britain

I don't really know what edition I read because I read it through Daily Lit, collecting enough instalments to read a chapter or two at a time.
This is a record of my journey with this book: http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/200...

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Jan 19, 2013 Lucy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A fine insomnia cure. This really needs to be read with copious explanations and footnotes. It shows that satire does not always wear well. If this had been Swift's only work, I think he would have been forgotten by now.

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Feb 12, 2008 Cat rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 18thcenturyenglishliterature, 1001books

Not really a fun read, but interesting- in its time it was a critique of "print culture" now you can read it as a critique of blog culture. sort of.

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Sep 09, 2008 Skylar Burris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

Swift makes me laugh. A man who can satirize satire...and I had to love "A Digression in Praise of Digressions."

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Jul 23, 2011 Elisa rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books, read-in-2011

Useful only for expanding my vocabulary a bit.

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Sep 11, 2010 robert rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

that learning was futile...?

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Jun 19, 2013 Seth Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jun 18, 2013 Ryan B marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Jun 17, 2013 Tom Ashworth marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Jun 16, 2013 Lizzy marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Jun 16, 2013 Soban marked it as to-read · review of another edition

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About Jonathan Swift

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish cleric, Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin, satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for Whigs then for Tories), and poet, famous for works like Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, The Drapier's Letters, The Battle...more

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Books by Jonathan Swift

A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works

Gulliver's Travels / A Modest Proposal (Enriched Classics)

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Quotes from A Tale of a Tub

“I have one word to say upon the subject of profound writers, who are grown very numerous of late; and I know very well the judicious world is resolved to list me in that number. I conceive therefore, as to the business of being profound, that it is with writers as with wells; a person with good eyes may see to the bottom of the deepest, provided any water be there; and often, when there is nothing in the world at the bottom, besides dryness and dirt, though it be but a yard and half under ground, it shall pass however for wondrous deep, upon no wiser a reason than because it is wondrous dark.” — 2 people liked it

“For to enter the palace of learning at the great gate requires an expense of time and forms, therefore men of much haste and little ceremony are content to get in by the back-door.” — 1 person liked it

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