A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation

by Jonathan Swift

Originally published in 1738, this witty and sardonic book offers a satirical take on the conventions and excesses of polite society in 18th-century England. With a range of imagined conversations between aristocrats and social climbers, A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation is a masterful work of social satire. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

306 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1738

About the author

Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, hence his common sobriquet, "Dean Swift".
Swift is remembered for works such as A Tale of a Tub (1704), An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity (1712), Gulliver's Travels (1726), and A Modest Proposal (1729). He is regarded by the Encyclopædia Britannica as the foremost prose satirist in the English language. He originally published all of his works under pseudonyms—such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B. Drapier—or anonymously. He was a master of two styles of satire, the Horatian and Juvenalian styles.
His deadpan, ironic writing style, particularly in A Modest Proposal, has led to such satire being subsequently termed "Swiftian".

Reviews

[Cheryl]

"This book by Jonathan Swift is a satire on the use of clichés: its purported author, Simon Wagstaff, “can faithfully assure the Reader, that there is not one single witty Phrase in this whole Collection, which hath not received the Stamp and Approbation of at least one hundred Years.” The phrase to teach one’s grandmother to suck eggs was therefore already proverbial in the early 18th century."

word histories (dot) net

https://wordhistories.net/2016/10/12/...

[LemontreeLime · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mind blowing 18th century memes. I love this thing so much, i try to imagine people actually saying all these things and meaning it.