Jonathan Swift

by Jonathan Swift, Frank Kermode (Editor), Angus Ross (Editor)

This volume of Swift's work is unique in selecting from the full range of the prose, poetry, and letters spanning an active fifty-year writing career. The presentation of his work, being chronological rather than thematic, gives a much clearer feeling of how Swift's ideas developed and were expressed in different styles of writing. Some of the more familiar 'literary' and satirical pieces, such as "A Tale of a Tub" and "The Battle of the Books, " as well as political pamphlets, pieces for the popular press, and a good sample of correspondance, notably in his "Journal to Stella, " provides a lively commentary on the turbulent events of the time. There is no doubt that Swifts's 'certain uncommon way of thinking' inspired, teased, and affronted his own, and future generations.

722 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1984

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

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Swift -- he seems like the Stephen Colbert of the 18th century. A Modest Proposal is a must-read.

The Bickerstaff Papers are also excellent. He wanted to poke fun at people who published astrology, so he published his own under the name of Bickerstaff. His first prediction was that a certain astrologer would die on March 29 at 4pm. He published a response under a different name, then on March 29 published an elegy in verse. A few days later, he published an astonished letter recounting the truth of the prediction. Then the next year, when that astrologer had printed some angry words in his almanac, Bickerstaff responded with a series of insults proving that he's probably not still alive -- including that the readers of the almanac "were sure no man alive ever writ such damned stuff as this. Neither did I ever hear that opinion disputed; so that Mr. Partridge lies under a dilemma, either of disowning his almanac, or allowing himself to be no man alive."