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Swift | Sterne
Volume 36 contains:
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift:
Shipwrecked and cast adrift, Lemuel Gulliver wakes to find himself on Lilliput, an island inhabited by little people, whose height makes their quarrels over fashion and fame seem ridiculous. His subsequent encounters - with the crude giants of Brobdingnag, the philosophical Houyhnhnms and the brutish Yahoos - give Gulliver new, bitter insights into human behaviour. Swift's savage satire view mankind in a distorted hall of mirrors as a diminished, magnified and finally bestial species, presenting us with an uncompromising reflection of ourselves.
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne:
Laurence Sterne's great masterpiece of bawdy humour and rich satire defies any attempt to categorize it. Part novel, part digression, its gloriously disordered narrative interweaves the birth and life of the unfortunate "hero" Tristram Shandy, the eccentric philosophy of his father Walter, the amours and military obsessions of Uncle Toby, and a host of other characters, including Dr. Slop, Corporal Trim and the parson Yorick. A joyful celebration of the endless possibilities of the art of fiction, Tristram Shandy is also a wry demonstration of its limitations.
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift:
Shipwrecked and cast adrift, Lemuel Gulliver wakes to find himself on Lilliput, an island inhabited by little people, whose height makes their quarrels over fashion and fame seem ridiculous. His subsequent encounters - with the crude giants of Brobdingnag, the philosophical Houyhnhnms and the brutish Yahoos - give Gulliver new, bitter insights into human behaviour. Swift's savage satire view mankind in a distorted hall of mirrors as a diminished, magnified and finally bestial species, presenting us with an uncompromising reflection of ourselves.
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne:
Laurence Sterne's great masterpiece of bawdy humour and rich satire defies any attempt to categorize it. Part novel, part digression, its gloriously disordered narrative interweaves the birth and life of the unfortunate "hero" Tristram Shandy, the eccentric philosophy of his father Walter, the amours and military obsessions of Uncle Toby, and a host of other characters, including Dr. Slop, Corporal Trim and the parson Yorick. A joyful celebration of the endless possibilities of the art of fiction, Tristram Shandy is also a wry demonstration of its limitations.
556 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1952
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About the author
Jonathan Swift
5,008 books2,156 followersJonathan 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".
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".
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February 4, 2022Two books in one:
Gulliver: Usually ridiculous, but often fun to read (although sometimes the satire was too excessive). The discussion of places visited and their customs and institutions could be a critique of Swift's society at the time (and many are applicable as critiques of the current U.S.)
I felt sorry for Gulliver's wife and children (whom he kept leaving to go on long journeys and, in the end, treated them as stinking Yahoos).
Tristram: Satire with many parenthetical statements (and could be said to be almost nothing but parenthetical statements) and long digressions. Not enjoyable. It was greatly tedious and self-important.
Gulliver: Usually ridiculous, but often fun to read (although sometimes the satire was too excessive). The discussion of places visited and their customs and institutions could be a critique of Swift's society at the time (and many are applicable as critiques of the current U.S.)
I felt sorry for Gulliver's wife and children (whom he kept leaving to go on long journeys and, in the end, treated them as stinking Yahoos).
Tristram: Satire with many parenthetical statements (and could be said to be almost nothing but parenthetical statements) and long digressions. Not enjoyable. It was greatly tedious and self-important.
July 20, 2021
I did not read the second of the two classics because I only wanted to read GULLIVER. Well, now I’ve done so. A more tedious slog in literature I have yet to encounter. I thoroughly understand now why most adaptations focus only on the first two travels. The rest have me thoroughly out of patience with the narrator, and even understanding Swift wrote it as satire doesn’t help. Ugh.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews