Swift: A Collection of Critical Essays

20th Century Views

by Ernest Lee Tuveson (Editor)

Twentieth century critics have rediscovered in Jonathan Swift an outspoken commentator on the complex and ultimately unsolvable mystery of human nature. The essays collected here document the process of the reversal which has rescued Swift from the disgust and near-hatred of earlier readers. From under the shadow of “Swift the half-mad misanthrope” emerges the figure of Swift the philosopher, artist, and satirist who rejects the characteristically modern view of man as perfectible through his own efforts. Several paths to re-evaluation are followed by these critics. Through careful research they uncover the facts of Swift’s political and social involvement and his part in the philosophical battles of his age. Their efforts reveal an artist who transcended the ordinary, who recast the moral climate of an age into the allegorical voyages of Lemuel Gulliver. The second path is an analysis of Swift’s method – of a style that in “Gulliver’s Travels” can suit equally well the nursery and the philosopher’s desk. A third approach considers each part of Swift’s masterpiece in the context of the whole oeuvre and the whole man. Is Gulliver Swift? Do the Yahoos really represent mankind? Is Houyhnhnmland really the perfect society? The critical reinstatement of a great author – not forgotten, like Donne, but misunderstood through smallness of mind and lack of knowledge – is a dramatic process and one that illustrates modern criticism at its creative best. Editor Tuveson was Professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley.

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Ernest Tuveson was a professor of English at University of California, Berkeley. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Reed College, 1934, his Master of Arts from the University of Washington in 1939, and his Ph.D. in English and history from Columbia University in 1949.