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| biography of jonathan swift: Jonathan Swift Leo Damrosch, 2013-11-05 From a master biographer and leading scholar of eighteenth-century literature comes an award-winning new portrait of the greatest satirist in the English language Jonathan Swift is best remembered today as the author of Gulliver’s Travels, the satiric fantasy that quickly became a classic and has remained in print for nearly three centuries. Yet Swift also wrote many other influential works, was a major political and religious figure in his time, and became a national hero, beloved for his fierce protest against English exploitation of his native Ireland. What is really known today about the enigmatic man behind these accomplishments? Can the facts of his life be separated from the fictions? In this deeply researched biography, Leo Damrosch draws on discoveries made over the past thirty years to tell the story of Swift’s life anew. Probing holes in the existing evidence, he takes seriously some daring speculations about Swift’s parentage, love life, and various personal relationships and shows how Swift’s public version of his life—the one accepted until recently—was deliberately misleading. Swift concealed aspects of himself and his relationships, and other people in his life helped to keep his secrets. Assembling suggestive clues, Damrosch re-narrates the events of Swift’s life while making vivid the sights, sounds, and smells of his English and Irish surroundings.Through his own words and those of a wide circle of friends, a complex Swift emerges: a restless, combative, empathetic figure, a man of biting wit and powerful mind, and a major figure in the history of world letters. |
| biography of jonathan swift: Jonathan Swift: The Reluctant Rebel John Stubbs, 2017-02-28 A rich and riveting portrait of the man behind Gulliver’s Travels, by a “vivid, ardent, and engaging” (New York Times Book Review) author. One of Europe’s most important literary figures, Jonathan Swift was also an inspired humorist, a beloved companion, and a conscientious Anglican minister—as well as a hoaxer and a teller of tales. His anger against abuses of power would produce the most famous satires of the English language: Gulliver’s Travels as well as the Drapier Papers and the unparalleled Modest Proposal, in which he imagined the poor of Ireland farming their infants for the tables of wealthy colonists. John Stubbs’s biography captures the dirt and beauty of a world that Swift both scorned and sought to amend. It follows Swift through his many battles, for and against authority, and in his many contradictions, as a priest who sought to uphold the dogma of his church; as a man who was quite prepared to defy convention, not least in his unshakable attachment to an unmarried woman, his “Stella”; and as a writer whose vision showed that no single creed holds all the answers. Impeccably researched and beautifully told, in Jonathan Swift Stubbs has found the perfect subject for this masterfully told biography of a reluctant rebel—a voice of withering disenchantment unrivaled in English. |
| biography of jonathan swift: A Political Biography of Jonathan Swift David Oakleaf, 2015-10-06 Most famous as the author of Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was one of the most important propagandists and satirists of his day. This study seeks to contextualize Swift within the political arena of his day. |
| biography of jonathan swift: Jonathan Swift Joseph McMinn, 2016-07-27 This biography emphasises the extraordinary versatility and resourcefulness of a lifetime spent serving the public interest with the pen. At the same time, it shows Swift's distinctive love of writing for personal entertainment and diversion, with little or no interest in publication. While remaining a fiercely committed writer, he always tried to preserve, especially in his poetry and letters, a literature dedicated to friendship. Swift's literary career comprises much more than the well-known satires. |
| biography of jonathan swift: Jonathan Swift Alan Downie, 2014-07-24 First published in 1984, this biography gives an account of Jonathan Swift's political ideas and provides a critical commentary on his major works. With its emphasis on Swift as a political writer, the title offers a revision of the prevailing view of Swift's politics and its application in the study of his works. As Swift's views on morality, religion and politics are so closely linked, an understanding of his political ideas is vital; this reissue provides a detailed analysis of this aspect of Swift's writings and views, and as such will be of great interest to any students researching his satire. |
| biography of jonathan swift: Jonathan Swift Eugene Hammond, 2016-03-22 Jonathan Swift: Irish Blow-in covers the arc of the first half of Jonathan Swift’s life, offering fresh details of the contentment and exuberance of his childhood, of the support he received from his grandmother, of his striking affection for Esther Johnson from the time she was ten years old (his pet name for her in her twenties was “saucebox”), of his precocious entry into English politics with his Contests and Dissensions pamphlet, of his brilliant and much misunderstood Tale of a Tub, and of his naive determination to do well both as a vicar of the small parish of Laracor in Ireland and as a writer for the Tory administration trying to pull England out of debt by ending the war England was engaged in with France. I do not share with past biographers the sense that Swift had a deprived childhood. I do not share the suspicion that most of Swift’s enmities were politically motivated. I do not feel critical of him because he was often fastidious with his money. I do not think he was insincere about his religious faith. His pride, his sexual interests, his often shocking or uninhibited language, his instinct for revenge – emphasized by many previous biographers – were all fundamental elements of his being, but elements that he either used for rhetorical effect, or that he tried to keep in check, and that he felt that religion helped him to keep in check. Swift had as firm a conviction as did Freud that we are born with wayward tendencies; unlike Freud, though, he saw both religion and civil society as necessary and helpful checks on those wayward tendencies, and he (frequently, but certainly not always) acknowledged that he shared those tendencies with the rest of us. This biography, in two books, Jonathan Swift: Irish Blow-in and Jonathan Swift:Our Dean, will differ from most literary biographies in that it does not aim to show how Swift’s life illuminates his writings, but rather how and why Swift wrote in order to live the life he wanted to live. I have liberally quoted Swift’s own words in this biography because his inventive expression of ideas, both in his public works and in his private letters, was what has made him a unique and compelling figure in the history of literature. I hope in these two books to come closer than past biographies to capturing how it felt to Swift himself to live his life. |
| biography of jonathan swift: Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift, 2011-08-01 |
| biography of jonathan swift: Jonathan Swift, a Hypocrite Reversed David Nokes, 1985 It is the aim of this biography to offer a new, comprehensive view of Swift and his writings. For years, biographies of the Dean were bedeviled by legends of his madness and by romantic mysteries surrounding his relationship. Post-war scholarship has swept all this away, and has provided a factual basis for a much clearer understanding of both his life and work. Dr. Nokes presents a portrait of Swift in his multifarious roles as satirist, politician, churchman, and friend. In particular, he seeks to re-establish a proper balance between Swift's public and private lives. -- From publisher's description. |
| biography of jonathan swift: The Drapier's Letters Jonathan Swift, 1903 |
| biography of jonathan swift: The Works of Jonathan Swift ... Jonathan Swift, 1869 |
| biography of jonathan swift: Jonathan Swift Victoria Glendinning, 1999-05-04 A prize-winning biographer tells the story of the immortal Swift. Poet, polemicist, pamphleteer, and wit, Swift is the master of shock. His furious satirical responses to the corruption and hypocrisy he saw around him in private and public life in eighteenth-century England and Ireland have every relevance for our own times. His black imagination, and his preoccupation with the foulness that lies beneath the thin veneer of artifice and civilization, gave a new adjective-Swiftian-to the lexicon of criticism. Jonathan Swift is best known as the author of Gulliver's Travels, and like his Gulliver in the land of Lilliput, Swift is a problem in perspective and scale. Victoria Glinning has taken a literary zoom lens to illuminate this proud and intractable man. She investigates at close range the main events and relationships of Swift's life, providing a compelling and provocative portrait set in a rich tapestry of controversy and paradox. Yeats said famously that he saw Swift round every corner, that his ghost survived. |
| biography of jonathan swift: A TALE OF A TUB Written for the Universal Improvement of Mankind. To which is Added, An Account of a BATTEL Between the Antient and Modern BOOKS in St. James's Library Jonathan Swift, 1734 |
| biography of jonathan swift: A Tale of a Tub Jonathan Swift, 1920 |
| biography of jonathan swift: A Modest Proposal Jonathan Swift, 2024 In one of the most powerful and darkly satirical works of the 18th century, a chilling solution is proposed to address the dire poverty and overpopulation plaguing Ireland. Jonathan Swift presents a shockingly calculated and seemingly rational argument for using the children of the poor as a food source, thereby addressing both the economic burden on society and the issue of hunger. This provocative piece is a masterful example of irony and social criticism, as it exposes the cruel attitudes and policies of the British ruling class towards the Irish populace. Jonathan Swift's incisive critique not only underscores the absurdity of the proposed solution but also serves as a profound commentary on the exploitation and mistreatment of the oppressed. A Modest Proposal remains a quintessential example of satirical literature, its biting wit and moral indignation as relevant today as it was at the time of its publication. JONATHAN SWIFT [1667-1745] was an Anglo-Irish author, poet, and satirist. His deadpan satire led to the coining of the term »Swiftian«, describing satire of similarly ironic writing style. He is most famous for the novel Gulliver’s Travels [1726] and the essay A Modest Proposal [1729]. |
| biography of jonathan swift: The Battle of the Books Jonathan Swift, 2019-02-25 In ancient times, as story tells, The saints would often leave their cells, And stroll about, but hide their quality, To try good people's hospitality. It happened on a winter night, As authors of the legend write, Two brother hermits, saints by trade, Taking their tour in masquerade, Disguised in tattered habits, went To a small village down in Kent; Where, in the strollers' canting strain, They begged from door to door in vain; Tried every tone might pity win, But not a soul would let them in. |
| biography of jonathan swift: The Story of Gulliver Jonathan Coe, Jonathan Swift, 2016-10-04 For the first time in his life, Gulliver felt ashamed of himself and his fellow-humans. Gulliver is a travel-hungry and adventurous ship's doctor, who has the odd misfortune of being ship-wrecked four times in as many voyages. Through Jonathan Coe's expert retelling of Swift's famous satire about our human hubris and desires, today's young readers are swept along as Gulliver finds himself a giant among tiny humans in Lilliput; a tiny human among giants in Brobdignag; on the flying island of Laputa, with its most impractical intellectuals; and finally in the land of the Houyhnhnms, talking horses who think precious little of human Yahoos. Dave Eggers says, of the series: I couldn't be prouder to be a part of it. Ever since Alessandro conceived this idea I thought it was brilliant. The editions that they've complied have been lushly illustrated and elegantly designed. |
| biography of jonathan swift: The works of the rev. Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift, 1812 |
| biography of jonathan swift: The Works of Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift, 1874 |
| biography of jonathan swift: The Poems of Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift, 2021-01-19 This collection of Jonathan Swift’s poetry is separated in three parts, according to their subject matter. The first section are poems addressed to a woman named Stella. Based off a real-life close friend of Swift’s, Esther Johnson, the portion of poetry addressed to Stella contain beautiful tributes to this woman, with simple titles such as Stella’s Birthday March 13, 1727. Though these poems display a tender amount of intimacy shared between the two, Esther Johnson and Jonathan’s relationship is shrouded in mystery, leaving readers and historians to debate if they were just friends or something more romantic. The next section of The Poems of Jonathan Swift are dedicated to a woman called Vanessa, who was based off of one of Swift’s lovers, Esther Vanhomrigh. Their correspondence and his poems about her suggested a more romantic relationship than the one he shared with Stella. With elegant word choice and masterful form, both women and their relationships with Swift are well documented in this book of poems. The final part of The Poems of Jonathan Swift is dedicated to the love of Swift’s career—the satirization of politics. All of Swift’s poems are written in iambic tetrameter and end rhyme, creating a fun and quick reading experience. This is a large collection of poetry covers a wide variety of topics with the humor and satire that Jonathan Swift was famous for. With these attributes, readers are welcome to enjoy Jonathan Swift’s mysterious and passionate relationships as well as his humorous and intelligent criticism of politics. Now presented in an easy-to-read font and with an eye-catching cover design, this edition of The Poems of Jonathan Swift is perfect for a contemporary audience. With the decadent style of classic poetry combined with topics that are both entertaining and relatable, along with this edition’s new features, this classic collection is restored for modern readers. |
| biography of jonathan swift: Jonathan Swift Leo Damrosch, 2013-11-12 Draws on discoveries made in the past three decades to paint a new portrait of the satirist, speculating on his parentage, love life, and relationships while claiming that the public image he projected was intentionally misleading. |
| biography of jonathan swift: The Basic Writings of Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift, 2002 This edition of Jonathan Swift's basic works contains the authoritative texts of all his most important prose writings as well as many shorter pieces, poems, and letter extracts. Included are Gulliver's Travels, Swift's devastating picture of human nature and human foibles; A Tale of a Tub, his scathing attack on the intellectual culture and religious excesses of his time; The Battel of the Books, his defense of the classical tradition; and the unforgettable Modest Proposal, in which he proposes that the Irish, in order to avoid starvation, eat their children. |
| biography of jonathan swift: Jonathan Swift, a Hypocrite Reversed David Nokes, 1985 It is the aim of this biography to offer a new, comprehensive view of Swift and his writings. For years, biographies of the Dean were bedeviled by legends of his madness and by romantic mysteries surrounding his relationship. Post-war scholarship has swept all this away, and has provided a factual basis for a much clearer understanding of both his life and work. Dr. Nokes presents a portrait of Swift in his multifarious roles as satirist, politician, churchman, and friend. In particular, he seeks to re-establish a proper balance between Swift's public and private lives. -- From publisher's description. |
| biography of jonathan swift: Jonathan Swift Victoria Glendinning, 1998 Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) is an inexhaustibly intriguing figure in literary and political history. He was an ordained clergyman whose enemies thought he did not believe in God. He became a legendary Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, and for four intoxicating years he was the intimate of Queen Anne's chief ministers, acting as their publicist and propagandist. His private life was intense and enigmatic. Two younger women, whom he called Stella and Vanessa, moved to Ireland to be close to him. He made both of them unhappy. Poet, polemicist, pamphleteer, and wit, Swift was the master of shock. His furious satirical responses to the corruption and hypocrisy he saw around him in private and public life have every relevance for our own times. Like his Gulliver in the land of Lilliput, Swift is a problem in perspective and scale. In this entertaining biography, Glendinning takes a literary zoom lens to illuminate this proud and intractable man. |
| biography of jonathan swift: A Political Biography of Jonathan Swift David Oakleaf, 2015-10-06 Most famous as the author of Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was one of the most important propagandists and satirists of his day. This study seeks to contextualize Swift within the political arena of his day. |
| biography of jonathan swift: Jonathan Swift John Middleton Murry, 1954 |
| biography of jonathan swift: Life of Jonathan Swift Walter Scott, 2023-07-18 Written by renowned author Sir Walter Scott, this biography of Jonathan Swift delves deep into the life and works of one of the greatest satirists of his time. Scott sheds light on Swift's literary influences, personal relationships, political views, and more, providing readers with a comprehensive understanding of this complex and fascinating figure. 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. |
| biography of jonathan swift: The Conduct of the Allies, and of the Late Ministry, in Beginning and Carrying on the Present War Jonathan Swift, 1711 |
| biography of jonathan swift: Jonathan Swift and the Church of Ireland, 1710-1724 Christopher J. Fauske, 2002 It examines the contemporary economic climate, especially the increasing strains between Great Britain's trade goals and the continuing mercantilist structure of Irish economic life.--Jacket. |
| biography of jonathan swift: The Life of Jonathan Swift John Forster, 2023-07-18 Discover the fascinating life of one of the greatest satirists in history. From his early days as an impoverished writer to his later years as a beloved dean, Jonathan Swift's story is one of triumph over adversity. In this engaging biography, you'll learn about Swift's relationships, political views, and literary legacy. 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. |
| biography of jonathan swift: The Strange Case of Jonathan Swift and the Real Long John Silver Robert A. Prather, 2007 This book investigates the mystery and legend of Jonathan Swift of Alexandria, Virginia, a merchant with legendary silver mines, and the probable connection between the Swift silver mine legend and Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. |
| biography of jonathan swift: An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity Jonathan Swift, 2018-06-19 An Argument against Abolishing Christianity By Jonathan Swift Satirist, was born at Dublin of English parents. Dryden was his cousin, and he also claimed kin with Herrick. He was a posthumous child, and was brought up in circumstances of extreme poverty. He was sent to school at Kilkenny, and afterwards went to Trinity College, Dublin, where he gave no evidence of ability, but displayed a turbulent and unruly temper, and only obtained a degree by special grace. After the Revolution he joined his mother, then resident at Leicester, by whose influence he was admitted to the household of Sir William Temple at Moor Park, Lady T. being her distant kinswoman. Here he acted as secretary, and having access to a well-stocked library, made good use of his opportunities, and became a close student. At Moor Park he met many distinguished men, including William III., who offered him a troop of horse; he also met Esther Johnson (Stella), a natural daughter of Sir William, who was afterwards to enter so largely into his life. We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience. |
| biography of jonathan swift: Gulliver's Travels and Other Writings Jonathan Swift, 1984-09-01 Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read “It is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery,” remarked Alexander Pope when Gulliver's Travels was published in 1726. One of the unique books of world literature, Swift's masterful satire describes the astonishing voyages of one Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon, to surreal kingdoms inhabited by miniature people and giants, quack philosophers and scientists, horses endowed with reason and men who behave like beasts. Written with great wit and invention, Gulliver's Travels is a savage parody on man and his institutions that has captivated readers for nearly three centuries. As bestselling author and critic Allan Bloom observed: “Gulliver's Travels is an amazing rhetorical achievement. Swift had not only the judgment with which to arrive at a reasoned view of the world but the fancy by means of which he could re-create that world in a form which teaches where argument fails and which satisfies all while misleading none.” This representative collection of Swift’s major writings includes the complete Gulliver’s Travels as well as A Tale of a Tub, “The Battle of the Books,” “A Modest Proposal,” “An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity,” “The Bickerstaff Papers,” and many more of his brilliantly satirical works. Here too are selections from Swift’s poetry and portions of his Journal to Stella. Swift’s savage ridicule, corrosive wit, and sparkling humor are fully displayed in this comprehensive collection. |
| biography of jonathan swift: The Works of Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift, 1879 |
| biography of jonathan swift: Eternity's Sunrise Leo Damrosch, 2015-10-28 William Blake, overlooked in his time, remains an enigmatic figure to contemporary readers despite his near canonical status. Out of a wounding sense of alienation and dividedness he created a profoundly original symbolic language, in which words and images unite in a unique interpretation of self and society. He was a counterculture prophet whose art still challenges us to think afresh about almost every aspect of experience—social, political, philosophical, religious, erotic, and aesthetic. He believed that we live in the midst of Eternity here and now, and that if we could open our consciousness to the fullness of being, it would be like experiencing a sunrise that never ends. Following Blake’s life from beginning to end, acclaimed biographer Leo Damrosch draws extensively on Blake’s poems, his paintings, and his etchings and engravings to offer this generously illustrated account of Blake the man and his vision of our world. The author’s goal is to inspire the reader with the passion he has for his subject, achieving the imaginative response that Blake himself sought to excite. The book is an invitation to understanding and enjoyment, an invitation to appreciate Blake’s imaginative world and, in so doing, to open the doors of our perception. |
| biography of jonathan swift: Jonathan Swift (Routledge Revivals) Alan Downie, 2014-07-11 First published in 1984, this biography gives an account of Jonathan Swift’s political ideas and provides a critical commentary on his major works. With its emphasis on Swift as a political writer, the title offers a revision of the prevailing view of Swift’s politics and its application in the study of his works. Alan Downie argues that in terms of the party politics of the day Swift is neither a Whig nor Tory. Swift thought of himself as an ‘Old Whig’, and said he was ‘of the old Whig principles, without the modern articles and refinements’. Downie shows how Swift’s writings consistently make political points about society’s deviation from an ideal. As Swift’s views on morality, religion and politics are so closely linked, an understanding of his political ideas is vital; this reissue provides a detailed analysis of this aspect of Swift’s writings and views, and as such will be of great interest to any students researching his satire. |
| biography of jonathan swift: Jonathan Swift Ian Higgins, 2004 The book's focus is the major satires upon which Swift's literary reputation principally rest including 'A Tale of Tub', 'An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity', 'Gulliver's Travels', 'A Modest Proposal' and more. This critical analysis highlights the extremism of Swiftian satire and its off page menaces. |
| biography of jonathan swift: The Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. Jonathan Swift, David Laing Purves, 1880 |
| biography of jonathan swift: The Life of Jonathan Swift Henry Craik, 1882 |
| biography of jonathan swift: Life of Jonathan Swift Walter Scott, 1829 |
| biography of jonathan swift: A Tale of a Tub Jonathan Swift, 1909 |
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