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Jonathan Swift


Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet and cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. 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, and is less well known for his poetry. He originally published all of his works under pseudonyms – such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, Drapier's Letters as MB Drapier – or anonymously. He is also known for being 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".

Jonathan Swift was born on 30 November 1667 in Dublin, Ireland. He was the second child and only son of Jonathan Swift (1640–1667) and his wife Abigail Erick (or Herrick), of Frisby on the Wreake. His father, a native of Goodrich, Herefordshire, accompanied his brothers to Ireland to seek their fortunes in law after their Royalist father's estate was brought to ruin during the English Civil War. Swift's father died in Dublin about seven months before he was born. His mother returned to England after his birth, leaving him in the care of his influential uncle, Godwin, a close friend and confidant of Sir John Temple, whose son later employed Swift as his secretary.

Swift was a prolific writer, notable for his satires. The most recent collection of his prose works (Herbert Davis, ed. Basil Blackwell, 1965–) comprises fourteen volumes. A recent edition of his complete poetry (Pat Rodges, ed. Penguin, 1983) is 953 pages long. One edition of his correspondence (David Woolley, ed. P. Lang, 1999) fills three volumes.

Excerpt from Wikipedia

Fiction

  1. A Tale of a Tub
  2. Gulliver's Travels
  3. The Battle of the Books

Essays, Tracts, Pamphlets, Periodicals

  1. A Meditation upon a Broomstick
  2. A Tritical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind
  3. The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers
  4. An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity
  5. The Intelligencer
  6. The Examiner
  7. A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue
  8. On the Conduct of the Allies
  9. Hints Toward an Essay on Conversation
  10. A Letter to a Young Gentleman, Lately Entered into Holy Orders
  11. A Letter of Advice to a Young Poet
  12. Drapier's Letters
  13. Bon Mots de Stella
  14. A Modest Proposal
  15. An Essay on the Fates of Clergymen
  16. A Treatise on Good Manners and Good Breeding
  17. A modest address to the wicked authors of the present age. Particularly the authors of Christianity not founded on argument; and of The resurrection of Jesus considered

Poems

  1. Ode to the Athenian Society
  2. Poems of Jonathan Swift
  3. Baucis and Philemon
  4. A Description of the Morning
  5. A Description of a City Shower
  6. Cadenus and Vanessa
  7. Phillis, or, the Progress of Love
  8. Stella's birthday poems
  9. The Progress of Beauty
  10. The Progress of Poetry
  11. A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General
  12. To Quilca, a Country House not in Good Repair
  13. Advice to the Grub Street Verse-writers
  14. The Furniture of a Woman's Mind
  15. On a Very Old Glass
  16. A Pastoral Dialogue
  17. Grand Question debated Whether Hamilton's Bawn should be turned into a Barrack or a Malt House
  18. On Stephen Duck, the Thresher and Favourite Poet
  19. Death and Daphne
  20. The Place of the Damn'd
  21. A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed
  22. Strephon and Chloe
  23. Helter Skelter
  24. Cassinus and Peter: A Tragical Elegy
  25. The Day of Judgment
  26. Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift, D.S.P.D.
  27. An Epistle to a Lady
  28. The Beasts' Confession to the Priest
  29. The Lady's Dressing Room
  30. On Poetry: A Rhapsody
  31. The Puppet Show
  32. The Logicians Refuted

Correspondence, Personal Writings

  1. When I Come to Be Old
  2. A Journal to Stella
  3. The Correspondence of Jonathan Swift

Sermons, Prayers

  1. Three Sermons and Three Prayers
  2. Three Sermons
  3. Writings on Religion and the Church
  4. The First He Wrote Oct. 17, 1727
  5. The Second Prayer Was Written Nov. 6, 1727

Miscellany

  1. Directions to Servants
  2. A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation
  3. Thoughts on Various Subjects
  4. Historical Writings
  5. Swift Quotations
  6. Swift quotes at Bartleby

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