Author : Jonathan Swift
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.01/5 ( download)
Book Synopsis The Best of Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels and a Modest Proposal by : Jonathan Swift
Download or read book The Best of Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels and a Modest Proposal written by Jonathan Swift and published by . This book was released on 2020-10-11 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gulliver's Travels, or Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships is a prose satire of 1726 by the Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift, satirising both human nature and the "travellers' tales" literary subgenre. It is Swift's best known full-length work, and a classic of English literature. Swift claimed that he wrote Gulliver's Travels "to vex the world rather than divert it".The book was an immediate success. John Gay remarked "It is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery."In 2015, Robert McCrum released his selection list of 100 best novels of all time in which Gulliver's Travels is listed as "a satirical masterpiece".A Modest Proposal, Swift vents his mounting aggravation at the ineptitude of Ireland's politicians, the hypocrisy of the wealthy, the tyranny of the English, and the squalor and degradation in which he sees so many Irish people living. While A Modest Proposal bemoans the bleak situation of an Ireland almost totally subject to England's exploitation, it also expresses Swift's utter disgust at the Irish people's seeming inability to mobilize on their own behalf. Without excusing any party, the essay shows that not only the English but also the Irish themselves--and not only the Irish politicians but also the masses--are responsible for the nation's lamentable state. His compassion for the misery of the Irish people is a severe one, and he includes a critique of their incompetence in dealing with their own problems.The main rhetorical challenge of this bitingly ironic essay is capturing the attention of an audience whose indifference has been well tested. Swift makes his point negatively, stringing together an appalling set of morally untenable positions in order to cast blame and aspersions far and wide. The essay progresses through a series of surprises that first shocks the reader and then causes her to think critically not only about policies, but also about motivations and values.