{"id":354,"date":"2015-06-30T19:01:50","date_gmt":"2015-06-30T19:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/americanlit1x22x1\/?post_type=chapter&p=354"},"modified":"2015-06-30T19:01:50","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T19:01:50","slug":"jonathan-swift-biography","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/rangercollege-britlit1-curry\/chapter\/jonathan-swift-biography\/","title":{"raw":"Jonathan Swift: Biography","rendered":"Jonathan Swift: Biography"},"content":{"raw":"[caption id=\"attachment_355\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"166\"]\"Oil<\/a> Jonathan Swift, by Charles Jervas, 1710[\/caption]\r\n\r\nJonathan Swift<\/b> (30 November 1667 \u2013 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish\u00a0satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet and cleric who becameDean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.\r\n\r\nSwift is remembered for works such as Gulliver's Travels<\/i>, A Modest Proposal<\/i>, A Journal to Stella<\/i>, Drapier's Letters<\/i>, The Battle of the Books<\/i>, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity<\/i> and A Tale of a Tub<\/i>. He is regarded by the\u00a0Encyclop\u00e6dia Britannica<\/i> as the foremost prose satirist in the English language,\u00a0and is less well known for his poetry. He originally published all of his works under pseudonyms \u2013 such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, MB Drapier \u2013 or anonymously. He is also known for being a master of two styles of satire, the Horatian and Juvenalian styles.\r\n\r\nGulliver's Travels<\/i>, a large portion of which Swift wrote at Woodbrook House in County Laois, was published in 1726. It is regarded as his masterpiece. As with his other writings, the Travels<\/i> was published under a pseudonym, the fictional Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon and later a sea captain. Some of the correspondence between printer Benj. Motte and Gulliver's also-fictional cousin negotiating the book's publication has survived. Though it has often been mistakenly thought of and published in bowdlerised form as a children's book, it is a great and sophisticated satire of human nature based on Swift's experience of his times. Gulliver's Travels<\/i> is an anatomy of human nature, a sardonic looking-glass, often criticised for its apparent misanthropy. It asks its readers to refute it, to deny that it has adequately characterised human nature and society. Each of the four books\u2014recounting four voyages to mostly fictional exotic lands\u2014has a different theme, but all are attempts to deflate human pride. Critics hail the work as a satiric reflection on the shortcomings of Enlightenment thought.\r\n\r\n \r\n

Additional information on Swift's\u00a0life, work, and influence can be found here.\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>","rendered":"

\"Oil<\/a><\/p>\n

Jonathan Swift, by Charles Jervas, 1710<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Jonathan Swift<\/b> (30 November 1667 \u2013 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish\u00a0satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet and cleric who becameDean of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.<\/p>\n

Swift is remembered for works such as Gulliver’s Travels<\/i>, A Modest Proposal<\/i>, A Journal to Stella<\/i>, Drapier’s Letters<\/i>, The Battle of the Books<\/i>, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity<\/i> and A Tale of a Tub<\/i>. He is regarded by the\u00a0Encyclop\u00e6dia Britannica<\/i> as the foremost prose satirist in the English language,\u00a0and is less well known for his poetry. He originally published all of his works under pseudonyms \u2013 such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, MB Drapier \u2013 or anonymously. He is also known for being a master of two styles of satire, the Horatian and Juvenalian styles.<\/p>\n

Gulliver’s Travels<\/i>, a large portion of which Swift wrote at Woodbrook House in County Laois, was published in 1726. It is regarded as his masterpiece. As with his other writings, the Travels<\/i> was published under a pseudonym, the fictional Lemuel Gulliver, a ship’s surgeon and later a sea captain. Some of the correspondence between printer Benj. Motte and Gulliver’s also-fictional cousin negotiating the book’s publication has survived. Though it has often been mistakenly thought of and published in bowdlerised form as a children’s book, it is a great and sophisticated satire of human nature based on Swift’s experience of his times. Gulliver’s Travels<\/i> is an anatomy of human nature, a sardonic looking-glass, often criticised for its apparent misanthropy. It asks its readers to refute it, to deny that it has adequately characterised human nature and society. Each of the four books\u2014recounting four voyages to mostly fictional exotic lands\u2014has a different theme, but all are attempts to deflate human pride. Critics hail the work as a satiric reflection on the shortcomings of Enlightenment thought.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Additional information on Swift’s\u00a0life, work, and influence can be found here.\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t

Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div>