Jonathan Swift

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Jonathan Swift

Occupation satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, poet, priest

Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667[1] – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for Whigs then for the Tories), poet and cleric. He became Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin.

He is remembered for books and poems he wrote like: Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, Drapier's Letters, The Battle of the Books, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity, and A Tale of a Tub. Swift is probably the most well known prose satirist in the English language. He is less well known for his poetry.

Swift originally published all of his works under pseudonyms — such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B. Drapier — or anonymously. He is known for being a master of two styles of satire; the Horatian and Juvenalian styles.

Epitaph in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin near his burial site.

Contents

[change] Works

Wikisource
Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Swift was a good writer, famous 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.

[change] Legacy

John Ruskin named him as one of the three people in history who were the most influential for him.[2]

[change] References

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  2. John Ruskin: Sesame and Lillies

[change] Other websites

Persondata
NAME Swift, Jonathan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Anglo-Irish writer
DATE OF BIRTH 30 November 1667
PLACE OF BIRTH No. 7, Hoey's Court, Dublin, Ireland
DATE OF DEATH 19 October 1745
PLACE OF DEATH Dublin, Ireland