NONFICTION

Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World

by Leo Damrosch
Yale Univ. 2013. 568p. illus. notes. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780300164992. $35. LIT
COPY ISBN
Jonathan Swift (1667–1745), Irish novelist, essayist, satirist, cleric, and poet, was a man of mystery and great intellectual heft, as Damrosch (Ernest Bernbaum Research Professor of Literature, Harvard; Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius) demonstrates. He asserts that while Swift's best-known work, Gulliver's Travels, is universally recognized, it is often mistaken for a fairy tale when in fact it masks a revolutionary political view of Swift's native Ireland. Damrosch seeks here to round out the version of the author presented in Irvin Ehrenpreis's Swift: The Man, His Works, and the Age, asking questions about his private affairs: Did Swift have a secret marriage to his housekeeper's daughter? Damrosch raises issues about Swift's life and clarifies fact from fiction, providing insight into the writer and the time and place he inhabited.
VERDICT Irish history buffs and literati alike will need to read this work.
Reviewed by Elizabeth Heffington, Lipscomb Univ. Lib., TN , Dec 01, 2013
Comment Policy:
  • Be respectful, and do not attack the author, people mentioned in the article, or other commenters. Take on the idea, not the messenger.
  • Don't use obscene, profane, or vulgar language.
  • Stay on point. Comments that stray from the topic at hand may be deleted.
  • Comments may be republished in print, online, or other forms of media.
  • If you see something objectionable, please let us know. Once a comment has been flagged, a staff member will investigate.

RELATED 

REFERENCE

Critical Insights: Power & Corruption
REFERENCE

Current Biography Yearbook 2023
REFERENCE

Occupational Safety and Health Law Handbook
NONFICTION

Birds Aren’t Real: The True Story of Mass Avian Murder and the Largest Surveillance Campaign in US History
by McIndoe, Peter & Connor Gaydos
MEDIA

A Year of Last Things: Poems
by Ondaatje, Michael
MEDIA

Alfie and Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe
by Safina, Carl
More
ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?

We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?