Jonathan Swift - Hardcover

Glendinning, Victoria

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385256612 ISBN 13: 9780385256612

Publisher: Doubleday Canada, 2009

Synopsis

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) is an inexhaustibly intriguing figure in literary and political history. He was an ordained clergyman whose enemies thought he did not believe in God. He became a legendary Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, and for four intoxicating years he was the intimate of Queen Anne's chief ministers, acting as their publicist and propagandist.

His private life was intense and enigmatic. Two younger women, whom he called Stella and Vanessa, moved to Ireland to be close to him. He made both of them unhappy.

Poet, polemicist, pamphleteer, and wit, Swift was the master of shock. His furious satirical responses to the corruption and hypocrisy he saw around him in private and public life have every relevance for our own times. Like his Gulliver in the land of Lilliput, Swift is a problem in perspective and scale. In this entertaining biography, Glendinning takes a literary zoom lens to illuminate this proud and intractable man.

About this title

About the Author

Victoria Glendinning is the award-winning biographer of Anthony Trollope, Elizabeth Bowen, Edith Sitwell, Vita Sackville-West and Rebecca West. She is also a literary critic, broadcaster, and highly acclaimed author of two novels. She lives in London, England.

From the Inside Flap

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) is an inexhaustibly intriguing figure in literary and political history. He was an ordained clergyman whose enemies thought he did not believe in God. He became a legendary Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, and for four intoxicating years he was the intimate of Queen Anne's chief ministers, acting as their publicist and propagandist.

His private life was intense and enigmatic. Two younger women, whom he called Stella and Vanessa, moved to Ireland to be close to him. He made both of them unhappy.

Poet, polemicist, pamphleteer, and wit, Swift was the master of shock. His furious satirical responses to the corruption and hypocrisy he saw around him in private and public life have every relevance for our own times. Like his Gulliver in the land of Lilliput, Swift is a problem in perspective and scale. In this entertaining biography, Glendinning takes a literary zoom lens to illuminate this proud and intractable man.

Edition details

• Publisher: Doubleday Canada
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385256612
• ISBN 13: 9780385256612
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368