A Tale of a Tub - Softcover

Swift, Jonathan

3.46

1,951 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1406808822 ISBN 13: 9781406808827

Publisher: Echo Library, 2007

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This prose parody is Swift's first major work and possibly his most masterful

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About the Author:

Jonathan Swift (1667 - 1745) was an Anglo - Irish satirist, political pamphleteer, essayist, poet, and cleric. He was born in Dublin and attended the Trinity College, Dublin. Swift earned a Master's Degree from Hertford College, Oxford University in 1692. Swift is regarded as agreat master of English prose and an impassioned satirist of human folly and pretension. He is best remembered for his prose satires and Gulliver's Travels (1726) and A Tale of a Tub (1704).

Review:

Prose satire by Jonathan Swift, written between 1696 and 1699, published anonymously in 1704, and expanded in 1710. Regarded as his first major work, it comprises three related sketches: the "Tale" itself, an energetic defense of literature and religion against zealous pedantry; "The Battle of the Books," a witty addition to the scholarly debate about the relative merits of ancient versus modern literature and culture; and "A Discourse Concerning the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit," a satire of religious fanaticism. In the preface Swift explains the title: sailors toss a tub overboard to distract a whale that might attack their ship; in the same way Swift's work may act as a decoy to deflect destructive criticism from the state and established religion. The 11-part "A Tale of a Tub" is the most impressive of the three compositions for its wit and command of stylistic effects, notably parody. The sections of the "Tale" alternate between the main allegory about Christian history and ironic digressions on modern scholarship. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

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