Items related to A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works
Synopsis
One of the earliest examples of straight-faced satire, A Modest Proposal is arguably the most celebrated instance of sustained irony in the history of the English language. Essentially a proposal to cure Ireland of its poverty and population-related ills by cannibalizing the youth, Swift s call for infanticide was not immediately recognized as satire when first received by the public. Composed in the style of Juvenal, the classic Roman satirist, A Modest Proposal remains a work of extraordinary literary and historical significance.
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Review
If you read this in high school (as many of us did), it may have shocked you--not bad for a tract written in 1729. It wouldn't be fair to those of you who haven't come across A Modest Proposal to reveal the particulars of the piece; suffice it to say that Saturday Night Live has nothing on Jonathan Swift! Swift's discussion of what Great Britain should do for his native impoverished Ireland is a model of political satire, absolutely consistent in tone and even now still sparkling in its clarity. The balance between, on the one hand, the utter seriousness of the matter in question and, on the other, the outrageousness of the remedy suggested is exquisite. A Modest Proposal is short and comes bound in this edition with several of Swift's other writings. This volume is an excellent introduction to the author of Gulliver's Travels (itself a masterwork) and to one of the world's premier satirical minds. What are you waiting for? --Michael Gerber
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