A Modest Proposal and Other Satires

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) has been generally acknowledged as the greatest English satirist. In a prodigious stream of letters, pamphlets, tales, and essays, he assailed, with irony, erudition, and savage wit, several of the abuses and vices he saw around him, including political corruption, religious intolerance, hypocrisy, and the decline of learning. These selections from Swift’s greatest writings include some of his best-known pieces against organized religion and the English oppression of Ireland: “A Tale of a Tub”; “A Tritical Essay”; “A Meditation upon a Broomstick”; “Thoughts on Various Subjects”; “An Argument against Abolishing Christianity in England”; “A Discourse concerning the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit”; Drapier letters nos. 1 and 4; “On Political Lying”; “A Character, Panegyric, and Description of the Legion Club”; and “A Modest Proposal.”