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In her introduction to this new edition, Carole Fabricant discusses Swift's life and turbulent times, his political views and his powers as a writer of complex irony and intricate word play. To ease poverty in Ireland by eating the children of the poor was the satirical 'solution' suggested by Jonathan Swift A Modest Proposal and Other Writings his essay 'A Modest Proposal' Here Swift unleashes the full power of his ironic armoury and corrosive wit, finding his targets - the British ruling class and avaricious landlords, and the brutalized Irish, complicit in their own oppression - with deadly precision. His masterly essay is accompanied by a generous selection of prose works, among them pamphlets attacking British rule in his native Ireland, periodical essays critiquing the new capitalist and military classes, a journal detailing his political activities in London, a loving tribute to his beloved 'Stella' A Modest Proposal and Other Writings her death and pieces on such diverse subjects as the absurdities of astrology, the joys of punning A Modest Proposal and Other Writings comical rules for servants. Ingenious and unconventional, Swift is revealed here as one A Modest Proposal and Other Writings the greatest satirists in the English language. In her introduction to this new edition, Carol Fabricant discusses Swift's life and turbulent times, his political views and his powers as a writer of complex irony and intricate word play. This volume also includes a chronology, further reading, a glossary, notes and a biographical dictionary. Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin. He is considered the foremost prose satirist in the English language, which stemmed from his criticism of Britain's repressive colonial policies in Ireland. Among Swift's best known works are his ironic masterpiece, 'A Modest Proposal'and his novel, Gulliver's Travels Jonathan A Modest Proposal and Other Writings. He was a cousin of John Dryden. Swift's father was a lawyer who had gone to Ireland after the Restoration, but he died before his son's birth. In he became dean of St Patrick's. Swift gave one third of his income to charities and used his own money to fund St Patrick's Hospital for Imbeciles. He was himself thought by many to be insane in his later years. Although nominally a Whig, Swift became editor of the Tory journal the Examiner His first major work, A Tale of a Tub, was published and through the development of his writing career he became close friends with the poet Alexander Pope. Together with other writers, they founded a literary group called the Martinus Scriblerus Club in His political satires form a large amount of his life's work and include the famous essay, A Modest Proposalwhere A Modest Proposal and Other Writings suggests that the solution to the starvation of the poor in Ireland is that they should eat their own children. It is unclear whether Swift ever formally married, but he was very close to Esther Johnson, known as Stella, whom he had met through Temple. He died in and was buried beside her in St Patrick's. Go, traveller, and imitate if you can a man who was an undaunted champion of liberty. Search books and authors. View all online retailers Find local retailers. Also by Jonathan Swift. Related titles. Vesper Flights. Solutions and Other Problems. The Republic. Plato PlatoPlato. Beyond Good And Evil. The Odyssey. The Doors of Perception. Committed Writings. Inner Worlds Outer Spaces. Think, Write, Speak. Karl Ove KnausgaardAnselm Kiefer. The Unnamable Present. There It Is Again. Animals Strike Curious Poses. Gray's Anatomy. Collected Nonfiction Volume 1. Our top books, exclusive content and competitions. Straight to your inbox. Sign up to our newsletter using your email. Enter your email to sign up. Thank you! Your subscription to Read More was successful. To help us recommend your next book, tell us what you enjoy reading. Add your interests. A Modest Proposal And Other Writings by Jonathan Swift - Penguin Books Australia

Presented in the guise of an economic treatisethe essay proposes that the country ameliorate poverty in Ireland by butchering the children of the Irish poor and selling them as food to wealthy English landlords. The essay is a masterpiece of satirewith a blend of rational deliberation and unthinkable conclusion, and its title has A Modest Proposal and Other Writings to symbolize any proposition to solve a problem with an effective but outrageous cure. Print Cite. Facebook Twitter. Give Feedback. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article requires login. External Websites. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree See Article History. Britannica Quiz. Jonathan Swift Quiz. Learn More in these related Britannica articles:. Swift grouped himself with Pope and Gay in hostility to…. His Modest Proposal is a masterpiece of comic incongruity, with its suave blend of rational deliberation and savage conclusion. The comic artistry of Alexander Pope is equally impressive. Pope expressed his genius in the invective of his satiric portraits and A Modest Proposal and Other Writings the range of moral…. The first is a series of letters attacking the English government for its scheme to supply Ireland with copper halfpence and farthings. History at your fingertips. Sign up here to see what happened On This Dayevery day in your inbox! Email address. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy A Modest Proposal and Other Writings. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. A Modest Proposal | Summary, Author, Purpose, & Facts | Britannica

The essay suggests that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food to rich gentlemen and ladies. This satirical hyperbole mocked heartless attitudes towards A Modest Proposal and Other Writings poor, as well as British policy toward the Irish in general. In English writing, the phrase "a modest proposal " is now conventionally an allusion to this style of straight-faced satire. Swift's essay is widely held to be one of the greatest examples of sustained irony in the history of the English language. Much of its shock value derives from the fact that the first portion of the essay describes the plight of starving beggars in Ireland, so that A Modest Proposal and Other Writings reader is unprepared for the surprise of Swift's solution when he states: "A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasseeor a ragout. Swift goes to great lengths to support his argument, including a list of possible preparation styles for the children, and calculations showing the financial benefits of his suggestion. He uses methods of argument throughout his essay which lampoon A Modest Proposal and Other Writings then-influential William Petty and the social engineering popular among followers of Francis Bacon. These lampoons include appealing to the authority of "a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London" and "the famous Psalmanazara native of the island Formosa " who had already confessed to not being from Formosa in In the tradition of Roman satire, Swift introduces the A Modest Proposal and Other Writings he is actually suggesting by paralipsis :. Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients: Of taxing our absentees at five shillings a pound: Of using neither clothes, nor household furniture, except what is of our own growth and manufacture: Of utterly rejecting A Modest Proposal and Other Writings materials and instruments that promote foreign luxury: Of curing the expensiveness of pride, vanity, idleness, and gaming in our women: Of introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence and temperance: Of learning to love our country, wherein we differ even from Laplandersand the inhabitants of Topinamboo : Of quitting our animosities and factions, nor acting any longer like the Jews, who were murdering one another at the very moment their city was taken : Of being a little cautious not to sell our country and consciences for nothing: Of teaching landlords to have at least one degree of mercy towards their tenants. Lastly, of A Modest Proposal and Other Writings a spirit of honesty, industry, and skill into our shop-keepers, who, if a resolution could now be taken to buy only our native goods, would immediately unite to cheat and exact upon us in the price, the measure, and the goodness, nor could ever yet be brought to make one fair proposal A Modest Proposal and Other Writings just dealing, though often and earnestly invited to it. Therefore I repeat, let no man talk A Modest Proposal and Other Writings me of these and the like expedients, 'till he hath at least some glympse of hope, that there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them into practice. George Wittkowsky argued that Swift's main target in A Modest Proposal was not the conditions in Ireland, but rather the can-do spirit of the times that led people to devise a number of illogical schemes that would purportedly solve social and economic ills. A Modest Proposal also targets the calculating way people perceived the poor in designing their projects. The pamphlet targets reformers who "regard people as commodities". Critics differ about Swift's intentions in using this faux-mathematical philosophy. Edmund Wilson argues that statistically "the logic of the 'Modest proposal' can be compared with defence of A Modest Proposal and Other Writings arrogated to Marx in which he argues A Modest Proposal and Other Writings crime takes care of the superfluous population". Charles K. Smith argues that Swift's rhetorical style persuades the reader to A Modest Proposal and Other Writings the speaker and pity the Irish. Swift's specific strategy is twofold, using a "trap" [8] to create sympathy for the Irish and a dislike of the narrator who, in the span of one sentence, "details vividly and with rhetorical emphasis the grinding poverty" but feels emotion solely for members of his own class. Swift has his proposer further degrade the Irish by using language ordinarily reserved for animals. Lewis argues that the speaker uses "the vocabulary of animal husbandry" [10] to describe the Irish. Once the children have been commodified, Swift's rhetoric can easily turn "people into animals, then meat, and from meat, logically, into tonnage worth a price per pound". Swift uses the proposer's serious tone to highlight the absurdity of his proposal. In making his argument, the speaker uses the conventional, textbook-approved order of argument from Swift's time which was derived from the Latin rhetorician Quintilian. Scholars have speculated about which earlier works Swift may have had in mind when he wrote A Modest Proposal. James William Johnson argues that A Modest Proposal was largely influenced and inspired by Tertullian 's Apology : a satirical attack against early Roman persecution of Christianity. Johnson believes that Swift saw major similarities between the two situations. Baker points out the similarity between both authors' tones and use of irony. Baker notes the uncanny way that both authors imply an ironic "justification by ownership" over the subject of sacrificing children—Tertullian while attacking pagan parents, and Swift while attacking the English mistreatment of the Irish poor. Bernard Mandeville 's Modest Defence of Publick Stews asked to introduce public and state controlled bordellos. Let it be, that they exposed them; Add to it, if you please, for this is still greater Power, that they begat them for their Tables to fat and eat them : If this proves a right to do so, we A Modest Proposal and Other Writings, by the same Argument, justifie Adultery, Incest and Sodomy, for there are examples of these too, both Ancient and Modern; Sins, which I suppose, have the Principle Aggravation from this, that they cross the main intention of A Modest Proposal and Other Writings, which willeth the increase of Mankind, and the continuation of the Species in the highest perfection, and the distinction of Families, with the Security of the Marriage Bed, as necessary thereunto". First Treatise, sec. Robert Phiddian's article "Have you eaten A Modest Proposal and Other Writings Phiddian stresses that a reader of the pamphlet must learn to distinguish between the satirical voice of Jonathan Swift and the apparent economic projections of the Proposer. He reminds readers that "there is a gap between the narrator's meaning and the text's, and that a moral-political argument is being carried out by means of parody". While Swift's proposal is obviously not a serious economic proposal, George Wittkowsky, author of "Swift's Modest Proposal: The Biography of an Early Georgian Pamphlet", argues that to understand the piece fully it is important to understand the economics of Swift's time. Wittowsky argues that not enough critics have taken the time to focus directly on the mercantilism and theories of labour in 18th century England. At the start of a new industrial age in the 18th century, it was believed that "people are the riches of the nation", and there was a general faith in an economy that paid its workers low wages because high wages meant workers would work less. In those times, the "somewhat more humane attitudes of an earlier day had all but disappeared and the laborer had come to be regarded as a commodity". Louis A. Landa composed a conducive analysis when he noted that it would have been healthier for the Irish economy to more appropriately utilize their human assets by giving the people an opportunity to "become a source of wealth to the nation" or else they "must turn to begging and thievery". Landa wrote that, "Swift is A Modest Proposal and Other Writings that the maxim—people are the riches of a nation—applies to Ireland only if Ireland is permitted slavery or cannibalism" [22]. Landa presents Swift's A Modest Proposal as a critique of the popular and unjustified maxim of mercantilism in the 18th century that "people are the riches of a nation". Swift's essay created a backlash within the community after its publication. The work was aimed at the aristocracy, and they responded in turn. Several members of society wrote to Swift regarding the work. Lord Bathurst 's letter intimated that he certainly understood the message, and interpreted it as a work of comedy:. You know women in passion never mind what they say; but, as she is a very reasonable woman, I have almost brought her over now to your opinion; and having convinced her, that as matters stood, we could not possibly maintain all the nine, she does begin to think it reasonable the youngest should raise fortunes for the eldest: and upon that foot a man may perform family duty with more courage and zeal; for, if he should happen to get twins, the selling of one might provide for the other. Or if, by any accident, while his wife lies in with one child, he should get a second upon the body of A Modest Proposal and Other Writings woman, he might dispose of the fattest of the two, and that would help to breed up the other. The more I think upon this scheme, the more reasonable it appears to me; and it ought by no means to be confined to Ireland; for, in all probability, we shall, in a very little time, be altogether as poor here as you are there. I believe, indeed, we shall carry it farther, and not confine our luxury only to the eating of children; for I happened to peep the other day into a large assembly [Parliament] not far from Westminster-hall, and I found them roasting a great fat fellow, [Walpole again] For my own part, I had not the least inclination to a slice of him; but, if I guessed right, four or five of the company had a devilish mind to be at him. Well, adieu, you begin now to wish I had ended, when I might have done it so conveniently". A Modest Proposal is included in many literature courses as an example of early modern western satire. It also serves as an introduction to the concept and use of argumentative language, lending itself to secondary and post-secondary essay courses. Outside of the realm of English studies, A Modest Proposal is included in many comparative and global literature and history courses, as well as those of numerous other disciplines in the A Modest Proposal and Other Writings, humanities, and even the social sciences. The A Modest Proposal and Other Writings approach has been copied many times. In his book A Modest Proposalthe evangelical author Frank Schaeffer emulated Swift's work in a social conservative polemic against abortion and euthanasiaimagining a future dystopia that advocates recycling of aborted embryosfetusesand some disabled infants with compound intellectual, physical and physiological difficulties. Such Baby Doe Rules cases were then a major concern of the US anti-abortion movement of the early s, which viewed selective treatment of those infants as disability discrimination. In his book A Modest Proposal for Americastatistician Howard Friedman opens with a satirical reflection of the extreme drive to fiscal stability by ultra-conservatives. He proposed that someone should "create, manufacture, distribute, and sell a video game" that would allow players to act out a scenario in which the game character kills video game A Modest Proposal and Other Writings. Hunter S. Thompson writes a letter to a local Aspen newspaper informing them that, on Christmas Eve, he is going to use napalm to burn a number of dogs and hopefully any humans they find. The letter A Modest Proposal and Other Writings against the burning of Vietnamese people occurring overseas. The film Butcher Boys, written by Kim Henkelis said [ by whom? The film's opening scene takes place in a restaurant named A Modest Proposal and Other Writings. In JulyE. On October 3,a satirist spoke A Modest Proposal and Other Writings at an event for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezclaiming that a solution to the climate crisis was "we need to eat the babies". This stunt was understood by many [29] as a modern application of A Modest Proposal. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Jonathan Swift. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 10 January Montreal Mirror. The Washington Post. Retrieved 30 November Jean 21 June The Cut. Retrieved 5 October Retrieved 4 October A Modest Proposal. Sermons of Jonathan Swift. Global human population. Biocapacity Demographics of the world Optimum population Overpopulation Malthusian catastrophe Population Population ethics Population momentum Sustainable development Women's reproductive rights Zero population growth. Family planning Pledge two or fewer Human population planning One-child policy Two-child policy Population biology Population decline Population density Physiological density Population dynamics Population growth Population model Population pyramid Projections of population growth. Deforestation Desalination Desertification Environmental impact of agriculture of aviation of biodiesel of concrete of electricity generation of the energy industry of fishing of irrigation of mining of off-roading of oil shale industry of palm oil of paper of the petroleum industry of reservoirs of shipping of war Industrialisation Land degradation Land reclamation Overconsumption Pollution Quarrying Urbanization Loss of green belts Urban sprawl Waste Water scarcity Overdrafting. Population ecology. Population and Environment Population and A Modest Proposal and Other Writings Review. Population and housing censuses by country Metropolitan areas by population Population milestone babies. 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