Jonathan Swift





Jonathan Swift


Born
in Dublin, Ireland
November 30, 1667

Died
October 19, 1745

Genre

Influences


Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for Whigs then for Tories), and poet, famous for works like Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, The Drapier's Letters, The Battle of the Books, and A Tale of a Tub. Swift is probably the foremost prose satirist in the English language, and is less well known for his poetry. Swift published all of his works under pseudonyms — such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B. Drapier — or anonymously. He is also known for being a master of two styles of satire; the Horatian and Juvenalian styles.

Average rating: 3.65 · 237,413 ratings · 5,124 reviews · 1,316 distinct works · Similar authors
Gulliver's Travels

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3.55 avg rating — 180,859 ratings — published 1726 — 1482 editions
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A Modest Proposal

4.05 avg rating — 32,423 ratings — published 1729 — 151 editions
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A Modest Proposal and Other...

4.04 avg rating — 12,674 ratings — published 1729 — 27 editions
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Gulliver's Travels and Othe...

3.79 avg rating — 3,915 ratings — published 1958 — 24 editions
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Gulliver's Travels / A Mode...

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3.76 avg rating — 1,855 ratings — published 2005 — 5 editions
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A Tale of a Tub

3.54 avg rating — 1,188 ratings — published 1704 — 78 editions
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A Tale of a Tub and Other W...

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3.73 avg rating — 586 ratings — published 1704 — 8 editions
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Directions to Servants

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3.64 avg rating — 148 ratings — published 1731 — 16 editions
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The Battle Of The Books

3.42 avg rating — 115 ratings — published 1704 — 28 editions
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The Battle of the Books and...

3.76 avg rating — 93 ratings — published 1704 — 31 editions
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More books by Jonathan Swift…
“May you live every day of your life.”
Jonathan Swift

“Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.”
Jonathan Swift

“When a great genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign; that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."

[Thoughts on Various Subjects]”
Jonathan Swift, Abolishing Christianity and Other Essays

Polls

April 2016 Revisit the Shelf-Reread Poll

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, 288 pages, 1963
 
  32 votes, 16.2%

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, 324 pages, 1960
 
  28 votes, 14.1%

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, 539 pages, 1980
 
  21 votes, 10.6%

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, 273 pages, 1818
 
  15 votes, 7.6%

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, 251 pages, 1817
 
  15 votes, 7.6%

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, 592 pages, 1957
 
  13 votes, 6.6%

 
  13 votes, 6.6%

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, 311 pages, 1985
 
  11 votes, 5.6%

 
  11 votes, 5.6%

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, 227 pages, 1953
 
  9 votes, 4.5%

 
  6 votes, 3.0%

 
  6 votes, 3.0%

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, 320 pages, 1719
 
  6 votes, 3.0%

 
  5 votes, 2.5%

 
  4 votes, 2.0%

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, 306 pages, 1726
 
  3 votes, 1.5%

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