A Modest Proposal

by Jonathan Swift

Overview

Referring to the worsening state of poverty amongst families and children in Ireland at the time, Swift’s proposal is to solve the problem by feeding the children of the poor to the rich. Throughout the text he uses statistics, data, and various methods – including recipes – to evidence the economic viability of his suggestion. The essay was received with humour, yet Swift’s powerful critique of social welfare and political injustice is clear.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781528785846
Publisher:	Read & Co. Great Essays
Publication date:	08/20/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	18
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	5 - 17 Years

About the Author

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was a largely satirical author, journalist and priest born in Ireland. He received his education at Trinity College Dublin and later a Masters degree at Oxford. Swift often visited London and became a politically keen pamphleteer. He also edited a Tory newspaper The Examiner between 1710–14 and was a part of the so-called Scriblerus Club, which included the most outstanding Augustan literati such as Alexander Pope and John Gay. Swift was unable to advance to the position he anticipated within the Church of England as the misinterpretation of his 1704 work A Tale of a Tub came to haunt him stigmatizing Swift as a profane author. Consequently, he had to exile back to Ireland. Among his essays, the most notable piece is a later work A Modest Proposal (1729), which stands out for its sharp satire of the Irish upper classes’ ignorance and disregard for the impoverished. The author is known worldwide, however, for his novel Gulliver’s Travels (1726)–a tale widely admired for its nuance and allegorical potency.