This volume includes "The Battle of the Books" and "The Mechanical Operation of the Spirit," both which accompanied "A Tale of a Tub" on its first publication in 1704.
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Sir Alfred Munnings, retiring President of the Royal Academy, chooses the 1949 Annual Banquet to launch a savage attack on Modern Art. The effect of his diatribe is doubly shocking, leaving not only his distinguished audience gasping but also many people tuning in to the BBC's live radio broadcast. But as he approaches the end of his assault, the speech suddenly dissolves into incoherence when he stumbles over a name - a name he normally takes such pains to avoid - that takes him back forty years to a special time and a special place.
Summer in February is a disturbing and moving...

The originality, concentrated power and "fierce indignation" of his satirical writing have earned Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) a reputation as the greatest prose satirist in English language.
Gulliver's Travels is, of course, his world-renowned masterpiece in the genre; however, Swift wrote other, shorter works that also offer excellent evidence of his inspired lampoonery. Perhaps the most famous of these is "A Modest Proposal," in which he straight-facedly suggests that Ireland could solve its hunger problems by using its children for food. Also included in this collection are "The...

Gulliver's Travels is one of the few works of English literature which is also a landmark in world literature. Jonathan Swift's account of Lemuel Gulliver's adventures in the fantastical societies of 'remote nations' was an instant best-seller on publication in 1726 and has remained in the public imagination ever since, as both a satiric fantasy and an analysis of the human condition. This scholarly edition offers an authoritative text, based on the widest possible historical collation of the many editions published in Swift's lifetime; a detailed introduction and textual apparatus; and...

The Journal to Stella offers a detailed commentary on Swift's experiences in London in the last years of Queen Anne's reign, and substantial evidence of his evolving relationship with Esther Johnson, or Stella. This new edition seeks for the first time both to situate the text alongside Swift's other works, and to draw on recent scholarship on the period to offer commentary and annotation, which will place it within its original political, historical and cultural contexts. It offers transcriptions of the manuscript portion of the letters, based on the latest digital image analysis techniques....

Swift's parodies are among his most fascinating works, but perhaps require most explication for the modern reader. Valerie Rumbold brings a new depth and detail to the editing of Swift's Bickerstaff papers, 'Polite Conversation', 'Directions to Servants' and other works on language and conduct. Highlights include a fresh investigation of the political and print contexts of the Bickerstaff papers, full commentaries on such smaller works as 'A Modest Defence of Punning' and 'On Barbarous Denominations in Ireland', identification and explanation of many additional sayings in 'Polite...

Classic / British English Gulliver travels across the sea from England and has an accident. He arrives in a country of very, very small people. What will they do with him? How will he talk to them? And why are the Big-enders fighting the Little-enders?

Historical materials, annotation, and a new introduction make this iconic but challenging text accessible to students.

Uses the narrative of a mock travel writer to explore exotic and imaginary locations. This book mounts a scathing attack on the morals, politics and learning of the 18th century, culminating in possibly the greatest satire ever written: the story of the Houyhnhnms.