Gulliver's Travels

Swift’s world-famous satire was an instant bestseller…his vision is dark, often verging on the obscene – Robert McCrum * Guardian *
It is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery – John Gay (author of The Beggar’s Opera)
It has entered the iconography of western culture as perhaps no other single novel, giving words to the English language and inspiring remarkably diverse acts of homage… A political comedy, an existentialist meditation, a bleak thriller about an outsider caught between worlds…at the heart of Swift’s masterwork is an ennobling sadness, a lament for a world gone mad – Joseph O’Connor * Guardian *
Among the six indispensable books in world literature – George Orwell
Everyone standing for political office … should have a compulsory examination in Gulliver’s Travels – Michael Foot

Jonathan Swift was born on 30th November 1667 in Dublin. He was educated at Trinity College in Dublin and Oxford University. Swift’s father, a lawyer, died before his birth.

After serving as secretary to Sir William Temple in England, Swift returned to Dublin and was ordained. In 1713, he became dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral. Swift dedicated a third of his income to charitable causes and personally funded St Patrick’s Hospital for Imbeciles. In his later years, many believed Swift himself to be suffering from insanity.

Though nominally a Whig, Swift edited the Tory journal The Examiner. His first significant work, A Tale of a Tub, was published in 1704. Throughout his literary career, he developed a close friendship with the poet Alexander Pope. In 1713, they, along with other writers, established a literary society known as the Martinus Scriblerus Club.

A substantial portion of Swift’s work consists of political satire. His notable writings include the essay A Modest Proposal (1729), in which he controversially suggests that the impoverished of Ireland should consume their own children to address starvation. Gulliver’s Travels (1729) is the only book for which he received payment (£200), and he consistently wrote under pseudonyms.

It remains uncertain whether Swift ever formally married, but he maintained a close relationship with Esther Johnson, known as Stella, whom he had met while working for Temple. Swift died in 1745 and was buried next to Stella in St Patrick’s Cathedral. His self-written Latin epitaph reads: “Here lies the body of Jonathan Swift, D.D., dean of this cathedral, where burning indignation can no longer lacerate his heart. Go, traveller, and imitate if you can a man who was an undaunted champion of liberty.”

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