Gulliver's Travels and Other Writings

This volume helps readers situate one of the most popular adventure novels ever written, Gulliver's Travels, within the 18th-century process of inventing and resisting Great Britain. Ideas of nationalism¿both Irish and British¿are questioned and explored. Gulliver's Travels is interpreted as a critique of British colonial aggression, and has special appeal for courses in British literature and Irish studies. Supplemental materials include additional writings by Swift, such as pamphlets (including the famous "A Modest Proposal"), sermons, poems, and letters. A wealth of critical essays adds further context.

Jonathan Swift was born in 1667, the son of Anglo-Irish parents. After an education in Ireland, Swift moved to England where he reluctantly chose a career in the church. There, he worked for Sir William Temple, in whose household he met Esther Johnson. The two fell in love, but were never publicly married. While in England, Swift discovered his talents as a satirist, producing texts such as "A Tale Of A Tub" and "The Battle of the Books" (1704). At age thirty-one, Swift returned to Ireland as chaplain to a lord justice. Swift maintained his energy and wit and, later in life, wrote "A Modest Proposal" (1729) and GULLIVER'S TRAVELS (1726). Swift died on October 19, 1745.