Swift's Irish Pamphlets

Swift's Irish Pamphlets Synopsis

This volume collects, for the first time, Jonathan Swift's major writings on Ireland and on Irish affairs, including the Story of an Injured Lady (1707) on Anglo-Irish relations after the union between England and Scotland; a number of the Drapier's Letters, in which he assumed the persona of M.B. Drapier to voice his countrymen's outrage at English insensitivity in dealing with Ireland; and the astonishing Modest Proposal seen here as a satirically logical outcome of the refusal of the authorities to heed his earlier pamphlets or alleviate the desperate straits in which Ireland found itself. Scholars of Irish and Anglo-Irish literature, students of history, and anyone who enjoys a biting, incisive prose style will welcome this collection of the best of Swift's Irish writings. 'This excellent selection shows Swift as a political man of his time, writing with savage eloquence about specific issues of the day... A salutary collection that takes literature into the bustle of the public realm.' The Observer