A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Jonathan Swift, Battle of the Books, Mechanical Operation of the Spirit (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you read this in high school (as many of us did), it may have shocked you--not bad for a tract written in 1729. It wouldn't be fair to those of you who haven't come across A Modest Proposal to reveal the particulars of the piece; suffice it to say that Saturday Night Live has nothing on Jonathan Swift! Swift's discussion of what Great Britain should do for his native impoverished Ireland is a model of political satire, absolutely consistent in tone and even now still sparkling in its clarity. The balance between, on the one hand, the utter seriousness of the matter in question and, on the other, the outrageousness of the remedy suggested is exquisite. A Modest Proposal is short and comes bound in this edition with several of Swift's other writings. This volume is an excellent introduction to the author of Gulliver's Travels (itself a masterwork) and to one of the world's premier satirical minds. What are you waiting for? --Michael Gerber

Product Description

Treasury of five shorter works by the author of Gulliver’s Travels offers ample evidence of the great satirist’s inspired lampoonery. Title piece plus The Battle of the Books, A Meditation upon a Broom-Stick, A Discourse Concerning the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit and The Abolishing of Christianity in England.

Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (February 2, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486287599
• ISBN-13: 978-0486287591
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #61,226 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite a Proposal, May 22, 2001

By	Ellen D. Sickles - See all my reviews

"A Modest Proposal", by Jonathan Swift, is a biting satire about life in 18th Century Ireland, in which the author seeks to find "a fair, cheap, and easy method" to transform the sick and starving children of Ireland into productive members of society. Swift's proposal, hardly modest, is to fatten up undernourished poor children and then sell them to more well-to-do families as food. By presenting this outrageous concept as an interrelated string of seemingly logical arguments, Swift leads the reader to understand that his proposal could simultaneously solve overpopulation and unemployment, save the poor from having to spend their meager resources on raising children, provide the poor with desperately needed extra income, and also give the wealthy access to a yet untapped high-protein delight. Of course, Swift is writing tongue-in-cheek, to shock the reader into rejecting his outrageous negative proposal and instead formulate a more sensible positive one. Although written in 1729, Swift's essay is still relevant in the 21st Century. For a really good and very quick read that repulses, amuses, and challenges you to think, I highly recommend this classic work.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Satire, not slippery slope, June 14, 2005

By	E. Keaveney "westernswine" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This read is pretty congested with 18th century European political and religious references, however it is a beautifully witty and priceless satire on the inconsistencies of human compassion.

Perhaps Swift was trying to evoke shock and heart wrenching disgust in readers in the hopes that the reader would see that England's economic exploitation of Dublin at the time was essentially just as damaging to society as something like government ordained cannibalism. Why is it that a reader would be so horrifically devastated by the idea of turning children into food in order to survive, yet remain callous and unconcerned with the fact that all people, adults and children alike, were in reality victims of a government which not only economically exploited the population to the point of utter poverty, but did not care even slightly that human beings were being turned into rotting corpses as a result?

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Modest Proposal - A *Modern* Proposal is more like it., November 30, 2004

By	Mister Quickly "Amazon epicurean" (Victoria, BC Canada) - See all my reviews

Swfit was perhaps the first major writer to introduce cannibalism into Western political thought, and incorporate it successfully into practical economics. I'm disturbed that Swfit's visionary solution to Thomas Malthus' omen about the dangers of overpopulation hasn't yet been seriously considered by world policymakers. That's just like politicians though, they do anything to get elected - hence another reason why extending the franchise to the lower rungs of the social hierarchy was a terrible mistake and should be revoked.