Jonathan Swift

Inspired by Boileau’s Lutrin and illustrating the debate within European intellectual circles between the “Ancients”, who argued that all essential knowledge was to be found in classical texts, and the “Moderns”, who claimed that contemporary...
By: Jonathan Swift

A tongue-in-cheek manual on how servants should cope with the demands of their masters and perform their tasks in ways that will best satisfy their indolence, wastefulness and greed, Directions to Servants takes a caustic and irreverent look at...
By: Jonathan Swift

A glorious exercise in cheeky punmanship, The Wonderful Wonder of Wonders sees Jonathan Swift in fine form. Flying by the seat of his pants, the great author treats us to a condensed biography of his posterior, enlivened by some inspired wordplay....
By: Jonathan Swift

Shipwrecked on an unknown island, Lemuel Gulliver wakes to find himself surrounded by its six-inch natives, the Lilliputians. But this is only the first in a long line of wonderful discoveries, as his adventures take him to other far-off lands such...
By: Jonathan Swift

What is the nature, essence and definition of a fart? What are the consequences and disadvantages of suppressing one? Why is farting considered to be a taboo? Swift's The Benefit of Farting argues eloquently, in a forceful and a posteriori fashion,...
By: Jonathan Swift