Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) was an Irish writer best known for his satirical works. His masterpiece Gulliver's Travels uses a voyager's encounters in distant lands to satirize politics and human nature through allegory, while A Modest Proposal exposes social cruelty in a tone of calm irony. The library holds 24 of his works, including A Tale of a Tub and The Journal to Stella as well as various prose writings, along with different editions and translations of Gulliver's Travels. His style is austere and witty, marked by exaggeration and irony, and has exerted a lasting influence on later satirical literature. Because public information is limited, details of his life are not elaborated here.