Questions tagged [jonathan-swift]
Questions about the Anglo-Irish author Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745) and his literary works.
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What is the evidence that Jonathan Swift wrote "The Grand Mystery"?
In his answer to Swift's Great Mystery, @Jos states that whether The Grand Mystery (1726) "is to be attributed to Swift or to Edward Ward is apparently unclear." An edition of the entire ...
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Of what trumpery, of what dormant statute does Swift write in "An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity"?
An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity begins with following:
It is further objected against the Gospel system that it obliges men to the belief of things too difficult for Freethinkers, and ...
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What historical event / injunction does Swift allude to in this paragraph of "An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity"?
An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity begins with following:
I am very sensible what a weakness and presumption it is to reason against the general humour and disposition of the world. I ...
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In Swift's "Gulliver's Travels", Gulliver claims that 'princes seldom get their meat hot'. What does Gulliver (and Swift) mean by that?
In the the novel 'Gulliver's Travels', there is a passage in Part II Chapter 3 where the narrator "quarrels with the Queen's Dwarf". In that passage, Gulliver makes the aside that princes '...
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Evidence that many early readers misunderstood A Modest Proposal as a serious recommendation?
The Wikipedia article on satire has a section on censorship and criticsim which contains the following claim (emphasis added):
For instance, at the time of its publication, many people misunderstood ...
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Did Swift really say, ‘Puns are disliked by none but those who can't make them’?
A recent question asked about the source of a quote about puns attributed to Edgar Allen Poe.
@Rand al'Thor found out that the quote could be found in Poe's marginalia but that the idea was older.
@...
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Swift's Great Mystery
In his best known book, History of Shit, Dominique Laporte mentions "Swift's Great Mystery" when listing pertinent literature (pp. 100-101):
The Biblioteca Scatalogica furnishes an impressive list ...
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In A Tale of a Tub, in what sense does Martin stand between Peter and Jack?
Wikipedia has the following to say about Jonathan Swift's A Tale of a Tub (formatting added):
A Tale of a Tub is divided between various forms of digression and
sections of a "tale".
The "...
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When did people begin to regard Gulliver's Travels as a children's book?
Jonathan Swift published Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships in 1726 as a satire on human nature. ...
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Was Gulliver religious?
In Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, there is little discussion of religion except for a passage from part 3, which reads,
To this I added another petition, “that for the sake of my patron the ...
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Who do the inhabitants of Brobdingnag represent in Gulliver's Travels?
In his answer to this question, Riker established that the islands of Lilliput and Blefuscu were representing England and France and it was satirizing the holy wars between them.
What was being ...
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Did Jonathan Swift ever sail?
In Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, Swift describes Gulliver, a ship's doctor sailing and getting ship wrecked in various locations by various means. However, he does not go into as much detail ...
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How do you pronounce Houyhnhnm?
In Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, Gulliver travels to a land of Houyhnhnms. When I read, I like to hear the names in my head because it helps me to get into the story. However, I do not know ...
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Is the location of the land of the Houyhnhnms significant?
As seen from the below map from the Wikipedia article, which is identical to the version of Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, which I own, the land of the Houyhnhnms is directly below what we now ...
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Is the Man-Mountain Agreement a satire of a specific event?
Gulliver's Travels, is a story by Jonathan Swift that is widely accepted to be a satire. In it when Gulliver visits Lilliput he agrees to a set of articles about his presence, which read as follows:
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Is there significance to the location of Lilliput in Gulliver's Travels?
If we look at the map, we can conclude that Lilliput is in the Indian Ocean. Is there any significance to its location in the Indian Ocean? What is that significance, if any?
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