Johnathan Swift's gift for satire outlives the timeliness of his subjects - though so often, his targets are intrinsic to human nature, and therefore never out of date. Enriched with razor wit and the passion of an Irishman, the works in this collection are a testament to the genius of Swift.Of course, almost everyone knows something about Gulliver's Travels, Swift's most famous work. A sweeping portrayal of human folly, political shenanigans, and absurd ideas, there is much more going on here than whimsical storytelling. Through a series of unfortunate events, Gulliver discovers many faraway lands and exotic peoples: the tiny Lilliputians and the giant Brobdingnagians; the mathematical Laputans with their heads in the clouds; and the Houyhnhnms, a race of intelligent horses who herd the degenerate Yahoos, perhaps the most withering and misogynistic portrayal of humanity ever committed to paper. Indeed, the end of the book is intensely dark, with Gulliver rejecting his own family as "poor Yahoos" and living in despairing isolation. That, plus all the scatological humor in regards to tiny and giant people, and I'm not sure how this ever became known as a kid's book!
Also included are A Tale of a Tub, "The Battle of the Books", "The Mechanical Operation of the Soul", "An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity in England", "A Modest Proposal", "Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift", and several other shorter works in prose and poetry. The Tale is one of the funniest things I've ever read. A satire on modernist thought and "new learning", he skewers the wordy style of the writers of his day by expanding a 30-page allegory into almost 120 pages of introductions, prefaces, footnotes, and digressions. But fear not, it's hilarious from start to finish, due in no small part to Swift's ebullient wit.
I wish I could do justice to Swift's style and substance within this review, but it's hopeless. All I can say is, read him.
Arbitrary rating: 4.5 out of 5 ebullient wits
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