Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was an Irish writer, one of the all time greats of English-speaking literature. Novelist, essayist, pamphleteer, Swift is mostly known for Gulliver’s travels, but his works extend way beyond Lilliput; Swift will be remembered as one of the greatest writers, master in satire and eternal cynic about the human condition.

Biography

Born in Dublin on November 30th, 1667 to Jonathan Swift and Abigail Erick, two English settlers in Ireland, his father died before he was born and his mother returned to England. He was raised by his uncle, Godwin. Interestingly enough, his great-great grandmother, Margaret Godwin Swift was Francis Godwin’s sister. Francis Godwin is the author of The man in the moone, mentioned by Jules Verne in De la terre à la lune, and which, along with Cyrano de Bergerac’s L’Autre Monde probably influenced Swift for Gulliver’s travels.

Jonathan Swift was sent to Kilkenny College. Then in 1682 he attended Dublin University. Following the revolution of 1688, Swift had to leave Ireland. Back in England, he served as private secretary to Sir William Temple. For health reasons he had to travel back to Ireland in 1690, and then back to England. Not content with his position as private secretary, he became a priest within the Church of Ireland. Frustrated with his new role as a priest in a small community, frustrated in his love prospects, Swift left and once again sailed for England. There he wrote The battle of the Books, a satire aimed at the critics of Temple’s “Essay upon ancient and modern learning”. Following Temple’s death in 1699, Swift tried to complete his memoirs out of respect for a man he genuinely liked, but entered in conflict with some of Temple’s family members. Swift then moved back to Ireland, and settled for good although he would travel frequently to England in the ensuing years. In 1704, he published A tale of a tub and The battle of the Books under a pseudonym. Swift then became more active politically, first with the Whig party, then with the Tory party. With the return of the Whigs to power, and the dislike that Queen Anne openly professed for him, Swift had to leave England for Ireland; this is when he started writing his most famous pamphlets, supporting the Irish cause: Universal use of Irish manufacture, Modest proposal, Drapier’s letters. His printer was condemned for seditious libel because of Drapier’s letters. Swift then went on to write Gullivers’ travels, an incredible satire of his times, which was published in 1723, and then quickly translated in Europe. Saddened with the death of Esther Johnson, a young woman with whom he had had an ambiguous relation, he started losing his senses, and finally died after a long illness in 1745.

Swift’s legacy

Let’s start with what Swift is not; he is not the author of Gulliver’s travels who happened to write a few pamphlets or satirical essays that no one reads anymore. He is even less the author of a nice and amusing fairytale called Voyage to Lilliput. Why? Voyage to Lilliput is not a nice fairytale about a giant in a world of little, very little people. It is, along with the other three voyages, a ferocious satire and attack against the politics of his time and especially against the English Government and establishment. And Swift is not the writer of Gulliver’s travels who happened to write other works of less importance, because Gulliver’s travels is a work of maturity, it is the ultimate step of a long career of satirical pamphlets. Why satirical? Why this extraordinary ability to make fun of his time, of society’s woes, of people’s ridicule (Directions to servants), of the political system (Gulliver’s travels, of the exploitation of the Irish by the English? First, the use of satire is an obvious stratagem to lessen the risks associated with pamphleteering, as is the use of a pseudonym. But it probably has to do with the lack of illusion about his time, its injustices, a time marked with corruption, despotism, abject poverty, war and religious persecution. It is hard for the modern man, imbued with “positivist” systems of thinking (liberalism, communism, and most other 20th century political systems, all inspired by know-it-all 19th century philosophers), to project himself into the mind of a 17th century man, as it seems one had to wait until the Enlightenment, be it French or Scottish, English or German, for man’s modern vision of the world (changing, perfectible, improvable through work and good intentions) to appear. Swift is the greatest pamphleteer and satirist there is. It is because he has little hope of changing the world he criticises that he is so funny, and that his sharp wit, his absurd “tour de force”, his satiric talent transcend ages.