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Jonathan Swift: The Reluctant Rebel
Born in Ireland in 1667, Jonathan Swift defiantly clung to his Englishness. He refused to relinquish this attachment even as corruption and injustice gradually led him to turn against the English government. In a long life, Swift proved a reluctant rebel, though one with a relish for the fight, and implacable when provoked - a voice of withering disenchantment unrivalled in English. But he was also an inspired humorist, a beloved companion, a conscientious Anglican minister, as well as a hoaxer and a teller of tales. His anger against abuses of power would produce the most famous satire of the English language - Gulliver's Travels as well as the Drapier Papers and the unparallelled Modest Proposal, in which he imagined the poor of Ireland farming their infants for the tables of wealthy colonists.
John Stubbs' biography sets out to capture the dirt and beauty of a world that Swift both scorned and sought to amend. It follows Swift through his many battles, for and against authority, and in his many contradictions, as a priest who sought to uphold the dogma of his church; as a man who was quite prepared to defy convention, not least in his unshakeable attachment to an unmarried woman, his 'Stella'; and as a writer whose vision showed that no single creed holds all of the answers.
John Stubbs' biography sets out to capture the dirt and beauty of a world that Swift both scorned and sought to amend. It follows Swift through his many battles, for and against authority, and in his many contradictions, as a priest who sought to uphold the dogma of his church; as a man who was quite prepared to defy convention, not least in his unshakeable attachment to an unmarried woman, his 'Stella'; and as a writer whose vision showed that no single creed holds all of the answers.
752 pages, Hardcover
First published November 3, 2016
About the author
John Stubbs
33 books24 followersJohn Stubbs received his PhD in Renaissance literature from Cambridge University. His biography John Donne: The Reformed Soul was shortlisted for the Costa Award and won the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award. He lives in Slovenia.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
January 25, 2021
Literary biography doesn't get much better than this. In fact, I'd put John Stubbs' Jonathan Swift up there with Richard Ellman's James Joyce or Deirdre Bair's Samuel Beckett—it's that good. Or to put it another way, I'd gladly read it again, which is not something I'd normally say about a biography. Its sheer length allows author John Stubbs to do just about everything you'd want, i.e. go deeply enough into those formative personal experiences that helped to shape the vision, for good and ill, of his subject, and provide a deftly-rendered tour of Swift's times, such as to make Swift's works (not always accessible to the modern reader) come fully alive. I would not have wanted to attempt A Tale of a Tub, The Battle of the Books, or those of the poems that I've read, without it. I do think that Leo Damrosch's Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World (also very good, albeit with a lighter touch) was a bit better at putting the spotlight on Gulliver, but that is quibbling. This is monument to scholarship that somehow manages to marry careful discernment to compulsive readability, and I will definitely read his books on the 17th century in future.
[A bit more on Swift himself to come...]
[A bit more on Swift himself to come...]
November 29, 2017
This is an incredibly impressive biography that dramatically fleshes out the complexity of Swift's life. Stubbs is particularly good with the political twists and turns of the 17th & 18th centuries. And he adds much needed nuance to our understanding of Swift's final years.
October 15, 2016
Stubbs is a fine biographer who researches his subjects but also gets under their skin to some extent: this might not be an academic biography but it does capture the essential paradoxes at the heart of Swift's life and character.
If you only know Swift from Gulliver's Travels then this is definitely worth reading: it negotiates its way clearly through the politics of the C18th, and is attentive to the more peculiar aspects of Swift's personality e.g. his 'relationship' with the woman he calls Stella.
Rubbing shoulders with Samuel Johnson, John Gay and Pope, this situates its story well in the literary milieu, and I especially enjoyed visiting the chocolate- and coffee-houses of London.
If you only know Swift from Gulliver's Travels then this is definitely worth reading: it negotiates its way clearly through the politics of the C18th, and is attentive to the more peculiar aspects of Swift's personality e.g. his 'relationship' with the woman he calls Stella.
Rubbing shoulders with Samuel Johnson, John Gay and Pope, this situates its story well in the literary milieu, and I especially enjoyed visiting the chocolate- and coffee-houses of London.
February 17, 2018
Not so much a biography as a politico-cultural history of the Restoration and early Georgian reigns wherein Swift plays his own part, this is an exceptionally well researched and written book. However, if the reader isn't ready for dozens of pages of historical background before relating Swift's part in all of it, this might not be the book for them. In fact, Swift's life doesn't have much of the sensational about it at all, barring speculation about Stella (Esther Johnson) that will never be resolved. Stubbs loves the long paragraph, and the long chapter (multiple chapters run 40-60 pages long), and covers every angle of the age. Sometimes, I felt Swift was missing.
April 18, 2017
Read my in-depth review this Friday on bookreporter.com .
May 4, 2017
Here is my review on my blog: http://carolhomeschool2.blogspot.com/...
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January 27, 2017Bomb disposal expert? Water management authority? Conflicted lover of fresh fruits? Jonathan Swift has been known to us under many guises, most enduringly strange, but this new biography provides even more aspects of him hitherto unseen.
Perhaps most surprising is a glimpse of Swift not as the terminally aloof, near-psychotic genius he’s usually been painted as (though there’s plenty of that to go around, too) but as possessing an intense emotional life traditionally denied him, ranging from the ‘grouchy humaneness’ he showed subordinates, to the fully committed passions he held for those he loved. To read so convincingly into this side of his subject makes Stubbs something of a Columbo of 18th century biography (‘one last thing, sir…did the poem’s last line touch an authentic note of regret in your dealings with Miss Johnson?’)
Reluctant Rebel charts our hero's rise from his early beginnings in Dublin and Whitehaven, to becoming the most venerated cannibalism advocate of his age. From his years as Wildean wit about town, Swift's early satirical scalps were notable, and included the Duke of Marlborough. Of the Drapier letters - a literary project anonymously written and aiming to refute the English government’s attempt to debase Irish coinage - Stubbs writes: ‘It was arguably the first time in British history that a purely popular campaign of protest reversed a political decision of central government.’ Quite a claim!
The cast of characters roughly equals War and Peace squared, and if you can’t tell your Arbuthnots from your Arbuckles, your wigs from your Whigs, you might fairly run for the hills. Stubbs is particularly strong on the history - there are impressive summaries of the Civil War, the Revolution of 1688, the reign of Anne and the Hanoverian succession - but interestingly refrains from quoting much on the literary side. When he does, his strong suit is the poetry, and he manages to make lesser-known pieces like Cadenus and Vanessa, and the back n forth verse with Pope and Sheridan, both stimulating and relevant.
The strongest chapter in the book is its last - Sanctuary - which touchingly presents the Dean’s growing loss of faculties, and assesses Swift’s literary reputation with a clear sightedness historically eluding such great critics as Johnson and Orwell. It also puts forward fair accounts of Francis Wilson (who has been critically viewed as trying to profit from the last days of his friend’s illness) and The Earl of Orrery, another sometime friend, initially sweetness and light, whose posthumous account is about as charitable as a committed campaign of arson against Amnesty International.
You might wonder where my opening remarks come in. Well - Swift intercepted a bomb designed to assassinate Tory Lord High Treasurer Robert Harley; he once observed Dublin was in danger of flooding by examining the water supply with no more than a few friends and a wooden pail; and he adored fruit but mistakenly believed it aggravated his Menieres Disease. There’s even more of interest, besides all that, to be found in Reluctant Rebel.
Perhaps most surprising is a glimpse of Swift not as the terminally aloof, near-psychotic genius he’s usually been painted as (though there’s plenty of that to go around, too) but as possessing an intense emotional life traditionally denied him, ranging from the ‘grouchy humaneness’ he showed subordinates, to the fully committed passions he held for those he loved. To read so convincingly into this side of his subject makes Stubbs something of a Columbo of 18th century biography (‘one last thing, sir…did the poem’s last line touch an authentic note of regret in your dealings with Miss Johnson?’)
Reluctant Rebel charts our hero's rise from his early beginnings in Dublin and Whitehaven, to becoming the most venerated cannibalism advocate of his age. From his years as Wildean wit about town, Swift's early satirical scalps were notable, and included the Duke of Marlborough. Of the Drapier letters - a literary project anonymously written and aiming to refute the English government’s attempt to debase Irish coinage - Stubbs writes: ‘It was arguably the first time in British history that a purely popular campaign of protest reversed a political decision of central government.’ Quite a claim!
The cast of characters roughly equals War and Peace squared, and if you can’t tell your Arbuthnots from your Arbuckles, your wigs from your Whigs, you might fairly run for the hills. Stubbs is particularly strong on the history - there are impressive summaries of the Civil War, the Revolution of 1688, the reign of Anne and the Hanoverian succession - but interestingly refrains from quoting much on the literary side. When he does, his strong suit is the poetry, and he manages to make lesser-known pieces like Cadenus and Vanessa, and the back n forth verse with Pope and Sheridan, both stimulating and relevant.
The strongest chapter in the book is its last - Sanctuary - which touchingly presents the Dean’s growing loss of faculties, and assesses Swift’s literary reputation with a clear sightedness historically eluding such great critics as Johnson and Orwell. It also puts forward fair accounts of Francis Wilson (who has been critically viewed as trying to profit from the last days of his friend’s illness) and The Earl of Orrery, another sometime friend, initially sweetness and light, whose posthumous account is about as charitable as a committed campaign of arson against Amnesty International.
You might wonder where my opening remarks come in. Well - Swift intercepted a bomb designed to assassinate Tory Lord High Treasurer Robert Harley; he once observed Dublin was in danger of flooding by examining the water supply with no more than a few friends and a wooden pail; and he adored fruit but mistakenly believed it aggravated his Menieres Disease. There’s even more of interest, besides all that, to be found in Reluctant Rebel.
February 21, 2017
I've made it as far as 34% when I decided to mark the book as did-not-finish. Not sure if I pick it up in the future again but for now I'm done.
I had high hopes for the book but learned quickly that it's just not made for me. I expected to get to know more about Swift and the time he lived in but was confused more than once because the author didn't stick to any kind of topic. This might work for someone who's more familiar with the history of Ireland. Unfortunately, I'm not and I felt lost.
I received a free copy via Netgalley.
I had high hopes for the book but learned quickly that it's just not made for me. I expected to get to know more about Swift and the time he lived in but was confused more than once because the author didn't stick to any kind of topic. This might work for someone who's more familiar with the history of Ireland. Unfortunately, I'm not and I felt lost.
I received a free copy via Netgalley.
June 24, 2017
Review title: Swift, the Avenger
After finishing Steve Jobs, I wanted to read another biography of a large as life character to sort of wash the taste of Jobs's unlikable character from my mouth, and also to see how a biographer handles another equally strong personality. So when I saw this biography of Swift at my local library, it was a perfect match. As a cultural touchpoint Swift is well known as the author of a couple of the best known satirical fantasies in the English language (A Tale of a Tub and Gulliver's Travels), plus he was Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin which I visited on Easter Sunday 2016. Truth be told, I knew nothing about Swift the man and barely remember the satires, for if I read them at all it was years ago as children's fantasies.
So Swift the man was born in Dublin to English parents there as part of one of the many British colonization and control efforts over the smaller and wholly uncivilized (to British senses) island just to the west. Taken back to England as a very young child by a nurse, then begrudgingly back to Ireland still as a child, Swift considered England as his true home and cultural touchpoint, and was always conflicted by and about his Irish heritage. But this start and conflict gave him the source material of a lifetime. Traveling between the two countries many times, he became embroiled in the tangled politics of colonization and religion in the 17th and 18th centuries, a tangle that involved many threads: Catholic vs Protestant, Anglican vs Dissenter (we know them as Puritans who became a founding stone of America), Whig vs Tory, Royalist vs Parliamentarian, noble vs commoner, and not least, British vs Irish and English vs Gaelic.
Although he grew up in the Anglican church and became a high-ranking member of its hierarchy in Dublin, Swift thought, wrote and participated in all of those threads during his long career. For much of his time as a young man while he was establishing his reputation and renown, he was directly involved in the often violent political debates of the time. Indeed, many of his allies (and enemies) gave their lives in prison, exile or the gallows for their beliefs. And in addition to his explicitly political writings of the time, now little read, his two fantastic satires, originally published anonymously, were laden with powerful political allegory that when understood and attributed to him at times made his own position tenuous. Unauthorized annotated versions of the Tub and the Travels named names and explained the allegories for those who didn't "get it."
Appointed to lesser Irish parishes and then (after years of behind the scenes campaigning on his part) Dean of St Patrick's, his return to Ireland was both a welcome respite and a bitter reminder that he was "home". The physical distance from the center of British intrigue in London added to his personal safety, and put him in close and extended proximity with his fellow Irish (themselves a mixed bag of Nordic, Gaelic, and Anglo-Saxon heritage) for the first time, and over time, he became a champion of the spiritual and physical needs of his country. Still willing to poke the British bear with the pointed stick of his writing, he made no new friends amongst those who opposed him, while he became an iconic and greatly loved figure of legend in Dublin. Stubbs recounts the story of a British politician who wanted to arrest Swift and bring him back to London for trial, but the response of one familiar with Swift's reputation in Dublin was that it would take 10,000 soldiers to arrest him in his stronghold in St. Patrick's in the center of Dublin.
And while this all sounds intriguing and interesting in a short review, the nub of why I can only give this book three stars is that for much of the 600-plus pages Stubbs gets as deep into this thorny tangle of politics as Swift was. And try as he might--Stubbs is a fine writer--he just couldn't keep my eyes from glazing over or my feet from wandering off the path through the politics he was trying to describe for me now. The details meant life or death to Swift; they don't mean much to me today. A 400 page biography with less about the politics and more about the man would have gotten at least another star.
For Swift the man was quite a character, in fact in some ways not unlike Steve Jobs. He was by turns a prickly personality who seldom laughed and also loved socializing, writing and speaking in humorous word play. He was an orthodox churchman who was not afraid to write frank and at times scatalogical poems and stories. He was physically strong and active, walking vigorously almost daily for his health, while he was plagued by recurring vertigo and hearing problems. He was passionate and at times romantic, but was never married; when his marriage proposal as a young minister on his first Irish posting was rejected, he rejected the woman emotionally with treatment that appears harsh by today's standards and he return to England for a time to distance himself physically. He never married, but his longest and closest friends were two women with whom he shared a long and voluminous correspondence; while one of the women was very frank in her desire for the relationship to become a marriage, Stubbs can find no evidence that either relationship was sexual in nature. And while he is sometimes considered misogynistic, again by 21st century standards so different from his era, in private correspondence and in public business settings he treated these two women and others with an equality and respect more akin to today's standards than his own.
So, Swift, the Avenger? His epitaph engraved in Latin on a memorial in St. Patrick's, which he composed before his death, is brief, and ends with this phrase in English translation:
Go, traveller
and be like him, if you can,
Vigorous to his utmost
As liberty's avenger
(p. 634)
In his writings and political stance, he was a vigorous, powerful and satirical voice for those in his day who needed a voice. He wasn't a perfect superhero like a modern-day Avenger, but he was the avenger Ireland needed then. And his legacy, the result of and not in spite of his contradictions, has lasted the test of time and detractors. He was a man worthy of emulation, if you can, and an Avenger we need today.
After finishing Steve Jobs, I wanted to read another biography of a large as life character to sort of wash the taste of Jobs's unlikable character from my mouth, and also to see how a biographer handles another equally strong personality. So when I saw this biography of Swift at my local library, it was a perfect match. As a cultural touchpoint Swift is well known as the author of a couple of the best known satirical fantasies in the English language (A Tale of a Tub and Gulliver's Travels), plus he was Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin which I visited on Easter Sunday 2016. Truth be told, I knew nothing about Swift the man and barely remember the satires, for if I read them at all it was years ago as children's fantasies.
So Swift the man was born in Dublin to English parents there as part of one of the many British colonization and control efforts over the smaller and wholly uncivilized (to British senses) island just to the west. Taken back to England as a very young child by a nurse, then begrudgingly back to Ireland still as a child, Swift considered England as his true home and cultural touchpoint, and was always conflicted by and about his Irish heritage. But this start and conflict gave him the source material of a lifetime. Traveling between the two countries many times, he became embroiled in the tangled politics of colonization and religion in the 17th and 18th centuries, a tangle that involved many threads: Catholic vs Protestant, Anglican vs Dissenter (we know them as Puritans who became a founding stone of America), Whig vs Tory, Royalist vs Parliamentarian, noble vs commoner, and not least, British vs Irish and English vs Gaelic.
Although he grew up in the Anglican church and became a high-ranking member of its hierarchy in Dublin, Swift thought, wrote and participated in all of those threads during his long career. For much of his time as a young man while he was establishing his reputation and renown, he was directly involved in the often violent political debates of the time. Indeed, many of his allies (and enemies) gave their lives in prison, exile or the gallows for their beliefs. And in addition to his explicitly political writings of the time, now little read, his two fantastic satires, originally published anonymously, were laden with powerful political allegory that when understood and attributed to him at times made his own position tenuous. Unauthorized annotated versions of the Tub and the Travels named names and explained the allegories for those who didn't "get it."
Appointed to lesser Irish parishes and then (after years of behind the scenes campaigning on his part) Dean of St Patrick's, his return to Ireland was both a welcome respite and a bitter reminder that he was "home". The physical distance from the center of British intrigue in London added to his personal safety, and put him in close and extended proximity with his fellow Irish (themselves a mixed bag of Nordic, Gaelic, and Anglo-Saxon heritage) for the first time, and over time, he became a champion of the spiritual and physical needs of his country. Still willing to poke the British bear with the pointed stick of his writing, he made no new friends amongst those who opposed him, while he became an iconic and greatly loved figure of legend in Dublin. Stubbs recounts the story of a British politician who wanted to arrest Swift and bring him back to London for trial, but the response of one familiar with Swift's reputation in Dublin was that it would take 10,000 soldiers to arrest him in his stronghold in St. Patrick's in the center of Dublin.
And while this all sounds intriguing and interesting in a short review, the nub of why I can only give this book three stars is that for much of the 600-plus pages Stubbs gets as deep into this thorny tangle of politics as Swift was. And try as he might--Stubbs is a fine writer--he just couldn't keep my eyes from glazing over or my feet from wandering off the path through the politics he was trying to describe for me now. The details meant life or death to Swift; they don't mean much to me today. A 400 page biography with less about the politics and more about the man would have gotten at least another star.
For Swift the man was quite a character, in fact in some ways not unlike Steve Jobs. He was by turns a prickly personality who seldom laughed and also loved socializing, writing and speaking in humorous word play. He was an orthodox churchman who was not afraid to write frank and at times scatalogical poems and stories. He was physically strong and active, walking vigorously almost daily for his health, while he was plagued by recurring vertigo and hearing problems. He was passionate and at times romantic, but was never married; when his marriage proposal as a young minister on his first Irish posting was rejected, he rejected the woman emotionally with treatment that appears harsh by today's standards and he return to England for a time to distance himself physically. He never married, but his longest and closest friends were two women with whom he shared a long and voluminous correspondence; while one of the women was very frank in her desire for the relationship to become a marriage, Stubbs can find no evidence that either relationship was sexual in nature. And while he is sometimes considered misogynistic, again by 21st century standards so different from his era, in private correspondence and in public business settings he treated these two women and others with an equality and respect more akin to today's standards than his own.
So, Swift, the Avenger? His epitaph engraved in Latin on a memorial in St. Patrick's, which he composed before his death, is brief, and ends with this phrase in English translation:
Go, traveller
and be like him, if you can,
Vigorous to his utmost
As liberty's avenger
(p. 634)
In his writings and political stance, he was a vigorous, powerful and satirical voice for those in his day who needed a voice. He wasn't a perfect superhero like a modern-day Avenger, but he was the avenger Ireland needed then. And his legacy, the result of and not in spite of his contradictions, has lasted the test of time and detractors. He was a man worthy of emulation, if you can, and an Avenger we need today.
Did Not Finish
September 19, 2016I've read 100 pages and it's not for me.
July 31, 2017
This is a very comprehensive biography of Jonathan Swift. I was drawn to this book because I was forced to read many of Swift’s work in school and I thought his life would be pretty interesting considering the fantastical elements to Gulliver’s Travels and the rather gruesome take on curing starvation in A Modest Proposal. I was not disappointed. Mr. Swift did indeed lead an interesting life.
This book is pretty heavy with the politics of the time. Swift was born in the 1660s and lived well into the 1700s. His satire and his dabblings in politics meant that I needed to learn the basics of British, Irish, and French politics of the time to understand Swift the better. This biography does a really good job of laying that all out for the reader. While I did find that this bogged things down from time to time, I also appreciated that the details were there if I needed to refer to them.
I was surprised to learn that Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland yet insisted he was an Englishman his entire life. Indeed, Swift seems to enjoy being a breathing, walking contradiction. I get the feeling he was never really happy or content and I think he brought some of that on himself. By the same token, I think he would own that and make a quip about it.
It appears that Swift disliked babies, perhaps even had an aversion. The author has an informed guess that Swift would have been a solid germaphobe in today’s time with our knowledge of bacteria and viruses. I totally agree with the author on this point. By the way, Swift didn’t reproduce.
Swift suffered from recurrent vertigo, which was referred to giddiness during his life. Poor dude. I bet this was a huge irritant to him. Later in life he would suffer other ailments such as losing his voice and possibly suffering from insanity. It must have been so frustrating for him towards the end, being a man of words and not able to use them effectively.
For me, the biggest mystery about Swift was his love life, or lack thereof. He had a close tie with Esther Johnson for much of her life and I found it very interesting the great pains he always took to maintain propriety. In fact, he often addressed his letters to her and her lady companion, Rebecca Dingley. Was it love or just a deep friendship? Did they secretly marry or was that just silliness? The author does a good job of laying out the known facts and then making a few educated guesses from there.
Of course, you can’t explore Jonathan Swift without getting into the details of his writings. There’s plenty of that here in this book and even if you aren’t familiar with all of Swift’s publications, the author makes it clear what’s important about each in regards to the subject at hand. For me, this also sometimes bogged down the story of Swift’s life but I also appreciate the thoroughness.
I received a free copy of this book via LibraryThing.
The Narration: Derek Perkins was a good fit for this book. He sounded interested throughout the entire book. There wasn’t much call for character voices, this being a biography. He did capture some emotions here and there as the story of Swift’s life unfolded.
This book is pretty heavy with the politics of the time. Swift was born in the 1660s and lived well into the 1700s. His satire and his dabblings in politics meant that I needed to learn the basics of British, Irish, and French politics of the time to understand Swift the better. This biography does a really good job of laying that all out for the reader. While I did find that this bogged things down from time to time, I also appreciated that the details were there if I needed to refer to them.
I was surprised to learn that Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland yet insisted he was an Englishman his entire life. Indeed, Swift seems to enjoy being a breathing, walking contradiction. I get the feeling he was never really happy or content and I think he brought some of that on himself. By the same token, I think he would own that and make a quip about it.
It appears that Swift disliked babies, perhaps even had an aversion. The author has an informed guess that Swift would have been a solid germaphobe in today’s time with our knowledge of bacteria and viruses. I totally agree with the author on this point. By the way, Swift didn’t reproduce.
Swift suffered from recurrent vertigo, which was referred to giddiness during his life. Poor dude. I bet this was a huge irritant to him. Later in life he would suffer other ailments such as losing his voice and possibly suffering from insanity. It must have been so frustrating for him towards the end, being a man of words and not able to use them effectively.
For me, the biggest mystery about Swift was his love life, or lack thereof. He had a close tie with Esther Johnson for much of her life and I found it very interesting the great pains he always took to maintain propriety. In fact, he often addressed his letters to her and her lady companion, Rebecca Dingley. Was it love or just a deep friendship? Did they secretly marry or was that just silliness? The author does a good job of laying out the known facts and then making a few educated guesses from there.
Of course, you can’t explore Jonathan Swift without getting into the details of his writings. There’s plenty of that here in this book and even if you aren’t familiar with all of Swift’s publications, the author makes it clear what’s important about each in regards to the subject at hand. For me, this also sometimes bogged down the story of Swift’s life but I also appreciate the thoroughness.
I received a free copy of this book via LibraryThing.
The Narration: Derek Perkins was a good fit for this book. He sounded interested throughout the entire book. There wasn’t much call for character voices, this being a biography. He did capture some emotions here and there as the story of Swift’s life unfolded.
May 28, 2020
In this well researched biography, John Stubbs does a heroic job of attempting to coax the reader into embracing a subject who seemed to thrive on being as prickly as a cactus. Perhaps a more accurate title would have been Jonathan Swift: The Reluctant Human. Swift, as the book notes, was fastidious about his personal hygiene while simultaneously dwelling in his own writings on excrement and the ravages of age and disease on the his subjects, particularly women. He deplored Ireland and the Irish, but came to defend them when he contemplated the abuses heaped upon them by the English. He actively sought the companionship, love, or idol worship (depending on your perspective) of two younger women while refusing marriage and attempting to keep them separated from one another. He wanted fame, but had to publish many of his works anonymously to avoid imprisonment or worse. That Swift was remarkably intelligent, an astute and at times compassionate observer of the conditions of the Irish people, a skilled writer, and a man who did not suffer fools or practically anyone else gladly is thoroughly documented by John Stubbs. Although I can appreciate Swift as a writer, I usually end up being a reluctant reader of satirists, because someone who is better at demolishing than building doesn't leave a qualitative impression on me. Still, I would read Stubbs again, because he is thoroughly engaging as a writer and deeply engaged with his subjects.
Read
August 30, 2022You can get to know a lot about the age in which Swift lived from this well written book, but not, perhaps. much more. Piling up more and more pages does not a bio make. And for such a titan of literature such as Swift is probably looking at things from the wrong end of the telescope.
Sure, we want to know about background. But this is a man, par excellence, who strove to be elusive for a very good reason (and which entirely seems to elude Dr Stubbs). He wanted his writing to speak for him. And what writing it is! English or European literature has not really produced a finer satirist, and which still more than holds its own today.
Is it important to understand (and appreciate) Swift's brilliant writing more or less than trying to get a handle on his character? Does understanding (whatever that means) his character throw light on his work? Or are modern biographers simply recovering post Freudians who think the persona more important than the product?
What made Swift such a genius? And in what did that genius consist? We are none the wiser.
Sure, we want to know about background. But this is a man, par excellence, who strove to be elusive for a very good reason (and which entirely seems to elude Dr Stubbs). He wanted his writing to speak for him. And what writing it is! English or European literature has not really produced a finer satirist, and which still more than holds its own today.
Is it important to understand (and appreciate) Swift's brilliant writing more or less than trying to get a handle on his character? Does understanding (whatever that means) his character throw light on his work? Or are modern biographers simply recovering post Freudians who think the persona more important than the product?
What made Swift such a genius? And in what did that genius consist? We are none the wiser.
June 25, 2017
Stubbs started this hefty biography by setting the stage for the young Swift to be introduced on. To a reader who may not be engulfed in the history of the late 17th and early 18th century, it can be quite overwhelming. Notwithstanding, Swift’s life was not the most dramatic or even kind of exciting. There are times when the book becomes a chore. Names are picked up and forgotten as new characters come into the story. If one is interested in Swift’s work or the general happenings of the early 1700’s, this book may add a great deal to your library.
May 10, 2018
Swift finally died tonight -- page 626. I thought I might go first, but once I start a book, I finish it. The positives: the book is scholarly and well-researched. Someone who specializes in 18th century England will undoubtedly get more from it than I did. I chose the book because I teach Swift and thought more knowledge would make me a better teacher. This book clearly exemplified the reasons why I did not specialize in this period. The book is boring for any but true lovers of the characters of the time. Do not go gently into this good night.
April 9, 2023
Swift is a fascinating creative genius, and Stubbs gives, I think, a masterful analysis of his life and times. I loved all the historical background, even though sometimes Stubbs lost sight of his main subject. I also loved the way Stubbs saw the flaws in Swift's character yet remained deeply sympathetic, allowing the reader to be empathetic. I doubt that I would have liked Swift if I had met him in person, but with the wise, historically informed perspective of Stubbs I appreciated and admired what Swift achieved in his life and letters.
June 10, 2019
I finally finished this book after slow plodding over the course of a year. I love Jonathan Swift and wholly appreciate this deep dive into his life. However, John Stubbs' style is often obfuscating, especially when he's speaking of politics, and he does little to make this book accessible to anyone but the most devoted fans.
September 2, 2017
An interesting book about a fascinating and complex character. Stubbs does a good job of showing us Swift in the context of his times. This book confirmed my love of the eighteenth century and of satire.
May 16, 2018
Recommended for me by a digital library, but far beyond anything of interest to me. I only managed to get through 10 % of this huge tome before giving up out of lack of interest in Jonathon Swift. This is strictly a book for graduate students in English literature.
November 6, 2017
Very detailed biography of the Irish writer, going deeply into the politics of his time and all of his political writing. Interesting, but not a quick read.
January 3, 2019
I had to commit myself to finishing this book. The writing is very distracting, even though Jonathan Swift is an interesting character.
October 31, 2024
Well researched but very dry and very long. He was a bit of a prig.
March 17, 2017
I really wanted to like this book. Didn't work out so well, though.
December 20, 2025
Shines with the lightweight approach that is inherent to an English writer writing Ireland. Two pages in it refers to the Battle of the Boyne having occurred in 1689, which is appallingly sloppy; so much so that I nearly made a typo of this sentence, as my thumbs instinctively reached to type the proper date.
It’s okay for an overview of Swift’s life, but season it well and forget about it promptly after finding a better time by an Irish author.
It’s okay for an overview of Swift’s life, but season it well and forget about it promptly after finding a better time by an Irish author.
Read
November 3, 2016Jonathan Swift, if he were alive today would be a thorn in the side of Government, big business, such was his dislike of authority and his championing of the downtrodden.
A welcome biography of Britain's most revered author and complicated man.
Highly recommended.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Penguin UK via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.
A welcome biography of Britain's most revered author and complicated man.
Highly recommended.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Penguin UK via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.
to-buy
February 20, 2017From The Economist
Read
February 13, 2018Stubbs combines very well Swifts works, personality and political activities. I ended up with a much more rounded understanding of the author of the Travels.
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