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The Prose Works Of Jonathan Swift: The Journal To Stella. A.d. 1710-1713
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This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
546 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1766
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About the author
Jonathan Swift
5,001 books2,157 followersJonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, hence his common sobriquet, "Dean Swift".
Swift is remembered for works such as A Tale of a Tub (1704), An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity (1712), Gulliver's Travels (1726), and A Modest Proposal (1729). He is regarded by the Encyclopædia Britannica as the foremost prose satirist in the English language. He originally published all of his works under pseudonyms—such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B. Drapier—or anonymously. He was a master of two styles of satire, the Horatian and Juvenalian styles.
His deadpan, ironic writing style, particularly in A Modest Proposal, has led to such satire being subsequently termed "Swiftian".
Swift is remembered for works such as A Tale of a Tub (1704), An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity (1712), Gulliver's Travels (1726), and A Modest Proposal (1729). He is regarded by the Encyclopædia Britannica as the foremost prose satirist in the English language. He originally published all of his works under pseudonyms—such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B. Drapier—or anonymously. He was a master of two styles of satire, the Horatian and Juvenalian styles.
His deadpan, ironic writing style, particularly in A Modest Proposal, has led to such satire being subsequently termed "Swiftian".
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
ongoing
October 28, 2021March, 2014
In Orlando, Virginia Woolf creates a scene in which Jonathan Swift pays a call on Lady Orlando in London around 1711. This is what Lady O has to say about her visitor: and when Mr Addison has had his say, there is a terrific rap at the door, and Mr Swift, who had these arbitrary ways about him, walks in unannounced...Nothing can be plainer than that violent man. He is so coarse and yet so clean; so brutal, yet so kind; scorns the whole world, yet talks baby language to a girl, and will die, can we doubt it? in a mad house.
The girl is, of course, Stella, and the baby talk is a reference to the letters he wrote her and which make up The Journal to Stella.
Though Swift didn't become insane but probably had some kind of dementia in his final years.
February 10th 2019
I took this book from my 'ongoing' shelf today because I came across a reference to it (among many other references to Swift) in Gabriel Josipovici's Moo Pak. The reference occurs as Josipovici's narrator and his main character are having coffee in a café near the pond in one of London's parks. The narrator recounts the exchange/monologue : In 1711, he said, the ponds in the London Parks froze over and Londoners spent their days skating. Swift wrote to Stella about it, in between giving her his tedious and boring news about the political machinations of the time and what grandee he had dined with and what minister he had supped with. Swift, he said, was the most interesting as well as the most boring man who ever lived. The most vain and the most humble. The most whimsical and the most heavy-handed. The most closed and the most open....In these letters back to Stella from London, he said, where he was spending his time hobnobbing with Prime Ministers and Secretaries of State, he had to tread a careful line between a silence that would have offended and too frequent a mention of Vanessa, which would have roused Stella's suspicions...
I have to agree with Josipovici about the tediousness of these letters which is why I finally shelved the book as 'ongoing' back in 2014. But there were interesting parts too (his day to day comments and the Vanessa affair in particular. He mentions the many times he dines at Vanessa's mother's house but hardly mentions Vanessa herself at all. I'm sure Stella must have guessed that he didn't call so often just for the sake of the mother).
Transcribing the Josipovici passage has caused me to notice an odd echo of Woolf's description of Swift in Josipovici's description.
He must have been reading Orlando...
I'm glad I started reading the Journal again. It's easier now since I've started thinking of it as a kind of 'book companion' that never needs to be finished. Swift is really not a bad 'book companion' at all.
And the Stella/Vanessa theme is an interesting link with Finnegans Wake. The two names float through that book like delicate waterweed. Joyce must have been reading the 'Journal to Stella' around the same time Woolf was...
Corsi e ricorsi
In Orlando, Virginia Woolf creates a scene in which Jonathan Swift pays a call on Lady Orlando in London around 1711. This is what Lady O has to say about her visitor: and when Mr Addison has had his say, there is a terrific rap at the door, and Mr Swift, who had these arbitrary ways about him, walks in unannounced...Nothing can be plainer than that violent man. He is so coarse and yet so clean; so brutal, yet so kind; scorns the whole world, yet talks baby language to a girl, and will die, can we doubt it? in a mad house.
The girl is, of course, Stella, and the baby talk is a reference to the letters he wrote her and which make up The Journal to Stella.
Though Swift didn't become insane but probably had some kind of dementia in his final years.
February 10th 2019
I took this book from my 'ongoing' shelf today because I came across a reference to it (among many other references to Swift) in Gabriel Josipovici's Moo Pak. The reference occurs as Josipovici's narrator and his main character are having coffee in a café near the pond in one of London's parks. The narrator recounts the exchange/monologue : In 1711, he said, the ponds in the London Parks froze over and Londoners spent their days skating. Swift wrote to Stella about it, in between giving her his tedious and boring news about the political machinations of the time and what grandee he had dined with and what minister he had supped with. Swift, he said, was the most interesting as well as the most boring man who ever lived. The most vain and the most humble. The most whimsical and the most heavy-handed. The most closed and the most open....In these letters back to Stella from London, he said, where he was spending his time hobnobbing with Prime Ministers and Secretaries of State, he had to tread a careful line between a silence that would have offended and too frequent a mention of Vanessa, which would have roused Stella's suspicions...
I have to agree with Josipovici about the tediousness of these letters which is why I finally shelved the book as 'ongoing' back in 2014. But there were interesting parts too (his day to day comments and the Vanessa affair in particular. He mentions the many times he dines at Vanessa's mother's house but hardly mentions Vanessa herself at all. I'm sure Stella must have guessed that he didn't call so often just for the sake of the mother).
Transcribing the Josipovici passage has caused me to notice an odd echo of Woolf's description of Swift in Josipovici's description.
He must have been reading Orlando...
I'm glad I started reading the Journal again. It's easier now since I've started thinking of it as a kind of 'book companion' that never needs to be finished. Swift is really not a bad 'book companion' at all.
And the Stella/Vanessa theme is an interesting link with Finnegans Wake. The two names float through that book like delicate waterweed. Joyce must have been reading the 'Journal to Stella' around the same time Woolf was...
Corsi e ricorsi
July 21, 2025
My letters would be good memoirs, if I durst venture to say a thousand things that pass; but I hear so much of letters opening at your post-office that I am fearful.
I fancy my talking of persons and things here must be very tedious to you, because you know nothing of them, and I talk as if you did.
Jonathan Swift was a very worthy creature. Indeed, a man of worth and learning. I was going to be serious, because it was seriously put, but I turned it to a whim 😂
What puppies are mankind!
Puppies have got a new way of plaguing me.
I had no patience, and used him with some plainness. Am not I purely handled between a couple of puppies?
Honestly, I am (was) not near so keen about other people’s affairs as Jonathan Swift seemed to be concerned or involved about. And yes, people used to reproach me about it, yet it was a judgment on me. What JS asks is entirely out of my way, and I take it for a foolish whim in me to have embarked on this reading trip, but fine, a new adventure is a new adventure, isn’t it? 😂
Still, more honestly, I had not ease or humour enough to go on with his way of journal method, it simply made me mad with itching. Keeping it seriously, a journal is a noble thing. Always. But, seriously, what’s all this to me? What care I for X and Z and T? No, I care for nothing of those names 😂
His letters or daily journal is made up of pain, visits, messages, dinners, politics, politics and again politics…It contains nothing but where he used to dine, and the occurrences of the day, politics and again politics, so it has grown a little charmless on my mind. Objectively speaking, his method of constant journal is helpful in giving us an account of his present life. So, it is possibly worth your reading if those circumstances are all true, and the letters at least are a good history to show the steps of the change in his life.
Oh, I am done 😂
I fancy my talking of persons and things here must be very tedious to you, because you know nothing of them, and I talk as if you did.
Jonathan Swift was a very worthy creature. Indeed, a man of worth and learning. I was going to be serious, because it was seriously put, but I turned it to a whim 😂
What puppies are mankind!
Puppies have got a new way of plaguing me.
I had no patience, and used him with some plainness. Am not I purely handled between a couple of puppies?
Honestly, I am (was) not near so keen about other people’s affairs as Jonathan Swift seemed to be concerned or involved about. And yes, people used to reproach me about it, yet it was a judgment on me. What JS asks is entirely out of my way, and I take it for a foolish whim in me to have embarked on this reading trip, but fine, a new adventure is a new adventure, isn’t it? 😂
Still, more honestly, I had not ease or humour enough to go on with his way of journal method, it simply made me mad with itching. Keeping it seriously, a journal is a noble thing. Always. But, seriously, what’s all this to me? What care I for X and Z and T? No, I care for nothing of those names 😂
His letters or daily journal is made up of pain, visits, messages, dinners, politics, politics and again politics…It contains nothing but where he used to dine, and the occurrences of the day, politics and again politics, so it has grown a little charmless on my mind. Objectively speaking, his method of constant journal is helpful in giving us an account of his present life. So, it is possibly worth your reading if those circumstances are all true, and the letters at least are a good history to show the steps of the change in his life.
Oh, I am done 😂
August 29, 2021
„A journal to Stella”,
de Jonathan Swift, 4/5
„A journal to Stella” este o serie de scrisori scrise între anii 1710 și 1713, de la Jonathan Swift - Londra către Esther Johnson și însoțitoarea ei, Rebecca Dingley, în Irlanda.
We are so fond of one another, because our ailments are the same.
Publicat postum, în 1766, „A journal to Stella”, de Jonathan Swift este o colecție completă formată din șaizeci și cinci de scrisori. Esther (supranumită de Jonathan - Stella) era fiica însoțitoarei văduve a surorii lui Sir William Temple. Swift, angajat de Sir William, a fost tutorele Stellei încă de când era mică, pentru ca mai târziu, această relație să se transforme într-un atașament față de ea pentru tot parcursul vieții. Cei doi s-au cunoscut când avea ea avea doar opt ani și vor continua să o facă până la moarte. Swift a învățat-o să citească și să scrie apoi a introdus-o în lume artei.
Relația lui Jonathan cu Esther este una curioasă. După ce au împărtășit o prietenie de mai mulți ani, Jonathan pleacă din Irlanda, și se mută la Londra pentru o vreme. Începe o perioadă în care acesta este atras de alte femei, dar fără vreun rezultat canonic. Cu toate acestea, când un bărbat a manifestat interes pentru Esther și a dorit să se căsătorească cu prietena acestuia, scrisorile din jurnal dezvăluie modul în care Jonathan a împiedicat acest lucru. O astfel de intruziune ne oferă o dovadă clară despre afecțiunea pe care a simțit-o pentru Stella. Nu există relatări de ea însăși, însă Swift descrie caracterul ei de minune ca fiind femeie loială, amabilă și inteligentă.
…one enemy can do more hurt, than ten friends can do good.
„A Journal to Stella” este un studiu interesant despre relația dintre autorul clasic foarte apreciat, Jonathan Swift și o femeie care îi era foarte dragă. El i-a scris Stellei despre evenimentele politice și sociale actuale, cât și despre reacțiile sale la acestea. Scrisă cu afecțiune și proză detaliată, scrisorile care apar dezvăluie, de asemenea, idei despre cultura Londrei din secolul al XVIII-lea și prezintă mulți dintre bărbații proeminenți pe care i-a cunoscut Swift. Pe măsură ce scria despre rutina și viața de zi cu zi, cititorilor li se permite o privire privilegiată asupra modului în care acest faimos autor a trăit zi de zi, inclusiv detaliile intime ale relațiilor sale. Conține spiritul și umorul pentru care Swift este renumit, permițând chiar și cititorilor contemporani să cunoască acest om incredibil din secolul al XVIII-lea.
Primul jurnal, de acest tip, pe care l-am citit a fost cel scris de Nabokov, „Scrisori către Vera”, însă limbajul este unul diferit prin stil și abordare. Unul i-a scris soției, altul iubitei sale nedeclarate. Cea citită în rusă, oarecum mai apropiată după manieră și dulceață, a fost o lectură mai mult pentru plăcere. A doua este mai mult informativă, stilul este mult mai sobru și calculat, sunt totuși reprezentanții secolului XVIII. Dar nu regret că am întins această lectură timp de aproape un an de zile. Am dozat fiecare scrisoare, limbajul vechi a fost o adevărată încercare, chiar mi-am adus aminte de cărțile lui Austen și Bronte citite în original. Swift are lumea lui creată aparte, care i-a aparținut doar lui și Stellei. Putem doar invidia sau urma exemplul.
#foxbooks #AjournaltoStella #JonathanSwift #recenzieAjournaltoStella #jurnal #memorii #scrisoricătreiubită
de Jonathan Swift, 4/5
„A journal to Stella” este o serie de scrisori scrise între anii 1710 și 1713, de la Jonathan Swift - Londra către Esther Johnson și însoțitoarea ei, Rebecca Dingley, în Irlanda.
We are so fond of one another, because our ailments are the same.
Publicat postum, în 1766, „A journal to Stella”, de Jonathan Swift este o colecție completă formată din șaizeci și cinci de scrisori. Esther (supranumită de Jonathan - Stella) era fiica însoțitoarei văduve a surorii lui Sir William Temple. Swift, angajat de Sir William, a fost tutorele Stellei încă de când era mică, pentru ca mai târziu, această relație să se transforme într-un atașament față de ea pentru tot parcursul vieții. Cei doi s-au cunoscut când avea ea avea doar opt ani și vor continua să o facă până la moarte. Swift a învățat-o să citească și să scrie apoi a introdus-o în lume artei.
Relația lui Jonathan cu Esther este una curioasă. După ce au împărtășit o prietenie de mai mulți ani, Jonathan pleacă din Irlanda, și se mută la Londra pentru o vreme. Începe o perioadă în care acesta este atras de alte femei, dar fără vreun rezultat canonic. Cu toate acestea, când un bărbat a manifestat interes pentru Esther și a dorit să se căsătorească cu prietena acestuia, scrisorile din jurnal dezvăluie modul în care Jonathan a împiedicat acest lucru. O astfel de intruziune ne oferă o dovadă clară despre afecțiunea pe care a simțit-o pentru Stella. Nu există relatări de ea însăși, însă Swift descrie caracterul ei de minune ca fiind femeie loială, amabilă și inteligentă.
…one enemy can do more hurt, than ten friends can do good.
„A Journal to Stella” este un studiu interesant despre relația dintre autorul clasic foarte apreciat, Jonathan Swift și o femeie care îi era foarte dragă. El i-a scris Stellei despre evenimentele politice și sociale actuale, cât și despre reacțiile sale la acestea. Scrisă cu afecțiune și proză detaliată, scrisorile care apar dezvăluie, de asemenea, idei despre cultura Londrei din secolul al XVIII-lea și prezintă mulți dintre bărbații proeminenți pe care i-a cunoscut Swift. Pe măsură ce scria despre rutina și viața de zi cu zi, cititorilor li se permite o privire privilegiată asupra modului în care acest faimos autor a trăit zi de zi, inclusiv detaliile intime ale relațiilor sale. Conține spiritul și umorul pentru care Swift este renumit, permițând chiar și cititorilor contemporani să cunoască acest om incredibil din secolul al XVIII-lea.
Primul jurnal, de acest tip, pe care l-am citit a fost cel scris de Nabokov, „Scrisori către Vera”, însă limbajul este unul diferit prin stil și abordare. Unul i-a scris soției, altul iubitei sale nedeclarate. Cea citită în rusă, oarecum mai apropiată după manieră și dulceață, a fost o lectură mai mult pentru plăcere. A doua este mai mult informativă, stilul este mult mai sobru și calculat, sunt totuși reprezentanții secolului XVIII. Dar nu regret că am întins această lectură timp de aproape un an de zile. Am dozat fiecare scrisoare, limbajul vechi a fost o adevărată încercare, chiar mi-am adus aminte de cărțile lui Austen și Bronte citite în original. Swift are lumea lui creată aparte, care i-a aparținut doar lui și Stellei. Putem doar invidia sau urma exemplul.
#foxbooks #AjournaltoStella #JonathanSwift #recenzieAjournaltoStella #jurnal #memorii #scrisoricătreiubită
August 19, 2021
“The passion is so real, so imperfectly dissembled, and the wit is such a strange mixture of roughness and elegance. “ --Louise Bogan on “Journal to Stella”
Notes:
37 dined with Addison and Steele … Congreve is almost blind with cataracts, and never rid of the gout yet is as chearful as ever.
66 twitter twattle
91 a girl died two days after she was christened, and betwixt you and me, Mrs Walls is not very sorry: she loves her ease and diversions too well to be troubled with children.
101 When frost and snow are both together, Sit by the fie and spare shoe-leather.
106 we are here in as smart a frost for the time as I have seen; delicate walking weather … I walkt plaguy carefully, for fear of sliding against my will;
115 I walk as much as I can
131 coming home this evening broke my shin in the Strand over a tub of sand left just in the way. … The Spectator by Steele
137 A most delicious day; my shin being past danger, I walkt like lightning above two hours
189 Yes, my head continues pretty tolerable, and I impute it all to walking.
193 Wm Congreve, who lives much by himself, is forced to read for amusement, and cannot do it without a magnifying-glass.
203 he was a fiddler, and consequently a rogue
212 ‘Tis a pity the world does not know my virtue
218 she has a tongue the most provoking devil that ever was born
227 I should not live if I did not take all opportunities of walking … 228 showers have hindred me from walking to-day, and that I don’t love
230 lunched with Ms Van and her damned landlady, who, I believe, by her eyebrows, is a bawd (Procuress)
231 supped with Addison … no man half so agreeable to me as he is
233 took the veil = became a nun
254 a full and true account of Stellas’s spelling errors
278 I believe he wished his every word he spoke was a halter to hang me. … He dare not stir out but on Sunday DOG
279 hang dog (ashamed, abject, cowed)
291 Mrs Long died … I never was more afflicted at any death
292 Oh, I could tell you ten thousand things of our mad politics, upon what small circumstances great affairs have turned
300 have you been plagued with the fear of the plague?
337 Lord Lansdown
348 sick taken breeches in 2 inches, so I am leaner
350 y must read John Bull [by Arbuthnot, 1712]
353 I walk as much as I can, because sweating is good. … I love these shabby difficultyes when they are over.
372 I propose writing controversies to get a name with posterity
380 I dislike a million of things in the course of publick Affairs … Tis impossible to save people against their will.
390 Lady Mary Butler death … my greatest favorite … she was thrown away for want of care. Hate Life, such accidents … so many wretches burtheing the Earth, while such as her die
392 Crying … so moving, such a mixture of greatness of mind and tenderness and discretion
436 presented Berkeley to court “Nothing can exist unperceived” … Samuel Johnson “I refute it thus.” https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Appeal_to...
Wiki: “There is a great mystery and controversy over Swift's relationship with Esther Johnson, nicknamed "Stella". Many, notably his close friend Thomas Sheridan, believed that they were secretly married in 1716; others, like Swift's housekeeper Mrs Brent and Rebecca Dingley (who lived with Stella all through her years in Ireland), dismissed the story as absurd.
A 2017 analysis of library holdings data revealed that Swift is the most popular Irish author, and that Gulliver’s Travels is the most widely held work of Irish literature in libraries globally.”
Thanks to Patrick Kurp for suggesting this book.
“Swift’s emotions in the Journal are powerful but impaired, defying expression. We infer his love for Stella – “so imperfectly dissembled” -- but instead he speaks of politics, the fortunes of the Tory party. He relishes gossip. He is ironic, often caustic, Swiftian.”
https://evidenceanecdotal.blogspot.co...
Notes:
37 dined with Addison and Steele … Congreve is almost blind with cataracts, and never rid of the gout yet is as chearful as ever.
66 twitter twattle
91 a girl died two days after she was christened, and betwixt you and me, Mrs Walls is not very sorry: she loves her ease and diversions too well to be troubled with children.
101 When frost and snow are both together, Sit by the fie and spare shoe-leather.
106 we are here in as smart a frost for the time as I have seen; delicate walking weather … I walkt plaguy carefully, for fear of sliding against my will;
115 I walk as much as I can
131 coming home this evening broke my shin in the Strand over a tub of sand left just in the way. … The Spectator by Steele
137 A most delicious day; my shin being past danger, I walkt like lightning above two hours
189 Yes, my head continues pretty tolerable, and I impute it all to walking.
193 Wm Congreve, who lives much by himself, is forced to read for amusement, and cannot do it without a magnifying-glass.
203 he was a fiddler, and consequently a rogue
212 ‘Tis a pity the world does not know my virtue
218 she has a tongue the most provoking devil that ever was born
227 I should not live if I did not take all opportunities of walking … 228 showers have hindred me from walking to-day, and that I don’t love
230 lunched with Ms Van and her damned landlady, who, I believe, by her eyebrows, is a bawd (Procuress)
231 supped with Addison … no man half so agreeable to me as he is
233 took the veil = became a nun
254 a full and true account of Stellas’s spelling errors
278 I believe he wished his every word he spoke was a halter to hang me. … He dare not stir out but on Sunday DOG
279 hang dog (ashamed, abject, cowed)
291 Mrs Long died … I never was more afflicted at any death
292 Oh, I could tell you ten thousand things of our mad politics, upon what small circumstances great affairs have turned
300 have you been plagued with the fear of the plague?
337 Lord Lansdown
348 sick taken breeches in 2 inches, so I am leaner
350 y must read John Bull [by Arbuthnot, 1712]
353 I walk as much as I can, because sweating is good. … I love these shabby difficultyes when they are over.
372 I propose writing controversies to get a name with posterity
380 I dislike a million of things in the course of publick Affairs … Tis impossible to save people against their will.
390 Lady Mary Butler death … my greatest favorite … she was thrown away for want of care. Hate Life, such accidents … so many wretches burtheing the Earth, while such as her die
392 Crying … so moving, such a mixture of greatness of mind and tenderness and discretion
436 presented Berkeley to court “Nothing can exist unperceived” … Samuel Johnson “I refute it thus.” https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Appeal_to...
Wiki: “There is a great mystery and controversy over Swift's relationship with Esther Johnson, nicknamed "Stella". Many, notably his close friend Thomas Sheridan, believed that they were secretly married in 1716; others, like Swift's housekeeper Mrs Brent and Rebecca Dingley (who lived with Stella all through her years in Ireland), dismissed the story as absurd.
A 2017 analysis of library holdings data revealed that Swift is the most popular Irish author, and that Gulliver’s Travels is the most widely held work of Irish literature in libraries globally.”
Thanks to Patrick Kurp for suggesting this book.
“Swift’s emotions in the Journal are powerful but impaired, defying expression. We infer his love for Stella – “so imperfectly dissembled” -- but instead he speaks of politics, the fortunes of the Tory party. He relishes gossip. He is ironic, often caustic, Swiftian.”
https://evidenceanecdotal.blogspot.co...
March 3, 2024
Of Swift's correspondence, by far the most thought-provoking is that with Esther Johnson. This part of his correspondence afterwards became known as the ‘Journal to Stella’. These Journal-letters were published in 1766 and 1768.
This book throws much light on the relations between Swift and Esther, and it brings vividly before us Swift's fears and hopes during the two years and a half (1710-1713) enclosed by the letters.
His style, always modest and forthright, is never more so than in this most intimate correspondence. He mentions casually the detailed incidents of his life and altodes to the people he met. He never describes any one at length, but constantly sums up in a sentence the main characteristics of the man or, at least, his approximation of the man's character.
Little by little, we are told of party intrigues and of promises held out to Swift. "The Tories daily tell me I may make my fortune if I please", he noted in 1710, "but I do not understand them, or rather I do understand them".
A few weeks later, he writes: "To say the truth, the present ministry have a difficult task and want me. Perhaps they may be as grateful as others; but, according to the best judgment I have, they are pursuing the true interest of the public and therefore I am glad to contribute what is in my power."
Swift's financial predicaments repetitively come to light in these letters. "People have so left town", he says, "that I am at a loss for a dinner. It cost me eighteen pence in coach-hire before I could find a place to dine in".
When he first went to London, he took rooms at eight shillings a week: "Plaguy dear, but I spend nothing for eating, never go to a tavern, and very seldom in a coach. In another place he says: "This rain ruins me in coach-hire".
How much overstatement there is in these protests against expenditure, it is not easy to say. The Journal abounds in conceited references to great ladies and others, but the arrogance is moderately affected and partially the result of a fear of being patronized.
In conclusion one must confess that even in his letters, Swift's style almost represents perfection. Clear, pointed, precise, he seems to have had no difficulty in finding words to express precisely the impression which he wishes to convey. His sentences are not always grammatically accurate, but they come home to the reader like music – vibrant and comprehensible.
At the same time, this tome not only affords the most cherished picture of Swift that is available to us but is also a historical manuscript of the greatest value.
This book throws much light on the relations between Swift and Esther, and it brings vividly before us Swift's fears and hopes during the two years and a half (1710-1713) enclosed by the letters.
His style, always modest and forthright, is never more so than in this most intimate correspondence. He mentions casually the detailed incidents of his life and altodes to the people he met. He never describes any one at length, but constantly sums up in a sentence the main characteristics of the man or, at least, his approximation of the man's character.
Little by little, we are told of party intrigues and of promises held out to Swift. "The Tories daily tell me I may make my fortune if I please", he noted in 1710, "but I do not understand them, or rather I do understand them".
A few weeks later, he writes: "To say the truth, the present ministry have a difficult task and want me. Perhaps they may be as grateful as others; but, according to the best judgment I have, they are pursuing the true interest of the public and therefore I am glad to contribute what is in my power."
Swift's financial predicaments repetitively come to light in these letters. "People have so left town", he says, "that I am at a loss for a dinner. It cost me eighteen pence in coach-hire before I could find a place to dine in".
When he first went to London, he took rooms at eight shillings a week: "Plaguy dear, but I spend nothing for eating, never go to a tavern, and very seldom in a coach. In another place he says: "This rain ruins me in coach-hire".
How much overstatement there is in these protests against expenditure, it is not easy to say. The Journal abounds in conceited references to great ladies and others, but the arrogance is moderately affected and partially the result of a fear of being patronized.
In conclusion one must confess that even in his letters, Swift's style almost represents perfection. Clear, pointed, precise, he seems to have had no difficulty in finding words to express precisely the impression which he wishes to convey. His sentences are not always grammatically accurate, but they come home to the reader like music – vibrant and comprehensible.
At the same time, this tome not only affords the most cherished picture of Swift that is available to us but is also a historical manuscript of the greatest value.
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