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A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works (Dover Thrift Editions) | 
 enlarge | Author: Jonathan Swift
Publisher: Dover Publications
Category: Book
List Price: $2.00
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Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 55753
Media: Paperback
Pages: 64
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5 x 0.3
ISBN: 0486287599
Dewey Decimal Number: 828.509
EAN: 9780486287591
ASIN: 0486287599
Publication Date: February 2, 1996
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
If you read this in high school (as many of us did), it may have shocked you--not bad for a tract written in 1729. It wouldn't be fair to those of you who haven't come across A Modest Proposal to reveal the particulars of the piece; suffice it to say that Saturday Night Live has nothing on Jonathan Swift! Swift's discussion of what Great Britain should do for his native impoverished Ireland is a model of political satire, absolutely consistent in tone and even now still sparkling in its clarity. The balance between, on the one hand, the utter seriousness of the matter in question and, on the other, the outrageousness of the remedy suggested is exquisite. A Modest Proposal is short and comes bound in this edition with several of Swift's other writings. This volume is an excellent introduction to the author of Gulliver's Travels (itself a masterwork) and to one of the world's premier satirical minds. What are you waiting for? --Michael Gerber
Product Description
Treasury of 5 shorter works by the author of Gulliver's Travels offers ample evidence of the great satirist's inspired lampoonery. Title piece plus The Battle of the Books, A Meditation upon a Broom-Stick, A Discourse Concerning the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit and The Abolishing of Christianity in England.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Quite a Proposal May 23, 2001
Ellen D. Sickles
34 out of 34 found this review helpful
"A Modest Proposal", by Jonathan Swift, is a biting satire about life in 18th Century Ireland, in which the author seeks to find "a fair, cheap, and easy method" to transform the sick and starving children of Ireland into productive members of society. Swift's proposal, hardly modest, is to fatten up undernourished poor children and then sell them to more well-to-do families as food. By presenting this outrageous concept as an interrelated string of seemingly logical arguments, Swift leads the reader to understand that his proposal could simultaneously solve overpopulation and unemployment, save the poor from having to spend their meager resources on raising children, provide the poor with desperately needed extra income, and also give the wealthy access to a yet untapped high-protein delight. Of course, Swift is writing tongue-in-cheek, to shock the reader into rejecting his outrageous negative proposal and instead formulate a more sensible positive one. Although written in 1729, Swift's essay is still relevant in the 21st Century. For a really good and very quick read that repulses, amuses, and challenges you to think, I highly recommend this classic work.
Pass the babies, please. November 7, 2003
14 out of 21 found this review helpful
Satire is sadly lacking in today's society. Satire holds human vices and folly up for ridicule. Swift is not advocating the economy of eating babies, but maybe the fact that they are currently eating the body parts of aborted fetuses in China seems to steal something from Swift's modestly porposed satire-or maybe it is too outrageous seeming to be true. Nevertheless, this is a brilliant work by a brilliant writer. It should be required reading. It is a pristine example of satire. Should we stop choking deaths by improvising starvation-- seek a new president by electing children? Satire is a genius' way of entertaining social change-literally. Although, sometimes though, even what once seemed impossibly satiric does not remain-which is proof of human folly.
To Mr. Westfall May 23, 2001
jimmy seto (San Francisco, CA USA)
10 out of 36 found this review helpful
Swifts "A Modest Proposal" was a well written glimpse of what the future would be like. It was written in the 1700s and presents disturbing views of what to do about homeless individuals and people in general. It is surprising that a lot of what the book predicted, as a means to prevent those horrific circumstances came true. In the "Modest Proposal" It presented a terrible vision of what may happen in the future if humans in general would not refrain from treating each other like animals. A lot of it's predicitons came true. It presents disturbing views because it's sole purpose is to disturb us, so we do not repeat these terrible acts of torture in real life. It is hard to acknowlege the fact that a lot of these acts of human torture are practiced in the world today. I recommend this book be read in order to understand and prevent future torture in society today.
Should be required reading for all students! April 17, 1997
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
Anyone who thought they understood the "Troubles" in Ireland should read this essay. One of the best examples of satire to be had in any dialect, Swift writes his "proposal" in language that is clear even to todays jaded audience. Every English professor/instructor should make this required reading.
A Modest Proposal - A *Modern* Proposal is more like it. December 1, 2004
Mister Quickly (Victoria, BC Canada)
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
Swfit was perhaps the first major writer to introduce cannibalism into Western political thought, and incorporate it successfully into practical economics. I'm disturbed that Swfit's visionary solution to Thomas Malthus' omen about the dangers of overpopulation hasn't yet been seriously considered by world policymakers. That's just like politicians though, they do anything to get elected - hence another reason why extending the franchise to the lower rungs of the social hierarchy was a terrible mistake and should be revoked.
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