The Companion to Jonathan Swift

The Companion to Jonathan Swift is a specially commissioned collection of essays. Arranged thematically across a range of topics, this volume will deepen and extend the enjoyment and understanding of Jonathan Swift for students and scholars. The thirteen essays explore crucial dimensions of Swift's life and works. As well as ensuring a broad coverage of Swift's writing - including early and later works as well as the better known and the lesser known - the Companion also offers a way into current critical and theoretical issues surrounding the author. Special emphasis is placed on Swift's vexed relationship with the land of his birth, Ireland, and on his place as a political writer in a highly politicised age. The Companion offers a lucid introduction to these and other issues, and raises new questions about Swift and his world. The volume features a detailed chronology and a guide to further reading.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations
Chronology
List of abbreviations

Introduction Christopher Fox

1. Swift's life Joseph McMinn
2. Politics and history David Oakleaf
3. Swift the Irishman Carole Fabricant
4. Swift's reading Brean Hammond
5. Swift and women Margaret Anne Doody
6. Swift's satire and parody Michael F. Suarez, S.J.
7. Money and economics Patrick Kelly
8. Language and style Ian Higgins
9. Swift and religion Marcus Walsh
10. Swift the poet Pat Rogers
11. A Tale of Tub and early prose Judith C. Mueller
12. Gulliver's Travels and the later writings J. Paul Hunter
13. Classic Swift Seamus Deane
Further reading.