2.5*

I wanted to like this book but, despite the fact that I laughed aloud at several places, it was a slog to get through. Oh well, I am glad I tried it. ( )

satire on literature and religion

This is an utterly brilliant satire in the English branch of the Querelle Des Anciens et Modernes.

Swift starts out with a persona who is a Modern in allegiance who appears to be writing an allegorical defense of the Church of England. His plan is to alternate chapters of the story with digressions on various topics (which is hardly unheard of; the book owes a lot to Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy). But the author is, to anticipate the terminology of Pope, a Dunce, and the book falls apart progressively as it proceeds, because the bases of the persona's methodology and views of the world do not hold together.

Swift was to reuse this model of a persona different from the author again; the Drapier's Letters, Gulliver's Travels, and "A Modest Proposal" use the same basic model to different ends. (Gulliver in particular is a Modern who cannot interpret what he sees.) Pope borrowed it occasionally, notably in the "To Augustus", but it was Swift who remained its entire master.

The Battle of the Books is a more minor work, very much on the same theme, but using mock-epic, and directly reflects Swift's defence of Sir William Temple. (It also marks the emergence of Bentley as a major butt of the Augustan satirists). ( )

When I put this on my TBR pile for 2019 I did not realize what a chore this would be. I loved A Modest Proposal for wit and humor but this early and most intense satire by Jonathan Swift was a real drag. The author is writing a satire and from what I can decern, is about Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinism. It is also intermixed with satire of critics and modernism. Yes, modernism of the 1600s. I am sure this is included in 1001 Books you must Read because Swift is surely a pioneer and probably the greatest satirist of all time. However, this is more an essay than a novel. Interspersed is the story of three brothers; Peter (catholic) Martin (Martin Luther) and Jack (John Calvin). I enjoyed those parts the most. The style that this is written in is also apart of the parody and I am sure that if I were to read this as part of college course or a learned group, there would be much to find. Mostly I found this book great for getting 40 winks. ( )

In this short work the master of satire satirizes most of the important parts of eighteenth century society: religion, politics, and even writing itself. Three brothers, Peter (representing St. Peter and Catholicism), Martin (representing Martin Luther and Protestantism), and Jack (representing John Calvin and the Church of England), are left with coats and specific instructions for caring for their coats in their father's will. When following their father's instructions to the letter becomes inconvenient for them, they start to creatively interpret the will. Peter eventually becomes wealthy, and his brothers criticize him for excluding them and decide to be more faithful in following their father's instructions. Martin very carefully removes as many of the adornments he has added to his coat as he can without damaging it, then leaves the rest in order to preserve the original coat. Jack rips all of the extra adornments off but destroys the original coat in the process. Mixed in between parts of the story are a series of digressions that satirize a variety of different topics.

I found this piece to be both fun to read and hard to read at the same time. Swift's language and usage are just different enough from contemporary English that it makes him difficult to understand, and the fact that satire is often deliberately obtuse didn't help. Nevertheless, I was able to keep up with most of what he was saying, and I really appreciate Swifts's skill as the master of satire. ( )