Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift ( born November 30, 1667 Dublin, Ireland UK, † October 19, 1745 ) was an Irish writer and satirist of the early Enlightenment. He has also written under the following pseudonyms: Isaac Bickerstaff, A Dissenter, A Person of Quality, A Person of Honour, MB Drapier, T.R.D.J.S.D.O.P.I.I. ( The Reverend Doctor Jonathan Swift, Dean of Patrick's in Ireland).

Life

Jonathan Swift was born in Hoey 's Court, Dublin, seven months after the death of his father the same name. He spent his first five years of life with a nanny in England, while his mother remained in Ireland, but then to Leicester (England) moved. Jonathan was raised after returning to Dublin from relatives. In 1682 he enrolled at the request of his uncle as a theology student at the University of Dublin one in which he allegedly struck a rebellious; he got his degree only " mercy 's sake " ( by special favor ). After completing his education in Dublin, he went to England and joined a position as secretary to Sir William Temple, a retired diplomat and distant relatives of his mother, at. This enabled him to university, Master of Arts, this time in Oxford. His relationship with Sir William, who saw an upstart in Swift, deteriorated thereafter. Swift returned to Ireland and was ordained a priest in the Anglican Church. He found in 1694 in Kilroot a job, but he soon gave up because of the working conditions and a renewed bid by Sir William.

The second appointment with Sir William ( by 1695 ) proved successful. Swift finished here his first major work, A Tale of a Tub ( Tales of a ton ), and wrote The Battle of the Books ( The Battle of the Books ), both of which should only appear in print in 1704.

Here he met Esther Johnson, the illegitimate daughter of Sir Williams, called by him in his diaries Stella. The death of his patron in 1698 ended Swifts good position; he could no longer hope for a high position in the Church in England and he returned to Ireland. There, he found employment in the church. Esther Johnson followed him and settled in the nearby Trim. His literary career took in 1701 with the anonymous publication of Dissensions in Athens and Rome began. With the appearance of previously written satires A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books Swift secured herself a reputation as a writer.

After a failed political commitment, first for the Whigs, and, because of disappointment over their policies, from 1710 for the Tories, the death of Queen Anne ended the influence of the Tories, and thus Swift's political career. He was 1710/1711 editor of the Tory weekly Examiner. Also had helped as ambitious applicable Swift political activity at the Tories for Deanery of St. Patrick in Dublin the. His return to Ireland was followed by sharp-tongued political satire, in which he attacked the exploitation of destitute Irish by English landlords. Some satires excited such a stir that the English government auslobte 300 pounds for the locating of the anonymous author. Famous are the letters of the cloth merchant MB in Dublin (1723 ), in which he reviled the new English copper coinage in Ireland. The allegation of the Archbishop Boulter, he Wiegele the people on, Swift countered with the remark, I need only to raise my finger and you'd be torn to pieces.

In addition to his relationship with Esther Johnson Swift had an eleven-year secret affair with what he called Vanessa called Miss Vanhomrigh Esther, who knew nothing of Stella and died in 1723, shortly after Swift had confessed to her the situation. Stella died in 1728. 1729 Swift was named an honorary citizen of Dublin.

Swift suffered long at an inner ear disorder that caused dizziness, and urged him more and more in old age. Another disease made ​​sure that pebble -like substances accumulated in his body, called by him Harngries. Swift was seen as irritable, rude and eccentric. Its high degree of eccentricity shows especially his 1733 wrote under the pseudonym Dr. Shit treatise on human ordure feces ( Human defecation ). There are controversial speculation that he was since 1740 in a state of mental derangement, before he became disabled after a stroke in 1742 and 1745 died. His grave is next to that of Esther Johnson at St. Patrick 's Cathedral in Dublin.

Scripture Generic works

From the early literary attempts Swifts little remains. It was only after his return to Ireland, there are writings that characterize him as the hitherto known satirist. His novel The travels into several remote nations of the world by Lemuel Gulliver ( Gulliver's Travels dt ) was published in 1726. For a long time mainly considered as children's book, and robbed in abridged editions of his satire, it is often undervalued. In a sort of Robinson Crusoe Swift describes Gulliver 's travels to various countries whose ridiculed peculiarities of the Enlightenment. Than sharp points against the English ruling class, which generally uses the Royal Academy and the human nature An interesting detail of the story is also relatively accurate prediction of two Martian moons that were first discovered 150 years later. Swift in honor of the largest crater on the moon Deimos was named after him.

He then wrote several times against the conditions in the British colony of Ireland. His best-known satire A Modest Proposal, in which he proposes to solve overpopulation, poverty and crime to use Irish babies as food and hit by export profit. In the control basics (1728) to show the first signs of reported later in economics Laffer curve.

Works

• Dissensions in Athens and Rome ( 1701)
• The Tale of a Tub (1704)
• The Battle of the Books ( 1704)
• Bickerstaff Predictions for 1708 (1707)
• The Sentiments of a Church of England Man ( 1708)
• Arguments Against Abolishing Christianity ( 1708)
• Letter upon the Sacramental Test ( 1708)
• Project for the Advancement of Learning ( 1709)
• Ancient Prophecy ( 1709)
• Sid Hamet 's Rod (1710 )
• Meditation upon a Broomstick (1710 )
• Short Character of the Earl of Wharton (1710 )
• The Conduct of the Allies (1711 )
• The Representation of the House of Commons on the State of the Nation (1711 )
• An Address of Thanks to the Queen ( 1711)
• Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue ( 1712)
• Reflections on the Barrier Treaty ( 1712)
• Remarks on the Bishop of Sarum 's Introduction to His Third Volume of the History of the Reformation ( 1712)
• Journal to Stella ( 1710-13 )
• The Public Spirit of the Whigs (1713? )
• Free Thoughts on the State of Public Affairs
• Cadenus and Vanessa (1713 )
• A Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufactures, & c. ( 1720)
• The Drapier 's Letters ( 1724)
• Gulliver 's Travels (1726 ) ( Gulliver's Travels )
• Miscellanies ( 1727)
• A short view of the state of Ireland ( Dublin, Harding, 1727/1728 ). Reprint London: Pickering & Chatto, 2005 In: . Leslie A. Clarkson and E. Margaret Crawford: An account of the rise, progress, and decline of the fever lately epidemical in Ireland.

There were a total of 37 books