A Tale of a Tub, Swift’s Jonathan…
September 1704 CE
A Tale of a Tub, Swift’s Jonathan Swift's first major work, composed between 1694 and 1697, is arguably his most difficult satire, and perhaps his most masterly.
The Tale is a prose parody which is divided into sections of "digression" and a "tale" of three brothers, each representing one of the main branches of western Christianity.
A Tale had long been regarded as a satire on religion itself, and has famously been attacked for that, starting with William Wotton.
The "tale" presents a consistent satire of religious excess, while the digressions are a series of parodies of contemporary writing in literature, politics, theology, Biblical exegesis, and medicine.
The overarching parody is of enthusiasm, pride, and credulity.
Politics and religion are still linked very closely in England at this time, and the religious and political aspects of the satire can often hardly be separated.
It is enormously popular, but Swift believes it damages his prospect of advancement in the Church of England
Swift had received his Doctor of Divinity degree in February 1702, from Trinity College, Dublin.
That spring he had traveled to England and returned to Ireland in October, accompanied by Esther Johnson—now twenty years old—and his friend Rebecca Dingley, another member of William Temple's household.
During his visits to England in these years Swift publishes A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books (1704) and begins to gain a reputation as a writer.
The Battle of the Books is the name of a short satire written by Swift and published in 1704 as part of the prolegomena to his A Tale of a Tub.
It depicts a literal battle between books in the King's Library (housed in St. James's Palace at the time of the writing), as ideas and authors struggle for supremacy.
Because of the satire, "The Battle of the Books" has become a term for the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns.
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