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Jonathan Swift's first great satire tells the story of three brothers, Peter, Martin and Jack, who each receive from their dying father a coat and a will…
Jonathan Swift's first great satire tells the story of three brothers, Peter, Martin and Jack, who each receive from their dying father a coat and a will forbidding them to change it in any way. Peter, who stands for the Catholic Church, covers his coat with fashionable ornaments and invents absurd excuses for it; Martin, the Church of England, removes them carefully; and Jack, the Puritans, tears his to rags in his zeal. Between the chapters come wild digressions mocking pedantic critics, modern learning and madness itself.
Context and significance
Published anonymously in 1704, when Swift (1667–1745) was a young clergyman, the book was so irreverent that it is said to have cost him a bishopric, since Queen Anne disliked it. This edition was edited by Henry Morley. Read Swift's Gulliver's Travels.
About the author
Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) was born in Dublin after his father's death, studied at Trinity College and worked as secretary to the diplomat Sir William Temple in England. Disappointed in his hopes of advancement, he became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin in 1713 and a fierce defender of the Irish against English policy.
His satires, Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal above all, are among the sharpest in any language. He left most of his fortune to found a hospital for the mentally ill, and his epitaph speaks of the savage indignation that tore at his heart.