- Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 - 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, hence his common sobriquet, "Dean Swift".
Swift is remembered for works such as A Tale of a Tub (1704), An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity (1712), Gulliver's Travels (1726), and A Modest Proposal (1729). He is regarded by the Encyclopædia Britannica as the foremost prose satirist in the English language, and is less well known for his poetry. He originally published all of his works under pseudonyms-such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M. B. Drapier-or anonymously. He was a master of two styles of satire, the Horatian and Juvenalian styles.
His deadpan, ironic writing style, particularly in A Modest Proposal, has led to such satire being subsequently termed "Swiftian".- IMDb mini biography by: Bonitao
- Was a clergyman. Took his orders in 1694 and was appointed vicar of Kilroot, near Belfast. His first writings were ecclesiastical in nature. Joined the Tory Party in 1710, became its leading writer and editor of The Examiner (1711). Also contributed articles to publications like Tatler. Swift became a champion of Irish grievances at the hands of Whig politics. He wrote "Gulliver's Travels" fairly late in his career (1726). Swift is especially noteworthy for being one of the first writers to use prose as a means of satire.
- Anglo-Irish author of the celebrated novel "Gulliver's Travels" (1726). He has been called the foremost prose satirist in the English language.
- George Orwell used Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels as inspiration to pen his anti-utopia novel 1984 (1984).
- There is now a novel "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole.
- Books, the children of the brain.
- Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.
- Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of a style.
- It is impossible that anything so natural, so necessary, and so universal as death should ever have been designed by Providence as an evil to mankind.
- The best doctors in the world are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet, and Doctor Merryman.
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