San Antonio College Library

Jonathan Swift was a man of contradictions: a man who satirized the powerful but aspired to political greatness, who mocked men's vanity but held himself in high esteem, a religious moralizer famed for his malice - a man sharply aware of humanity's flaws, but no less susceptible to them. As with his acclaimed biography of John Donne, John Stubbs paints a vivid portrait of an extraordinary man and a turbulent period of English and Irish history.

It is the aim of this biography to offer a new, comprehensive view of Swift and his writings. For years, biographies of the Dean were bedeviled by legends of his madness and by romantic mysteries surrounding his relationship. Post-war scholarship has swept all this away, and has provided a factual basis for a much clearer understanding of both his life and work. Dr. Nokes presents a portrait of Swift in his multifarious roles as satirist, politician,...