It was interesting to read. A bit hard to get into but once it was clear to me that the extra texts were to provide context.
Once I got into it I really enjoyed reading it. It was hard to follow because some of them are letters and written a bit wishy washy with language.
He’s very humorous and does satire incredibly well. Some is more obvious that others but that’s what makes it effective.
This has made me want to know more about the political influence and social influence (historical context).

Hehehehehe classic

I blame Hozier for leading me down this rabbit hole that is early-18th century social critique. I am awed, disgusted, impressed and at the same time can’t help but feel this might be unironically written today by some management consultants as application for their Ivy League MBA program.

I had high hopes for his satirical essays, especially A Modest Proposal, but alas, I am disappointed.

Let’s start with A Modest Proposal; I did a bit of research after reading and found out that this was supposed to “disgust and enrage the reader,” and that’s exactly what it did. Basically, Ireland was deeply in debt and streets were crowded with woman and child beggars. So, Swift proposes a cannibalistic solution: plump the infants and then sell them to men and rich families to eat as a delicate meal, whether it be “stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled.” But what disgusted me the most was the role of the women in this imagined society: a “constant breeder” of children. Even worse, this was repeated at a nauseating frequency. I get that this is not to be taken seriously, but I don’t appreciate this type of satire - it just doesn’t sit right with me. Apparently, the purpose of this essay was mock the rich, blame the Irish government, and shed some light on the status quo. So, I’ll blame my dislike on my oblivion to the history of Ireland.

Other than that, this is a collection of essays written in the 1700s that discusses Christianity and politics while integrating Latin and alluding to famous philosophers. (I didn’t finish 2 and only finished 2 in total, but there were a lot more that I chose not to read). Thanks to my limited knowledge, I was clueless and had difficulty understanding the main ideas (but that's my problem, not the writer's). Maybe I'll revisit this in the future after I learn more about Europe’s history, and hopefully, I’ll appreciate his uniquely satirical way of sending a message.

This is obviously an incredible satire, which hopes to give some satisfaction to the rich. I recently reread it after reading The Sorrows of Young Mike. In John Zelazny's parody, the main character parodies Jonathan Swift's modest proposal. It is a parody within a parody and the modern twist is displayed well.

If you are going to buy one book of Swift's in addition to the Travels, this Penguin miscellany gives you the best bang for your buck: superbly annotated and supplemented by both a glossary and a biographical dictionary (all such addenda amounting to 100pp of the 400 page length of this book), it moreover gives an admirable view of the arc of Swift's development as a writer of prose, both serious and satirical. What's more, if you find this volume agreeable to your tastes or interests, the Oxford Major Works largely focuses on other texts, repeating relatively few of the selections herein.

In spite of Swift's Olympian, clear, yet flawless and even (at times) approachable style, and despite his addiction to the periodic sentence, the subject-matter is rooted in its time and place and is thus never easy-going (though the notes do help). You would be well-served, then, in reading this alongside the majesterial, infinitely well-informed biography of the Man by John Stubbs Jonathan Swift: The Reluctant Rebel, which never reduces these essays (etc.) to either history or biography, but gives you just the right amount of context to wake them from their centuries-long slumber.

Of particular note are the famous title essay (obviously), the "Bickerstaff Papers" (wherein dude takes on the fake news of the pop astrologer, to hilarious effect), and the "Directions to Servants" (which perceptively satirizes both sides of that Depeche Mode song, "Master and Servant", with granular specificity)—and the excerpts from his letters to his best friend, Esther Johnson, the "Journal to Stella", which I am now going to have to find a used copy of, to read in its entirety.

This is a small collection of essays and letters. It's quite a subjective read as each piece demonstrates Swift's range as a writer of the political, satirical, theological and personal. I would say it is a taster for hunting down further collections depending on what you are interested in. For me, I enjoyed A Modest Proposal, A Meditation Upon a Broomstick, and Thoughts on Various Subjects. The other pieces were interesting but at times rambling. Don't get me wrong, I like rambling writing but find it strenuous when it pertains to political or religious content. He's not as acerbic as I like when it comes to satire, and I personally prefer Chesterton and Shaw in that respect but his writing is enjoyable, not so much when it comes to a turn of phrase but in summary of a well turned out opinion.

Very funny concept.
Would not want it to be real.

This is one of my favorite satirical works of all time in which Swift proposes, to solve the problem of the poverty and starvation rampant in Ireland, that the poor Irish eat their own children to stave off hunger.

"I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust."

Propositions of cannibalism make me giggle. :)

Imagine for a moment you live in Ireland in 1729, where you are impoverished and your neighbours are starving. Poor children grow up to either beg, steal, sell their bodies, or die. An essay marketed as an economic treatise is in circulation, and you begin to read all the problems Ireland has. Yet the writer, Jonathan Swift, has a solution. Feed the children to the rich.
tThe serious becomes satirical. It goes in great detail how the children could be prepared and eaten. The admonition is this: A country that is increasingly becoming poorer, both economically and morally, will in the end destroy itself and its children will suffer first. Though it's not an abstract idea of a nation that will do this, but the government that is supposed to guide the country into prosperity. The rich will get richer, and the people who refuse to do anything about it won’t realize the mess they are allowing until it is too late. People will continuously fail to find work, but what work they do find they will already be too weak from lack of sustenance to do.
tFutures burnt away and misery fanning the flames of poverty and crime take away what each country attempts to promise: freedom. All that will be left in the ashes will be a country willing to devour its own children, metaphorically of course, to survive even when it is past deserving to exist.
tSwift brings out gloomy thoughts in the reader, ones that transcend impoverished Ireland, yet he does not want the reader to hate their own country. He wants to inspire change out of the love of a country that the reader knows could be better than it is. Perhaps because one must hold something dear if they hope to protect it and elevate it.
tThe gist/tone of the essay is this: Poverty is devouring the starving people. And perhaps we should let it. Do not talk to me about solutions such as letting go of pride and greed. Or exporting our own goods rather than importing everything. Or breaking free of England’s salivating jaws. Or hearing the voice of the people. Of course the solution is to eat the children, for any reasonable adult would tell you that they had rather been eaten as a child than suffer in this country.
Of course, the intention is to inspire the opposite tone and views. I think Swift does that quite well.

A great piece of satire on how to alleviate hunger in starving Ireland.

Proves that I could've been worth something if eaten at an early age.