"Thus we are zealous in Matters of small Moment, while we neglect those those of highest Importance."
- Jonathan Swift, "An Examination of Certain Abuses, Corruptions, and Enormities"



Vol 8 of my Penguin Little Black Classics Box Set. It contains a couple small tracts, as well as a poem and a couple larger satirical essays:

1. Meditation on a Broomstick  - 1711/Satire
2. A Description of a City-Shower - 1710/Poem
3. A Short View of the State of Ireland - 1727/Pamphlet
4. A Modest Proposal - 1729/Satire
5. An Examination of Certain Abuses, Corruptions, and Enormities - 1732/Satire

It is hard to not think of Swift when I read the Onion, or McSweeney's, or variations and complications of political satire. He was the master we all look towards, even if we don't know it. I remember being surprised to find myself accidentally in front of his grave inside St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. Felt ropes keep the dirty masses from tramping over the Godfather of Satire, marked with this poem:

'Here is laid the body of
Jonathan Swift, Doctor of Divinity,
Dean of this cathedral Church,
Where fierce indignation can no longer
Rend his heart.
Go, traveller, and imitate if you can
This earnest and dedicated
Champion of Liberty'



He gave the little wealth he had,
To build a house for fools and mad:
And show'd by one satiric touch,
No nation wanted it so much:
That kingdom he hath left his debtor,
I wish it soon may have a better.
- From Verses On The Death of Dr Swift

Una modesta propuesta para evitar que los hijos de los pobres sean un burdel para sus padres o su país, y para hacerlos beneficiosos para el público.

Tras el éxito de Los viajes de Gulliver, Jonathan Swift, de quien se le conoce como el mayor satírico en el idioma ingles, irrumpe en el mundo literario con este texto, Una modesta proposición, una sátira anticolonialista, al estilo de Juvenal o Tertuliano, donde planteaba que la única solución a la pobreza que carcomía a Irlanda, es que los católicos vendan a sus hijos como carne para que los ricos lo coman, en su efecto para ser usado como pieles o cuero.

Swift, una especie de mezcolanza entre eclesiástico, periodista satírico y político pasó gran parte de su vida entre Irlanda e Inglaterra. Siendo Decano de la Catedral de St. Patrick en Dublín se dio a la tarea de escribir sobre las condiciones política y económica, y es en este periodo que escribe Una modesta propuesta, donde sagazmente, y con un tono racional, se encarrila por la preocupación de mejorar la condición económica con una solución algo desagradable que afecta directamente a los niños pobres de Irlanda.

Detrás del texto subyace una realidad, la cual parodia las crueles propuestas contemporáneas de ingenieros sociales y estadísticos, aunque fluctúa a vista la opresión económica inglesa. Oponente al concepto de riqueza nacional, la cual se fundamente en el trabajo y comercio, digo, mercancía de personas, en vez de aunar esfuerzo en la explotación de los recursos naturales.

Una modesta propuesta, es un texto corto, que al leerlo resultaría algo dantesco y sorprendente a cualquier lector a medida que se va desarrollando, cuando de ofrecer a los niños amancebados se trata , bien alimentados para ser platos de las mesas de los ricos, donde la madres y padres, solo figuran como criadores para la venta. Esta lectura, tal como la vemos en su tiempo el escritor fue juzgado como estulto, algo postrado a las enfermedades mentales, pasando por un defecto de trastorno intelectual, pero vaya personaje, emitiendo una fuerte denuncia, un desahogo ante la ineptitud de los políticos de Irlanda, la hipocresía de los ricos, la tiranía de los ingleses y la miseria y degradación en la que ve vivir a tantos irlandeses.

What would you do when you are too poor to feed your children? Simple. You just sell them to the gentlemen and ladies who are wealthy as a luxury food. If the child is plump the better, for he would make a good price at the market. So says Jonathan Swift in his A Modest Proposal .

This satirical essay provides us a good insight into the abject poverty of the people of the lower classes in Ireland. Their dire social conditions, the hopelessness of their future and the unsympathetic attitude of the government towards them are also pictured very clearly. The satire is hard to stomach but it hits on the nail. Behind the satire, there is anger. And there is also a heavy criticism on the British policy towards Ireland in general when he says that "I could name a country which would be glad to eat up our whole nation".

This essay may have been a good eye-opener of the day. But sadly, the situation that was in Ireland in Swift's time can still be seen in the world. And what Swift has suggested happens in quite a different way. One can honestly say that his satire is even true today.

«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 fricassee or a ragout.»

A very short but enjoyable and funny satirical essay intended to mock the heartless British attitudes towards Ireland's poverty by proposing to butcher the children from poor Irish families and sell them as food to wealthy English landlords. Thus, Jonathan Swift satirises the harsh British policies done in his homeland by parodying the form and language of the work of economic projectors and social reformers of his time.

Really interesting reading as an example of satire in eighteenth-century English literature.

Required reading. I read the version from The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. C: The Restoration & the Eighteenth Century

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True Satire.


Update February 2016
The best satirical work I think I have ever read. It is basically about how to end hunger by eating children during the eighteenth century Ireland. His main point is that there are too many people in Ireland, particularly children whose parents cannot take care of them, and therefore do not contribute anything towards the community, hence :"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 aragout." He then proceeds to burn the landlords that mistreat their servants and the people under their care: "I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children." This is a work that can be analyzed even more, sadly I do not feel like I can add anything that has not already been contributed, but please give this a read, do not even worry about anything else on this book, the titular tale is more important.

ভাই dead *_*

This made me laugh so much. It’s just so brilliantly funny. Swift adopts a very serious tone, and an authoritative voice, that almost sounds real. He delivers his proposal in such a hilariously cold way that embodies a dejected government official. I could imagine him writing this whilst struggling to keep a straight face as he mocks the English law makers.

The rich looked down upon the poor and saw them as a deplorable sub species of human, which is rather ironic because without poverty there wouldn’t be any riches for them. They were heartless and unempathetic to their fellow man. This was even more so in regard to the Irish. The social policy was terrible, and in his proposal Swift satirises it perfectly. He suggests that the in order to control the population, the Irish beggars should eat their own children:

"I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for the landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children."



He delivers facts and figures whilst contemplating breeding strategies that monitor population growth. In this, Swift delivers a wonderfully ironic argument that is just so damn funny. I would love to have been alive in this period because I would have found it even funnier. Well, unless I was one of the beggars because then I’d be starving or unless I was a lord because then I’d look like a complete idiot. Swift is such a comic genius.


Penguin Little Black Classic- 08



The Little Black Classic Collection by penguin looks like it contains lots of hidden gems. I couldn’t help it; they looked so good that I went and bought them all. I shall post a short review after reading each one. No doubt it will take me several months to get through all of them! Hopefully I will find some classic authors, from across the ages, that I may not have come across had I not bought this collection.

It is clear to me now what the modern European politicians are doing wrong. They are, obviously, not reading their classics.

Europe is in the midst of a dire financial crisis with all sorts of complicated schemes being proposed to resolve the situation. And here we have a practical and sensible solution that nobody appears to have considered, despite the fact that it has been around since 1729!

If you don't have enough money to feed your kids, EAT THEM!

What could be simpler?

Now, the author mentions that this is a solution devised specifically in the context of Ireland. And I admit that the calculations will need to be re-done to reflect the demographics and circumstances at hand. But really, there is no logical reason why this solution would not work in the context of the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis.

Somebody needs to send this to the Greeks.

Certain celebrities have already endorsed the idea:

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NOOOOOOO (this is incredibly masterful satire but) NoOOOOooOOOooo

“But, as to my self, having been wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly despairing of success, I fortunately fell upon this proposal….”

Clever, brilliant and humorous satire and treatise here from Jonathan Swift that takes many a shot at several different aspects of how society handled the problems of poverty and starvation in Ireland as well as the rich among other areas. I find it amazing how Swift could take irony to a new level and for such an extended length of time in his essay, not only poking holes at aspects of society, but carrying it through. He begins his essay by setting up the problems and crisis of poverty in such a deadpan manner that the “solution” is such a shock (and quite funny). He argues so…well…swiftly and effectively, and elaborates quite thoroughly for his “plan” that I think, dear reader, you just might be convinced as well.

There are some definite laugh out loud moments from Swift’s essay. Here are a few gems below:

“they shall, on the contrary, contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing on many thousand…”

“I grant this food will be somewhat dear and therefore very proper for landlords, as they have already devoured most of the parents…”

“…so much wasted among us by the great destruction of pigs, too frequent at our table; which are in no way comparable in taste of magnificence to a well grown, fat yearly child, which roasted whole will make a considerable figure at a Lord Mayor’s feast.”

And Swift says all this with a straight face.

This one is so good you’ll be eating it up.

Zapomnę o niej szybciej niż ją przeczytałam. Nie zatrzymała mojej uwagi ani na chwile na dłuższy moment.

This was such a fascinating and unsettling read. I try to stay pretty neutral in my reviews—especially when it comes to politics or religion—but it’s hard not to comment on just how biting and disturbingly relevant this satire still feels. Swift presents his “modest proposal” with such calm, rational logic that you almost forget how outrageous the suggestion actually is. And that’s exactly the point—he’s exposing a society so indifferent to suffering that even the most extreme solutions can be delivered with a straight face.

What struck me most is how the satire still works today. The cold, utilitarian logic behind it echoes a lot of modern conversations about poverty, economics, and social responsibility. That underlying message almost gives it an Animal Farm kind of resonance—where the absurdity reveals a deeper truth that’s hard to look away from.

It’s a quick read, but it leaves a strong impression. Not necessarily laugh-out-loud funny, but deeply clever in its construction and tone. If you’ve never read it, it’s definitely worth picking up—not just as a piece of literary history, but as a commentary that still speaks volumes.