Home » Languages » English (Sr. Secondary) » Essay, Biography or Paragraph on “Jonathan Swift” great author complete biography for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Essay, Biography or Paragraph on “Jonathan Swift” great author complete biography for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Jonathan Swift

(1667 – 1745)

Jonathan Swift was an Irish author and journalist, the foremost prose satirist in the English language. Swift’s best-known work is Gulliver’s Travels (1726). Swift was born in Dublin on November 30, 1667. He studied at Kilkenny Grammar School (1674-82) and at Trinity College in Dublin (1682-89), receiving his B.A. in 1868 and M.A. in 1692. In 1695 Swift was ordained in the Church of Ireland (Anglican), Dublin. He made several trips to London and gained fame with his essays. Throughout the reign of Queen Anne (1702-14), Swift was one of the central figures in the literary and political life of London. He was a founder member of the Scriblerus Club, which included such member as Pope, Gay and Congreve. Jonathan wrote a lot of stuff in between tutoring sessions, but unfortunately burned most of it. The writing that survives shows signs of the great satirist he was to become. But when Sir William died in 1699, Jonathan was left scrambling for a job and eventually ended up with several odd little Church positions back in Ireland. He became a very fashionable satiric writer as far as Dublin society was concerned. In1710 Swift tried to open a political career among the Whigs but changed his party and took over the Tory journal The Examiner With the accession of George I, the Tories lost political power and Swift withdrew to Ireland. From 1713 to 1742 he was the dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Swift’s religious writing is little read today.

His most famous works other than Gulliver’s Travels include The Battle Of The Books (1697), which explores the merits of the ancients and the moderns in literature, and A Tale Of A Tub  (1704), a religious satire. In Arguments Against Abolishing Christianity (1708) the narrator argues for the preservation of the Christian  religion as a social necessity. When an ignorant cobbler named  John Partridge published an, almanac of astrological predictions, Swift parodied it in his book Prediction For The Ensuing Year By Issac Bickerstaff. He foretold the death of John Partridge on March 1708, and affirmed on that day his prediction. The Drapier’s Letters (1724) were written against the monopoly granted by the English government to William Wood to provide the Irish with copper coinage. In the satirical essay A Modest Proposal (1729) Swift with horrifying logic recommends that Irish poverty can be solved by the breeding up their infants as food for the rich.

Swift died on October 19, 1745 and was buried in St Patrick’s cathedral.

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