Shipwrecked and cast adrift, Lemuel Gulliver wakes to find himself on Lilliput, an island inhabited by little people, whose height makes their quarrels over fashion and fame seem ridiculous. His subsequent encounters - with the crude giants of Brobdingnag, the philosophical Houyhnhnms and brutish Yahoos - give Gulliver new, bitter insights into human behaviour. Swifts savage satire views mankind in a distorted hall of mirrors as a diminished, magnified and finally bestial species, presenting us with an uncompromising reflection of ourselves.
Directions to Servants is one of Jonathan Swift's last completed works. It displays all his caustic skill as a satirist and his unerring eye for the little annoyances of life. Taking the form of a handbook of manners, and addressed to each servant individually, Directions to Servants is the ultimate upstairs/downstairs battle. With scathing wit, Swift pits master against servant in an endless struggle for order, frugality, and the best bits of the roast. His servants are lazy, profligate, and acquisitive—always on the lookout for a shilling to be made on the sale of leftovers, or a half-bottle of wine to share with the cook. Written in Swift's final years of sanity, Directions to Servants is a last hilarious outpouring of cynicism at a lifetime's accumulation of poor service. Irish clergyman and satirist Jonathan Swift is best remembered for his philosophical parody Gulliver's Travels.
Incluye: Viajes de Gulliver Cuento de una barrica La conducta de los aliados Humilde propuesta De Los papeles de Bickerstaff Argumento en contra de la abolición del cristianismo De Cartas a Estela Propositos para cuando llegue a Viejo Meditacion sobre el palo de una escoba Sobre la mentira politica Poesias Prologo de Emilio Lorenzo
This edition of Jonathan Swift's basic works contains the authoritative texts of all his most important prose writings as well as many shorter pieces, poems, and letter extracts. Included are Gulliver's Travels, Swift's devastating picture of human nature and human foibles; A Tale of a Tub, his scathing attack on the intellectual culture and religious excesses of his time; The Battel of the Books, his defense of the classical tradition; and the unforgettable Modest Proposal, in which he proposes that the Irish, in order to avoid starvation, eat their children.
This incisive satire has never lost its sting - whether the work of an embittered mind or a profound comment on the Age of Reason and Nature, there is all the fascination of distorting mirrors in Swift's accounts of Lilliput and Brogdingnag, and far more than mere spleen in the way he lashes human passions and institutions.
Els Viatges de Gulliver és una obra coneguda pràcticament arreu del món. Gairebé tothom n'ha sentit parlar però no tanta gent l'ha llegida. Sovint, a més, hom ho fa a partir de versions abreujades i esporgades, destinades, principalment, a un públic infantil o juvenil. Es tracta, però, d'un llibre, sobretot per a adults i encara ben formats. Lil·liput i el seu derivat lil·liputenc han esdevingut referents universals per a designar països petits i gent petita (també de mentalitat). El nom de Brobdingnag, en canvi, ja no és tan conegut, per bé que la majoria de lectors saben que Gulliver també va viatjar a un país de gegants en el qual, de fet, ell era el lil·liputenc. La tercera part del llibre, però, Viatge a Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdrib, Luggnagg i el Japó i la quarta Viatge al país dels houyhnhnms, a penes són conegudes pel lector no especialitzat.
In Jonathan Swift's bitter, witty, and utterly brilliant satire of the state of England in the early 18th century, his hero, Lemuel Gulliver (the epitome of the average man), becomes, as he travels, increasingly frustrated by the corruption and irrationality of the human race. His sea voyage takes him first to Lilliput, where he is first exploited by its tiny citizens and then condemned as a traitor. Then he lands in Brobdingnag, to whom he is the Lilliputian; he is repulsed by the size, grossness, and stupidity of the giants who capture him. His third voyage is to Laputa, where Swift ...
PUEDE SABER CUÁNDO APARECE UN GENIO EN EL MUNDO POR LA SIGUIENTE SEÑAL: LA CONJURA DE LOS NECIOS EN SU CONTRA. EN LA DISCUSIÓN, COMO EN LA GUERRA, EL LADO MÁS DÉBIL DEBE PRENDER LUCES FALSAS Y GENERAR MUCHO RUIDO PARA HACER CREER AL CONTRARIO QUE ES MÁS NUMEROSO Y FUERTE DE LO QUE EN REALIDAD ES. UN ENFERMO ES COMO UN PERRO: EN SUCIA A QUIENES MÁS AMA. ALGUNAS PERSONAS SON MÁS CAUTAS EN OCULTAR SU SABIDURÍA QUE SU TORPEZA. CUANDO LEO UN LIBRO, NO IMPORTA SI ESTÁ LLENO DE SABIDURÍA O DE TORPEZA, SIENTO COMO SI ESTUVIERA VIVO, COMO SI ME HABLARA.
"What is the nature, essence, and definition of a fart? What are the consequences and disadvantages of suppressing one? Why is farting considered to be a taboo?" Swift's treatise argues eloquently, in a forceful and posteriori fashion, that most of the distempers thought to affect the fairer sex are due to flatulences not adequately vented. To complete the excursus into this venerable and age-old human activity, Charles James Fox's "Essay upon Wind" provides a detailed analysis, classification, and history of farting, peppered with wit and curious anecdotes about particularly eminent and historic farters.
The first reissue of this irreverent pamphlet for almost 300 years includes notes and a biography of Swift, as well as the charming subtitle An accurate description of the birth, education, manner of living, religion, politics, learning etc. of Mine Arse [the eighth wonder of the world]. A glorious exercise in cheeky punmanship, The Wonderful Wonder of Wonders sees Jonathan Swift in fine form. Flying by the seat of his pants, the great author treats us to a condensed biography of his posterior, enlivened by some inspired wordplay. Originally a mockery of the proposed establishment of a national bank in his native Ireland, and the climate of financial hysteria that inspired it, Swift's pamphlet contains some timely economic skepticism, as well as a healthy dose of scatological double entendres. Also including a selection of Swift's other lesser-known works, this volume is a hilarious and illuminating read for any fans of Ireland's most illustrious wit.
