A Modest Proposal
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1729
- Form
- Satire
- Language
- English
- Length
- Short · 12 ppunder 120 pages
- Difficulty
- Moderate2 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendA Modest Proposal and Other WritingsPenguin Classics, 2009Carole Fabricant's selection of Swift's Irish and political prose, with notes on the conditions he was attacking.
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A short pamphlet in the voice of a reasonable public-spirited projector who calculates that Ireland's poverty could be relieved if the children of the poor were fattened and sold at one year old as food for the rich. He works through the economics with care, recommends recipes, and lists the advantages to landlords, parents and the nation, dismissing gentler remedies as impractical. The essay is Swift's most savage attack on English policy in Ireland and on the habit of treating human beings as figures in a calculation.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns A Modest Proposal are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
