Jonathan Swift

The Reluctant Rebel

John Stubbs

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Hardback

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English

Viking
01 December 2016

Biography; Biography: literary; Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800; Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers

As with his acclaimed biography of John Donne, John Stubbs paints a vivid portrait of an extraordinary man and a turbulent period of English and Irish history.

Born in Ireland in 1667, Jonathan Swift defiantly clung to his Englishness. He refused to relinquish this attachment even as corruption and injustice gradually led him to turn against the English government. In a long life, Swift proved a reluctant rebel, though one with a relish for the fight, and implacable when provoked - a voice of withering disenchantment unrivalled in English. But he was also an inspired humorist, a beloved companion, a conscientious Anglican minister, as well as a hoaxer and a teller of tales.

His anger against abuses of power would produce the most famous satire of the English language - Gulliver's Travels as well as the Drapier Papers and the unparallelled Modest Proposal, in which he imagined the poor of Ireland farming their infants for the tables of wealthy colonists. John Stubbs' biography sets out to capture the dirt and beauty of a world that Swift both scorned and sought to amend. It follows Swift through his many battles, for and against authority, and in his many contradictions, as a priest who sought to uphold the dogma of his church; as a man who was quite prepared to defy convention, not least in his unshakeable attachment to an unmarried woman, his 'Stella'; and as a writer whose vision showed that no single creed holds all of the answers. %%%Born in Ireland in 1667, Jonathan Swift defiantly clung to his Englishness. He refused to relinquish this attachment even as corruption and injustice gradually led him to turn against the English government. In a long life, Swift proved a reluctant rebel, though one with a relish for the fight, and implacable when provoked - a voice of withering disenchantment unrivalled in English. But he was also an inspired humorist, a beloved companion, a conscientious Anglican minister, as well as a hoaxer and a teller of tales.

His anger against abuses of power would produce the most famous satire of the English language - Gulliver's Travels as well as the Drapier Papers and the unparallelled Modest Proposal, in which he imagined the poor of Ireland farming their infants for the tables of wealthy colonists. John Stubbs' biography sets out to capture the dirt and beauty of a world that Swift both scorned and sought to amend. It follows Swift through his many battles, for and against authority, and in his many contradictions, as a priest who sought to uphold the dogma of his church; as a man who was quite prepared to defy convention, not least in his unshakeable attachment to an unmarried woman, his 'Stella'; and as a writer whose vision showed that no single creed holds all of the answers.

By: John Stubbs
Imprint: Viking
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 238mm, Width: 158mm, Spine: 49mm
Weight: 982g
ISBN: 9780670922055
ISBN 10: 0670922056
Pages: 752
Publication Date: 01 December 2016
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

John Stubbs was born in 1977 and studied English at Oxford and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge where he completed a doctorate in 2005. Donne: The Reformed Soul was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award and longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. Reprobates was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize.

Reviews for Jonathan Swift: The Reluctant Rebel

Stubbs goes further than any [biographer] previously in recreating the world Swift lived and exploring the duality of his character. ... [Along] with beautifully crafted lines... Another feature of Stubb's biography is its vast historical scholarship. As well as giving us a thoroughly credible Swift, this is a riveting account of English and Irish life in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. If there can be a definitive life of Jonathan Swift, this is it -- John Gray New Statesman John Stubbs handles the intensely complicated political and historical background to Swift's life with admirable deftness and clarity. There have been dozens of lives of Swift. This one, unlike some of its predecessors, is readable, sane, alert and beautifully observed -- Freya Johnston Literary Review Through agile prose and erudition, Stubbs succeeds in offering something delicate, subtle and new. ... In [this] fine and sensitive book, Stubbs restores Swift's writing to its rich religious and cultural contexts without diminishing its autonomy -- Ruth Scurr Financial Times Stubbs offers a kinder, rather admiring inspection of the great fighter and ruthless truth-teller -- John Walsh Sunday Times An entertaining and ambitious work that intelligently binds together the art and the politics of mid-17th-century England -- Charles Spencer on 'Reprobates' Financial Times On fire with ideas and enthusiasm, excels at providing Donne with a living context -- Miranda Seymour on 'John Donne' Sunday Times Highly readable, dashing as well as detailed -- Andrew Motion on 'John Donne' Guardian One of the many virtues of John Stubb's compendious, deeply researched and absorbing biography is that illuminates the events not just of Swift's life but of the world before and around him. ... In this superb biography, Stubbs succeeds in enabling us to understand the complexities and character of this greatest of writers The Times Book of the Week Stubbs is an ideal guide to the tortuous ins and outs of Swift's time, an age defined by its political and religious conflicts, and their effects on his writing. ... As a biographer, Stubbs is attuned to detail and aims to provide a scholarly account of Swift's life Daily Telegraph