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Jonathan Swift was born on 30 November 1667 in Dublin, and educated at Trinity College and Oxford University. After working for a time as secretary to Sir William Temple in England, Swift was ordained as a priest of the Church of Ireland and returned to Dublin in 1695. In 1713 he became Dean of St Patrick's. The first of his major satirical works, A Tale of a Tub, was published in 1704 and through his writing he became close friends with the poet Pope. Together with other writers, they founded a literary group called the Martinus Scriblerus Club in 1714. Gulliver's Travels(1726)is the only book for which he received any money and he never wrote under his own name. He died on 19 October 1745 and was buried in St Patrick's. His Latin epitaph, written by himself, reads: 'Here lies the body of Jonathan Swift, D.D., dean of this cathedral, where burning indignation can no longer lacerate his heart. Go, traveller, and imitate if you can a man who was an undaunted champion of liberty.'
Swift's world-famous satire was an instant bestseller...his vision is dark, often verging on the obscene -- Robert McCrum Guardian It is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery -- John Gay (Author Of The Beggar's Opera) It has entered the iconography of western culture as perhaps no other single novel, giving words to the English language and inspiring remarkably diverse acts of homage... A political comedy, an existentialist meditation, a bleak thriller about an outsider caught between worlds...at the heart of Swift's masterwork is an ennobling sadness, a lament for a world gone mad -- Joseph O'Connor Guardian Among the six indispensable books in world literature -- George Orwell Everyone standing for political office ... should have a compulsory examination in Gulliver's Travels -- Michael Foot
