The Institutes of Law: A Treatise of the Jurisprudence As Determined by Nature Book

It must be hard to write a biography of Swift. The beginning of the 18th century is an unloveable period, its tangled politics hard to follow and Swift can easily be presented as an unloveable man who seems to cry out for some kind of psychiatric analysis.

But Nokes does a fine job of keeping his narrative going and balanced, even when he is forced to leave huge gaps in it. He deals with the myths about Swift's life and as far as he is able assesses them. And when he can't he steps abck and provides the evidence.

And it's fascinating to see how much the writing of a literary life depends on the preservation of letters. The absence of "Stella's" makes her almost invisible.