Gulliver's Travels and Other Writings Book

A Bantam pb from 1962, reprint 1981. Some of this stuff was written in 1697. It's ôld.

Into the gutter left and right about two-letters' worth of a span are nearly illegible. But for fifty coppers, I knew what I was getting. One makes due. And plans for a better annotated, more nicely bound edition in one's future.

The first piece, popularly known as Gulliver's Travels, I have failed to review elsewhere. I hesitate to link to that Review knowing that such appearance of self-promotion is and ought to be frowned upon. But I recognize too that the mere mention of the fact that I've made mention of it here will impel you to seek it out and Like it anyway. Or not. What you will read there, should you head thitherward, is the mere recommendation of it as "required reading", a spurned designation which says little more than "classic." It has both its wit and its entertainment value. The Travels, I mean.

Second piece is a lovely novel called A Tale of a Tub: Written for the Universal Improvement of Mankind (spelling here slightly modernized). What is bound in this Bantam is a reproduction of the fifth edition, described as "With Author's Apology and Explanatory Notes. By W. W--tt--n, B.D. and others." The following treatises wrote by the author are announced as forthcoming (I'm still waiting) ::
A Character of the present Set of Wits in this Island.
A panegyric Essay upon the Number Three. (would that he had writ one upon Four).
A Dissertation upon the principal Productions of Grub Street.
Lectures upon a Dissection of Human Nature.
A Panegyric upon the World.
An analytical Discourse upon Zeal, histori-theo-physi-logically considered.
A general History of Ears (for a general theory of noses, vide Tristram Shandy).
A modest Defence of the Proceedings of the Rabble in all Ages.
A Description of the Kingdom of Absurdities.
A Voyage into England, by a Person of Quality in Terra Australis incognita, translated from the Original.
A critical Essay upon the Art of Canting, philosophically, physically, and musically considered.
These several treatises are touched upon and lightly discussed in the work under discussion.

A Tale of a Tub, being a charming, if rather standard and Traditional kind of novel, is organized along the following lines. (I make this delineation if only to demonstrate the rather straight=forward and conventional nature of what has been previously dismissed as a "difficult" work).
The first :: "An Apology, For the, &c.". This from our Author's hand, June 3, 1709.
Secondly :: "Postscript". The which is an apparent appendage to the first.
Followed by "To the Right Honourable, John Lord Somers." which will be acknowledged as an entirely justifiable practice. (from the hand of "The Bookseller").
Fourth, "The Bookseller to the Reader". (a nice touch, if a bit overdone).
The next piece is of high=conventional fictioneering, "The Epistle Dedicatory to His Royal Highness Prince Posterity."
Properly placed in the succeeding position, "The Preface" which is well placed in towards the beginning of our novel.
And thus with the meat of the matter taken care of, wrapped warmly in packaging paper and set aside we continue to the middle matter::
"Section I. The Introduction."
In order to more fully sketch the true structure of this work, the following items will be delineated along two lines, nämlich, the central thread first followed by a sketch of the digressive matter. Thusly we read ::
"Section III. A Digression Concerning Critics."
"Section V. A Digression in the Modern Kind."
"Section VII. A Digression in Praise of Digressions."
"Section IX. A Digression concerning the Original, The Use, And Improvement of Madness in a Commonwealth." (self-explanatory)
"The Conclusion" (in which a number of conclusionary remarks and remarks by way of concluding are made ; all without being superfluous).
Into this novel Mr Swift has felt it necessary, perhaps due to a fit of pretentiousness, to weave in a little moral story about three brothers and their Dead Father. It's a nice enough tale and perhaps he needed to include it in order to get his novel past the censors, but it would have been nice if he stuck straight to his narrative and had disallowed his own propensity for showing=off from getting in the way of what would have been a very enjoyable novel with real characters that just jump off the page like Salmon at Leixlip! That digressionary tale is structured in the following manner ::
"Section II." (bears no subtitle).
"Section IV. A Tale of a Tub".
"Section VI. A Tale of a Tub." (Our author is rather annoyingly redundant in the subtitling of these digressive passages).
"Section VIII. A Tale of a Tub." [sic]
"Section X. A Tale of a Tub." [ditto]
"Section XI. A Tale of a Tub." (Our author's lack of originality really starts to show in these section=titles).

So much for what ought to count as Swift's mastery of the form of the novel, entire and complete. For we must recognize that those little digressionary passages containing the story of those three brothers and their Dead Father must count as that part of the novel-definition in which we understand "something wrong with it."

If I may intrude just for a brief moment. In order to settle things even, fair & square, &c., with the current critical and perspicacious practice among our Good Readers, I do owe it to point out that this edition contains at least one typographical error. I recall not precisely where, which page, although it was verso, the final word. The err'r consists of a failing "i" in the word "critic." Make of that what you will, but I think the joke is quite plain.

Which reminds me. Also according to standard practice, I, your Faithful Reviewer, will float this Review into your literary and critical Feed Troughs each time I endeavor to correct a comma, dot an i or perform like function upon a tee, or should any peas and cues require Verbesserung. I confess my failure heretofore in properly performing this social grace and vow, &c, &c, & &c.

Back to our book...

Next in our Bantam :: "A Full and true Account of the Battel Fought last Friday, Between the Antient and the Modern Books in St. James's Library." The astute reader will recognize this as the purist of plagiarisms, ripping off almost without blushing the current story underway, nämlich, "The Present and Continuing Account of the Bottle Being Fought Presently and Currently Right Now, Between Good Books and Popular Books on goodreads.camp." Nevertheless, there is a charming story contained herein about a battle between a spider and a bee. Not to be missed!

"A Discourse Concerning the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit in a Letter to a Friend. A Fragment." This and the above were at one time bound together with the above=twice. But this "discourse" is entirely disappointing for this reason :: it leaves me failing the capacity to make the comment I had intended to make upon reading its title but prior to reading its text. Namely of course, that Swift has written the wrong thing here. Instead of writing a satirical piece about the gaseous wailing of persons religious and spirituoso, he ought to have written about the mechanistic philosophy of mind then detectable in the likes of philosophers such as Mr Hobbes. Had he done so then herein this Review I could have remarked about how little progress have we made in the direction of a truly philosophical understanding of the mind ; substituting for ourselves instead a bunch of erroneous naturalistic superstitions and neuro-xyz junk. So I'll just say what I want to say anyway and let the rest of you take the easy- and cheap- shots at the religiously clownish.

Had Swift been a man of the Left instead of the conservative creep and party=switcher which he in fact was, we could have imagined a present-day Swift writing a satirical piece entitled "An Argument to Prove That the Abolishing of the Private Health Insurance Industry In the USofA. May, as Things Now Stand, Be Attended with Some Inconveniences, and Perhaps Not Produce Those Many Good Effects Proposed Thereby." Instead, he predicts our present times quite perspicaciously whereby we retain nominal christianity and nominal atheism both as our national religions. [I confess that this locution, "nominal atheism" may prove controversial. By it one should understand merely that assemblage of atheists who feel compelled to confess their atheism. The parallel with the nominal christian should be made clear enough when considered in contrast to each their opposite, the 'real' or 'true' version of each.]

There's more stuff in this Bantam. Not to spoil plot or anything by putting flowers on its grave, but here's what's there ::
"The Bickerstaff Papers" (three items) -- So a target easy which might be an equivalent today to the (still) easy target of astrological prognostication, may I suggest the TED talks?
"The Examiner: No. 14, Nov. 9, 1710". I don't know what this is because I've not read it yet but the title is rather appealing, to use an understatement expression.
"The Drapier's Letters: The First Letter". Required Reading, probably, for Wakeans and a variety of Finnegans, whether awake, alive or merely asleep.
"A Modest Proposal" I understand this to be a kind of PoMo cookbook (ie, a PoMoCoBo).
Swift's Correspondence (a meager three exemplars). Again, do you know Stella & Stella? Ppt!
Swift's Poems. God help us all if we've gotta read poems just for in order to get page=count credit!
Chronology. I always skip these things. As boring as History.
Selected Bibliography -- Please don't tell me what to read. I'm perfectly happy just knowing what I like.

And to conclude, the opening line of the Introduction, not from Our Author's hand ::

"Of satire in general and of Jonathan Swift in particular, this may safely be prognosticated -- * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "✝




✝""Here is pretended a defect in the manuscript, and this is very frequent with Our Reviewer, either when He thinks He cannot say anything worth reading, or when He has no mind to enter on the subject, or when it is a matter of little moment, or perhaps to amuse His reader (whereof he is frequently very fond) or lastly, with some satirical and plagiaristic intention.""