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Jonathan Swift, a Hypocrite Reversed: A Critical Biography (Oxford Paperbacks)

av David Nokes

MedlemmarRecensionerPopularitetGenomsnittligt betygOmnämnanden
433581,229 (3.5)1
There has long been a need for an accessible, comprehensive--and affordable--single-volume life of Swift. This thoughtful, judicious biography promises to fill that need for our generation. Few author's reputations have fluctuated as wildly as Jonathan Swift's. From the beginning, critics and biographers divided into two camps--one hailing a champion of liberty, the other reviling a sadistic misanthrope. For years, moreover, an understanding of Swift's life was clouded by legends of his madness and mysteries surrounding his romantic attachments. Modern scholarship had swept all of this away, however, giving us a much sounder factual basis for comprehending the man's life and work. David Nokes portrays the author of Gulliver's Travels in his multifarious roles as satirist, politician, churchman, and friend. Combining the latest findings of Swiftian scholarship with an astute critical eye, he restores a proper balance between the specialist critics who have overemphasized specific themes or genres in Swift's work and the generalist critics who have missed many of the particularities of Swift's ironies. In so doing, Nokes gives us a biography very much in the spirit Swift himself endorsed: "a conservative humanism which saw specialisation as a first dangerous step towards that distorted simplification of complex human phenomena which characterized the views of all factions and fanatics." About the Author: David Nokes is Lecturer in English at King's College, the University of London.… (mer)
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An exhilarating biography. I'm not a big fan of biographies, in general, but perhaps that's because I'm not sure most people's lives reward such minute excursions. Swift is obviously an exception to that policy, and David Nokes has his finger on the pulse. ( )
  therebelprince | Oct 24, 2023 |
Though remembered today mainly as the author of [b:Gulliver's Travels|7733|Gulliver's Travels|Jonathan Swift|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1427829692s/7733.jpg|2394716], Jonathan Swift was known to his contemporaries for much more than that. In this biography, David Nokes details the span of Swift’s eventful life, from his childhood in Dublin to his time as a propagandist and disappointed placeseeker in England, through to his later years as an author and Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. The Swift that emerges from these pages is a frustrated man, filled with disappointment at receiving less than his perceived due. Yet such disappointment provided the acidic edge to the satirical writings that made him famous from his day to ours.

Nokes’s biography is an admirable study of Swift’s life and times, one that attempts to penetrate the mystery that surrounded much of his life. He does not hesitate in hypothesizing about the many decisions he made and speculating on such persistent questions as his possible marriage to Esther Johnson. Though Nokes does not address every work that Swift produced, he does analyze his subject’s major writings for the insights they possess into Swift’s personality and views. He supports his arguments with frequent quotes from his subject’s many writings, though reading the book alongside a collection such as [b:the Oxford World Classics edition of his writings |4528738|Major Works|Jonathan Swift|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347417085s/4528738.jpg|14351211] as a supplement helps to understand Swift better still, as well as providing exposure to some unjustly neglected classics from this great author. For anyone seeking a perceptive study of Swift’s life that is more digestible than [a:Irvin Ehrenpreis|172000|Irvin Ehrenpreis|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png]’s monumental three-volume study, this is the book to read. ( )
  MacDad | Mar 27, 2020 |
A short, fun and interesting biography. For long stretches Nokes does nothing but summarize Swift's letters or others' letters to Swift, and it's a testament to his eye for detail, ability to string together a narrative, and his writing style that I didn't fall asleep while he was doing it. I think there was too much on Swift's 'relationships' with women, but some people like that sort of thing. I find it hard to believe many people, even those curious about the Dean's 'love-life' would be impressed by the residual psychologising (Swift has problems with father-figures; Swift only likes women who rely on him for everything and so on), which is both grossly reductive and dully unenlightening. I would have preferred more on the political situation, and maybe a bit more on Swift's writing, but given that it's only about 400 pages, I can't complain too much. ( )
  stillatim | Dec 29, 2013 |
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There has long been a need for an accessible, comprehensive--and affordable--single-volume life of Swift. This thoughtful, judicious biography promises to fill that need for our generation. Few author's reputations have fluctuated as wildly as Jonathan Swift's. From the beginning, critics and biographers divided into two camps--one hailing a champion of liberty, the other reviling a sadistic misanthrope. For years, moreover, an understanding of Swift's life was clouded by legends of his madness and mysteries surrounding his romantic attachments. Modern scholarship had swept all of this away, however, giving us a much sounder factual basis for comprehending the man's life and work. David Nokes portrays the author of Gulliver's Travels in his multifarious roles as satirist, politician, churchman, and friend. Combining the latest findings of Swiftian scholarship with an astute critical eye, he restores a proper balance between the specialist critics who have overemphasized specific themes or genres in Swift's work and the generalist critics who have missed many of the particularities of Swift's ironies. In so doing, Nokes gives us a biography very much in the spirit Swift himself endorsed: "a conservative humanism which saw specialisation as a first dangerous step towards that distorted simplification of complex human phenomena which characterized the views of all factions and fanatics." About the Author: David Nokes is Lecturer in English at King's College, the University of London.

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