Character Catalog

A fierce satire of religious disputes among Catholics, Anglicans, and Puritans, told through the story of three brothers who inherit a coat. The work's irreverence proved too much for some, and it cost Swift any chance of a high church position in England.

A satirical pamphlet on the quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns, in which old and new books wage war inside a library. Swift sides with the Ancients against the vanity of contemporary scholars.

A series of five anonymous letters signed by a humble Irish draper, denouncing a plan to flood Ireland with debased coinage. This successful popular campaign made Swift a champion of the Irish cause.

A masterpiece of world satirical literature, following the adventures of Lemuel Gulliver among imaginary peoples. Each voyage is a veiled critique of politics, war, science, and human pride.

A short pamphlet that coolly proposes cooking Irish infants to feed the English wealthy. Considered the pinnacle of literary irony, it lays bare the brutality of British colonial policy in Ireland.

A collection of intimate letters addressed to Esther Johnson during Swift's London years, revealing a tender and sometimes mischievous side of the man. An invaluable document on the daily life and politics of the era.

"My little right hand can easily grasp your entire body and set you down upon the ground." — Lemuel Gulliver describing his situation in Lilliput, where he is a giant among tiny men, before finding himself a dwarf among the Brobdingnagians.

"I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is, at a year old, a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled."

"I am a tradesman of Dublin, with no pretension to politics or affairs of state, but I know that when I am robbed, I have been robbed, and that the whole country is being stripped bare by this contemptible coinage."

"I love you a thousand times better than ever, if that be possible; and I wish it were in my power to show it you in a hundred different ways."

"Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind reception it meets with in the world."

Swift served as Dean of this Anglican cathedral from 1713 until his death in 1745. He is buried there alongside Esther Johnson ('Stella') and composed his own epitaph in Latin, famous for its bitterness and fierce pride.

The country estate of Sir William Temple, diplomat and patron, where Swift worked as secretary from 1689 to 1699. It was here that he met the young Esther Johnson ('Stella') and received his intellectual and political formation.

The heart of London's press and political circles, where Swift frequented coffee houses and printing shops during his years as a Tory pamphleteer (1710–1714). He mixed there with Pope, Gay, Arbuthnot, and the leading literary figures of his age.

A small Irish living Swift received in 1700, where he stayed regularly. This quiet village served as a retreat between his turbulent London sojourns, and he laid out a garden there of which he was particularly proud.

The impoverished neighbourhoods surrounding St Patrick's were part of Swift's daily landscape. The destitution of Irish weavers, victims of British economic policy, directly inspired his most politically engaged pamphlets.