Swift

First published in 1983, Dean Swift is the concluding book in a series of three volumes providing a detailed exploration of the events of Swift's life.
The third volume follows Swift's life and career from 1714 to 1745 and sets it against the public events of the age, paying close attention to political and economic change, ecclesiastical problems, social issues, and literary history. It traces Swift's rise to becoming first citizen of Ireland and looks in detail at the composition, publication, and reception of Gulliver's Travels, as well as many of Swift's other works, both poetry and prose. It also explores Swift's later years, his love affairs with Esther Johnson and Esther Vanhomrigh, his complicated friendships with Pope, Lord Bolingbroke, and Archbishop King, and his declining health.
Dean Swift is a hugely detailed insight into Swift's life from 1714 until his death and will be of interest to anyone wanting to find out more about his life and works.

Irvin Ehrenpreis

Part One: The Exile 1714-20; 1: Homecoming; 2: The Deanship; 3: The Exile's Friends; 4: The Dean as Priest; 5: The Dean in Society; 6: The Dean in Private; 7: Meddling in Politics; Part Two: The Hibernian Patriot 1720-6; 1: The English Packets; 2: The Condition of Ireland; 3: The Bench of Bishops; 4: Wood's Patent; 5: English Statesmanship; 6: Marcus Brutus, Drapier; 7: Walpole's Wisdom; 8: The Report of the Privy Council; 9: The Governor and the Drapier; 10: The Drapier's Fourth Letter; 11: The Dean and the Drapier; 12: Molesworth and Whiggery; 13: The Defeat of the Patent; 14: The Patriot at Home; 15: Easiest Friends; 16: The Church; 17: The Schoolmaster and the Dean; 18: Don Carlos, Wood Park, and Quilca; 19: Vanessa; 20: Stella; 21: Gentry and Journeys; 22: Carteret; 23: 'Gulliver's Travels'; Part Three: First Citizen 1726-30; 1: A Voyage to Langden; 2: 'Gulliver' in Print; 3: Cold Seasons; 4: Goodbye to London; 5: The Death of a Friend; 6: Henrietta Howard; 7: A Dose for the Dead; 8: Patrons and Proteges; 9: Summer at Market Hill; Part Four: Monuments 1730-45; 1: Friendships; 2: Champion of the Church; 3: 'Miscellanies'; 4: Defending the Test; 5: Faulkner; 6: The Ageing Dean; 7: The Hospital and the Legion Club; 8: 'Polite Conversation' and 'Directions to Servants'; 9: Old Age; 10: Life's Declining Part; 11: The Letters of Swift; 12: Sound Mind, Weak Body; 13: He's Just Alive; Abbreviated References; Index