SWIFT
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Swift (1667-1745) is best known to many as the author of Gulliver's Travels; for others, he is more vividly remembered for A Modest Proposal, in which--with the textual equivalent of a deadpan expression--he offered Ireland's British rulers a solution to Irish overpopulation and poverty:
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; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.Glendinning quotes extensively from Swift's prose and poetry, probing the political and aesthetic sensibilities that led him to such dark assessments of human nature, but she is just as strong--if not stronger--in her assessment of the two great romantic relationships in his life, with Esther Johnson ("Stella") and Hester Vanhomrigh ("Vanessa"). Here she draws upon extensive epistolary evidence, as well as contemporary accounts of the affairs. While there are some questions that cannot be conclusively answered--Were Swift and Stella secretly married? Did he ever consummate his relationship with Vanessa?--the ways in which Glendinning frames the possibilities make Swift come alive for modern readers, restoring a personality of great depth and complexity to a figure many know only by the name on a single book's title page. --Ron Hogan
PARTLY INTERESTING PARTLY TEDIOUS
An ordinary biography about an extraordinary manOne of the main annoyances with this book is that there is too much of the biographer in it. The biographer talks about the process of her research. She peppers the book with many instances of "I think" and "I believe", often without any indication of why she thinks or believes these things. The reader is sometimes left concluding: why does her perception of things have any more credence than anyone else's? How has she proved her case?
Glendinning's analyses of some of Swift's work also often seem a little thin and obvious. Granted, she does not have the space to provide in-depth literary criticism, but the assessments she does provide are so thin sometimes that the reader feels he could do without them altogether. The same applies to her mini-critiques of the former biographers of Swift.
The book is not all bad though. The writing style is good and plain, and she does not engage in too many speculations based on slender biographical data. She does not "make things up", does not try to paint the (imagined) scene just so the reader can have "atmosphere". The book is readable and the most of the basic facts about Swift's life are there.
The book ends on a bad note with the last chapter, however, with Glendinning engaging in some generalizations about Swift's life and about literary art which come off as very judgmental and facile.
Well written personal view
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