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This volume contains the three works which together make up Jonathan Swift's early satiric and intellectual masterpiece, A Tale of a Tub: the Tale itself, The Battel of the Books, and The Mechanical Operation of the Spirit. Incorporating much new knowledge, this 2010 edition provides the first full scholarly treatment of this important work for fifty years. The introduction discusses publication, composition, and authorship; sources, analogues and generic models; reception; and religious, scientific and literary contexts (including the ancients and moderns controversy). Detailed explanatory notes address many previously unexplained issues in this famously rich and difficult work. Texts have been fully collated and edited according to modern principles and are accompanied with a textual introduction and full textual apparatus. Illustrations include title pages, the eight engravings from the fifth edition, and original designs for these engravings. Extensive associated contemporary materials, including Edmund Curll's Key and William Wotton's Observations, are provided.… (more)
User reviews
If I had been reading this book in print, I would have saved my place with a bookmark and put it back on the shelf to revisit later, maybe after I learned more about the times. But this was a book that I had subscribed to through Daily Lit, which sends installments every day via email. This is the 2nd book that I've tried this way and I have to say that I don't think this format of reading works for me. The installments are all the same length so sometimes I found myself wanting to read more, or wanting to walk away and then return to the book. But once I was half way through a LONG email, I felt like I had to finish it and it was more like slogging through required reading vs. reading for pleasure.