History Creator / JonathanSwift

He is an example of VindicatedByHistory: while his works were reasonably well known at the time, he and fellow Tory Alexander Pope are nowadays much better known than their Whig rivals such as Joseph Addison and Dick Steele, whose party defeated the Tories so comprehensively that it forced Swift into exile (in his native Ireland, mind you, and as Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, so it's not like the exile was incommodious).

He is an example of VindicatedByHistory: while his works were reasonably well known at the time, he and fellow Tory Alexander Pope are nowadays much better known than their Whig rivals such as Joseph Addison and Dick Steele, whose party defeated the Tories so comprehensively that it forced Swift into exile.

!! Tropes relating to the creator
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: There is a [[PoesLaw (probably facetious)]] theory some people have that Swift was really a Martian. This is due to a chapter in ''Literature/GulliversTravels'' where an advanced civilization tells Gulliver that Mars has two moons and gives numbers for their orbiting distance and rotational speed. Over a hundred years later, Astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Mars [[AccidentallyCorrectWriting really did have two moons, and the numbers listed were fairly close to the real ones,]] So much that Hall was seriously freaked out about it at the time.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: Given that his primary claim to fame is his virulently misanthropic satires, it can come as a shock to modern readers that he was most famous to his contemporaries as a philanthropist, and was well-known and -loved for his generous nature. Notably, he was famous for extending charity to Irish Catholics, a move which, given that he was a priest of the Church of England, could have gotten him de-frocked and blacklisted.

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: There is a [[PoesLaw(probably facetious)]] theory some people have that Swift was really a Martian. This is due to a chapter in ''Literature/GulliversTravels'' where an advanced civilization tells Gulliver that Mars has two moons and gives numbers for their orbiting distance and rotational speed. Over a hundred years later, Astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Mars [[AccidentallyCorrectWriting really did have two moons, and the numbers listed were fairly close to the real ones,]] So much that Hall was seriously freaked out about it at the time.

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: There is a (probably facetious) theory some people have that Swift was really a Martian. This is due to a chapter in ''Literature/GulliversTravels'' where an advanced civilization tells Gulliver that Mars has two moons and gives numbers for their orbiting distance and rotational speed. Over a hundred years later, Astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Mars [[AccidentallyCorrectWriting really did have two moons, and the numbers listed were fairly close to the real ones,]] So much that Hall was seriously freaked out about it at the time.

Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, poet, Tory pamphleteer and Anglican priest whose works were published in the first decades of the 18th century. He is generally regarded as the preeminent satirist in the English language. All of Swift's works were published under pseudonyms, to maintain distance between his day job as a priest and his [[HiddenDepths caustic, cynical wit]].

* ''Literature/GulliversTravels'', a satire of travelogues
* ''Literature/AModestProposal'', a satirical essay written to protest the suffering of the Irish under British rule
* ''A Tale of a Tub'', a satirical (noticing a trend?) novel

* ''Literature/ATaleOfATub'', a satirical (noticing a trend?) novel

Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, poet, Tory pamphleteer and Anglican priest whose works were published in the first decades of the 18th century. He is generally regarded as the preeminent satirist in the English language. All of Swift's works were published under pseudonyms, to maintain distance between his day job as a priest and his [[HiddenDepths caustic, cynical wit]].

He is an example of VindicatedByHistory: while his works were reasonably well known at the time, he and fellow Tory Creator/AlexanderPope are nowadays much better known than their Whig rivals such as Joseph Addison and Dick Steele, whose party defeated the Tories so comprehensively that it forced Swift into exile.

[[AC:Of Swift's works, three are still well-known today:]]

* ''A Tale of a Tub'', a satirical (noticing a trend?) novel

Arguably an example of VindicatedByHistory: while his works were reasonably well known at the time, he and fellow Tory Creator/AlexanderPope are nowadays much better known than their Whig rivals such as Joseph Addison and Dick Steele, whose party defeated the Tories so comprehensively that it forced Swift into exile.