TrackTitleReaderDuration
1 A Modest Proposal Celine Oon 18:45
2 A Modest Proposal ACBowgus 23:12
       

Notes and Credits
Read by:  Celine Oon (first version); AC Bowgus (second version)
Book Coordinator:  Sue Anderson
Meta Coordinator:  J. M. Smallheer
Proof Listener:  Hugh Gillis (first version); Craig Campbell (second version)

Artwork
Cover: Portrait of Jonathan Swift by Charles Jervas, National Portrait Gallery, London
Inset: Picture of the cover of A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift, 1729
Inset: Engraving of Jonathan Swift in The International Magazine, December 1, 1850
Insert: Engraving of Jonathan Swift in The International Magazine, December 1, 1850


A Modest Proposal is a satiric essay written by Jonathan Swift in 1729 and published anonymously as a pamphlet that suggests that the Irish might find some release from their perpetual economic troubles by selling their children as a nourishing delicacy to their wealthy English overlords.  It is presented as a straightforward economic treatise that proceeds with well-reasoned deliberation to an unthinkable and absurd conclusion. In doing so it makes a blistering commentary on the merciless legal and economic exploitation of Ireland by the English as well as on rationalistic modern ways of thinking that give short shrift to human values. The work is held to be a masterpiece of satire and a worthy descendant of the great works of the Roman satirist Juvenal.  The term “modest proposal” has to come to symbolize any proposition to address a problem with an efficient but ridiculous cure is used as an allusion to this style of straight-faced satire.


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Item Info
EAN - DVD case 0682550991351
EAN - CD jacket 0682550992792
Media MP3 CD
Package DVD box
Author Jonathan Swift
Year 1729
Recording
Read by Celine Oon (version 1) AC Bowgus (version 2)
Length 42 minutes
Type of Reading Solo

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A Modest Proposal

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(SKU DB-6000) (EAN 0682550991351)
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