Jonathan Swift, a Hypocrite Reversed: A Critical Biography

by David Nokes

Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize 1985.

446 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

A scholar of 18th-century English literature, David Nokes, FRSL, was Professor of English Literature at King's College London. He attended King's College School, Wimbledon, London. He received an MA from Christ's College, Cambridge in 1972 and a Ph.D. in 1974.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though remembered today mainly as the author of Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift was known to his contemporaries for much more than that. In this biography, David Nokes details the span of Swift’s eventful life, from his childhood in Dublin to his time as a propagandist and disappointed placeseeker in England, through to his later years as an author and Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. The Swift that emerges from these pages is a frustrated man, filled with disappointment at receiving less than his perceived due. Yet such disappointment provided the acidic edge to the satirical writings that made him famous from his day to ours.

Nokes’s biography is an admirable study of Swift’s life and times, one that attempts to penetrate the mystery that surrounded much of his life. He does not hesitate in hypothesizing about the many decisions he made and speculating on such persistent questions as his possible marriage to Esther Johnson. Though Nokes does not address every work that Swift produced, he does analyze his subject’s major writings for the insights they possess into Swift’s personality and views. He supports his arguments with frequent quotes from his subject’s many writings, though reading the book alongside a collection such as the Oxford World Classics edition of his writings as a supplement helps to understand Swift better still, as well as providing exposure to some unjustly neglected classics from this great author. For anyone seeking a perceptive study of Swift’s life that is more digestible than Irvin Ehrenpreis’s monumental three-volume study, this is the book to read.

[Liam Guilar · Rating 4 out of 5]

It must be hard to write a biography of Swift. The beginning of the 18th century is an unloveable period, its tangled politics hard to follow and Swift can easily be presented as an unloveable man who seems to cry out for some kind of psychiatric analysis.

But Nokes does a fine job of keeping his narrative going and balanced, even when he is forced to leave huge gaps in it. He deals with the myths about Swift's life and as far as he is able assesses them. And when he can't he steps abck and provides the evidence.

And it's fascinating to see how much the writing of a literary life depends on the preservation of letters. The absence of "Stella's" makes her almost invisible.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without a doubt one of the best critical biographies I have ever read... fascinating to the very last page.

[Sammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exhilarating biography. I'm not a big fan of biographies, in general, but perhaps that's because I'm not sure most people's lives reward such minute excursions. Swift is obviously an exception to that policy, and David Nokes has his finger on the pulse.

[Justin Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short, fun and interesting biography. For long stretches Nokes does nothing but summarize Swift's letters or others' letters to Swift, and it's a testament to his eye for detail, ability to string together a narrative, and his writing style that I didn't fall asleep while he was doing it. I think there was too much on Swift's 'relationships' with women, but some people like that sort of thing. I find it hard to believe many people, even those curious about the Dean's 'love-life' would be impressed by the residual psychologising (Swift has problems with father-figures; Swift only likes women who rely on him for everything and so on), which is both grossly reductive and dully unenlightening. I would have preferred more on the political situation, and maybe a bit more on Swift's writing, but given that it's only about 400 pages, I can't complain too much.