The Works of the REV. Jonathan Swift

by Jonathan Swift

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1801. ... The directions to Servants is evidently an unfinished performance; some parts of it containing merely rough outlines Mr. Faulkner, who printed it in 1745, observes, " it may c be seen from scattered papers, wherein were given hints "for a dedication and preface, and a list of all degrees of "servants, that the author intended to have gone through "all their characters/'--Lord Orrery says, " the manu"script was handed about, and much applauded in the "dean's life time and that it is "written in so facetious a "kind of low humour, that it must please many readers; "nor is it without some degree of merit, by pointing out "with an amazing exactness (and what in a less trivial "case must have been called judgment) the faults, blunders, "tricks, lies, and various knaveries of domcstick servants." RULES THAT CONCERN ALL SERVANTS IN GENERAL. Wh EN your master or lady calls a servant by name, if that servant be not in the way, none of you are to answer, for then there will be no end of your and masters themselves allow, that if a servant comes when he is called, it is sufficient. When you have done a fault, be always pert and insolent, and behave yourself as if you were the injured person; this will immediately put your master or lady off their mettle. If you see your master wronged by any of your fellow-servants, be sure to conceal it for fear of being called a however, there is one exception in case of a favourite servant, who is justly hated by the whole family; who therefore are bound in prudence to lay all the faults they can upon the favourite. The cook, the butler, the groom, the marketman, and every other servant who is concerned in the expenses of the family, should act as if his masters whole estate ought to be applied to that servant...

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Poetry, Collections

94 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1889

About the author

Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, hence his common sobriquet, "Dean Swift".
Swift is remembered for works such as A Tale of a Tub (1704), An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity (1712), Gulliver's Travels (1726), and A Modest Proposal (1729). He is regarded by the Encyclopædia Britannica as the foremost prose satirist in the English language. He originally published all of his works under pseudonyms—such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B. Drapier—or anonymously. He was a master of two styles of satire, the Horatian and Juvenalian styles.
His deadpan, ironic writing style, particularly in A Modest Proposal, has led to such satire being subsequently termed "Swiftian".