Gulliver's Travels Level 1 for class 5

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was born in Dublin Ireland to Protestant Anglo-Irish parents. He was an Irish satirist essayist poet and cleric who became Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral Dublin. His father Jonathan Swift (1640-1667) an attorney at King’s Inn Dublin died seven months before he was born. After his father’s death his mother returned to England where he was supported and provided education by his paternal uncle Godwin Swift. Jonathan’s uncle sent him to Kilkenny Grammar School from 1674 to 1682. He received his B.A. degree from Dublin University (Trinity College) in 1686 and his M.A. from Hall Hart Oxford in 1692. When he was studying for his M.A. he had to travel to England to stay with his mother due to political unrest caused by Glorious Revolution. There he worked as secretary to the retired diplomat Sir William Temple staying at his home in Moor Park Surrey. It was here that he came into contact with Esther Johnson (Stella) the eight year old daughter of a household servant. Swift acted as her tutor and mentor and the two maintained a close but ambiguous relationship throughout their life. He was awarded Doctor of Divinity from Trinity College Dublin in 1701.Jonathan Swift is possibly the foremost prose satirist in the English language and is less well-known for his poetry. He is remembered for his works such as The Battle of the Books (1704) A Tale of a Tub (1704) Against Abolishing Christianity (1708) The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers (1708) The Conduct of the Allies (1711) Drapier Letters (1724) and A Modest Proposal (1729). During these years he began writing his masterpiece Gulliver’s Travels relating to travels into several nations by Lemuel Gulliver. After Stella’s death in 1728 his health started to decline. He died in October 1745 and was buried beside Stella in Dublin. His assets were left to set up a hospital known as St Patrick’s Hospital for imbeciles. Gulliver’s Travels has the distinction of being the only book for which Swift received any money (£ 200).