Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Battle of the Books | - | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 2 | Abolishing Christianity and Other Short Pieces | - | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 3 | The Benefit of Farting Explain’d | - | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 4 | A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works | - | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 5 | Directions to Servants | - | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 6 | Polite Conversation | - | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 7 | The Drapier’s Letters | 1935 | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 8 | The Letters of Jonathan Swift to Charles Ford | 1935 | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 9 | The Bickerstaff Partridge Papers | 1940 | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 10 | The Examiner and Other Pieces Written in 1710-11 | 1940 | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 11 | Irish Tracts 1720-1723 and Sermons | 1948 | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 12 | Political Tracts, 1711-1713 | 1951 | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 13 | The History of the Last Four Years of the Queen | 1951 | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 14 | Irish Tracts 1728-1733 | 1955 | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 15 | The Correspondence of Jonathan Swift, D.D. | 1963 | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 16 | A discourse of the contests and dissentions between the nobles and the commons in Athens and Rome with the consequences they had upon both those states | 1967 | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 17 | Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue | 1969 | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 18 | A Discourse Concerning The Mechanical Operation Of The Spirit | 1970 | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 19 | The Account Books of Jonathan Swift | 1984 | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 20 | The Last Will and Testament of the Revd. Dr. Jonathan Swift | 1984 | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 21 | Swift vs. Mainwaring: The Examiner and the Medley | 1985 | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 22 | Service Is No Inheritance, Or, Rules to Servants According to the REV. Dr. Swift | 1987 | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 23 | Swift’s Irish pamphlets | 1990 | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 24 | The Intelligencer | 1992 | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 25 | Sayings of Jonathan Swift | 1994 | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
| 26 | A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation | 1995 | Jonathan Swift | Buy |
Jonathan Swift’s non-fiction is as important as Gulliver’s Travels. A Modest Proposal, The Battle of the Books, and The Drapier’s Letters are landmarks of English prose. His correspondence, notebooks, and political pamphlets document both his literary career and his role in Irish politics. The Examiner pieces from 1710-11 show his work as a political journalist for the Tory cause.
A Modest Proposal (1729) remains his most widely read non-fiction piece, a satirical pamphlet suggesting the Irish poor sell their children as food to the wealthy. The Drapier’s Letters defended Ireland’s economic interests against English currency manipulation and made Swift a national hero in Dublin. The Battle of the Books is an earlier satire about the dispute between defenders of ancient and modern learning.
The scholarly editions listed here were mostly published in the mid-twentieth century, when academic interest in Swift’s complete output was at its peak. The Correspondence, Account Books, and Irish Tracts give researchers detailed access to his daily life and political activities as Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin.