Only edition in print Jonathan Swift's unparalleled powers of satire are known to everyone through the pages of Gulliver's Travels. But the iconic stature of his undisputed masterpiece has sometimes obscured many of the treasures to be found elsewhere in the oeuvre of this firebrand of polemic and controversial pamphleteer, including a number of comic but trenchant tracts that, in inimitable Swiftian fashion, poke fun at the absurdities of society, politics and life itself. This volume collects some of the Irish cleric's best humorous pieces – most of them originally published under a pseudonym or anonymously – from his famous 'A Modest Proposal', 'Polite Conversation' and 'Directions to Servants' to the lesser-known 'The Benefit of Farting Explained', 'The Battle of the Books' and 'The Wonderful Wonder of Wonders'. Taken together in all their inventive brilliance and earthy irreverence, they reveal the sometimes overlooked breadth of the work of this great writer