Jonathan Swift and the Arts
Author: Joseph McMinn
Number of pages: 187
In Swift and the Artsùthe first comprehensive study of Swift and the non-literary artsùJoseph McMinn challenges the widespread view shared by Swift's biographer, Irvin Ehrenpreis, that Swift largely ignored most artistic and cultural activities outside literature. The study presents a systematic, historical account of Swift's engagement with a range of artistic activities in both Ireland and England, principally in the areas of music, gardening, theater, architecture, and painting, and shows how the "sister arts" provoked and inspired a wide range of work in his prose and poetry. Swift's perspective on the arts is essentially sceptical rather than indifferent, satirical rather than earnest, and contrasts strongly with that of his close friend, Alexander Pope, one of the leading virtuosi of the eighteenth century. Swift is a shrewd and humorous observer of the changing artistic and cultural scene in both Ireland and England, and his views on these changes in public taste are an important, albeit neglected, part of his biography. His correspondence, especially his Journal to Stella, shows us someone very aware of the various arts and of their lively emergence from the enclosed...