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A Tale of a TubJonathan Swift

A Tale of a Tub

by OpenStories

Original author: Jonathan Swift

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"A Tale of a Tub" by Jonathan Swift is a prose satire written between 1694 and 1697 and published in 1704. Through an allegory of three brothers representing branches of Christianity and a series of wild digressions, Swift parodies religious excess and contemporary intellectual trends. The work attacks Catholic, Anglican, and Dissenting churches while mocking modern writing styles in politics, theology, and medicine. Enormously popular yet widely misunderstood, it was condemned as profane and effectively barred Swift from advancement in the Church of England.

A Tale of a Tub, by Jonathan Swift. Republished by OpenStories from Project Gutenberg eBook #4737.

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12 Chapters

  1. 1.Front Matter6,970 words
  2. 2.Section I: The Introduction3,622 words
  3. 3.Section II3,732 words
  4. 4.Section III: A Digression Concerning Critics3,167 words
  5. 5.Section IV: A Tale of a Tub3,635 words
  6. 6.Section V: A Digression in the Modern Kind2,053 words
  1. 7.Section VI: A Tale of a Tub2,401 words
  2. 8.Section VII: A Digression in Praise of Digressions1,707 words
  3. 9.Section VIII: A Tale of a Tub2,237 words
  4. 10.Section IX4,550 words
  5. 11.Section X: A Farther Digression1,654 words
  6. 12.Section XI: A Tale of a Tub9,832 words