"A Modest Proposal" is author Jonathan Swift's infamous and shocking satirical essay in which he suggests that the plight of the poor in Ireland could be eased if they simply agreed to sell their children to the elites of society to be used as food. Swift, disgusted by the apparent disdain and apathy exhibited by the ruling classes over the sufferings of the poor in Ireland used this essay to lampoon and attack the Protestant leaders, whose anti-Catholic policies were causing hardship and famine in his own country. A classic use of Juvenalian satire (wherein the objects of the satire are made to appear monstrous and heartless), "A Modest Proposal" has become such a famous treatise that the title itself has become a synonym for such satire today. Swift's brilliant and hard-hitting essay is presented here in its original and unabridged format and includes a brief biography of Jonathan Swift.
