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Overview
This Volume contains the three works which together make up Jonathan Swift's early satiric and intellectual masterpiece, A Tale of a Tub: the Tale itself, The Battel of the Books and The Mechanical Operation of the Spirit. Incorporating much new knowledge, this edition provides the first full scholarly treatment of this important work for fifty years. The introduction discusses publication, composition and authorship; sources, analogues and generic models; reception; and religious, scientific and literary contexts (including the ancients and moderns controversy). Detailed explanatory notes address many previously unexplained issues in this famously rich and difficult work. Texts have been fully collated and edited according to modern principles and are accompanied by a textual introduction and full textual apparatus. Illustrations include title pages, the eight engravings from the fifth edition and original designs for these engravings. Extensive associated contemporary materials, including Edmund Curlls Key and William Wotton's Observations, are provided.
This volume includes: The Battle of the Books, and The Mechanical Operation of the Spirit, both which accompanied A Tale of a Tub on its first publication in 1704.