Abstract

The Most Difficult Man

The article focuses on the book "Jonathan Swift," by John Middleton Murry. Because Jonathan Swift is the most controversial figure in all English literature it is not likely that a definitive biographical-critical study will ever be written or generally accepted if it should be. That he was one of the most powerful writers of prose who ever lived is recognized by everybody capable of recognizing powerful prose. In this closely-printed book of more than five hundred pages Middleton Murry plunges in where angels tread softly. After a brief, general acknowledgement to predecessors he brushes aside the vast accumulations of recent scholarship and seems to base his exposition largely upon his own reading of Swift's work and the testimony of contemporaries.