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A very short political tract by Swift in a lashing, satirical vein, the complete title of this tract is 'A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public'.

Published in 1729, an era when the British and the Irish were sworn enemies and when Ireland was reeling under a severe drought, Swift wrote this as an attempt to criticize heavily the British authorities who did nothing to stave off the plight of the Irish.

The essay exhorts the Irish to give birth to as many kids as possible, feed them properly and then, when they are at their juiciest best, to eat them - since there is no other way to survive the fatal dearth of food. Mistaken by the readers as a genuine suggestion, the tract was heavily criticized. Only later did people see its extreme satire directed at the British, that suggested that very soon, the Irish would have no way but to eat their own children to survive the famine.

A very rare piece of unmitigated, perhaps even venomous criticism, yet hilarious political-satire tract.

'The Modest Proposal' is anything but modest. And here's a few lines from it:

'I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.

I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust.'