A Modest Proposal Add a review

A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick, commonly referred to simply as A Modest Proposal, is a 1729 satirical essay by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift. The essay, written from the perspective of a fictional narrator, suggests that the Irish poor could ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food to wealthy gentlemen and ladies. In English writing, the phrase "a modest proposal" is now conventionally an allusion to this style of deadpan satire.

The essay begins by describing the plight of Ireland's poor before suggesting that their poverty could be resolved by selling their poor to the wealthy. It goes on to include detailed methods of preparing the children as food and calculations showing the financial benefits of his suggestion. Swift concludes the essay by indirectly making a series of suggestions for what he actually wishes to happen via apophasis, including taxing absentee landlords, buying Irish-made goods and rejecting foreign ones, becoming more patriotic and improving the treatment of tenants by landlords.

A Modest Proposal has continuously received academic attention in the centuries following its publication, with critics arguing over what exactly Swift was intending on criticising in the work. Different readings have variously claimed that the essay was a criticism of mercantilism, regressive tax legislation by the Parliament of Ireland or the Irish upper class's support of British rule. From the mid-20th century, academics have increasingly examined Swift's actual views on the Irish poor – which were frequently hostile and patronising – leading to revised readings which have challenged the characterisation of the essay as satire. Despite this, the essay's intention continues to remain the subject of academic debate.

The essay, one of the most prominent works of Juvenalian satire, remains one of Swift's most acclaimed essays and had been acclaimed for its wit, satire and dark humour. Its themes of social injustice, poverty and class dehumanisation explored continue to be relevant in contemporary discussions about social justice and human rights.