The Battle of Books

Swift's satire uses a literal epic battle between books to explore the debates of his time among authors, and between authors and critics Inspired by Boileau's "Lutrin "and illustrating the debate within European intellectual circles between the "Ancients," who argued that all essential knowledge was to be found in classical texts, and the "Moderns," who claimed that contemporary learning superseded the old sources, this work shows Swift at his wittiest and most trenchant. In this early satire, various books in St. James's Library take on a life of their own and come into conflict with one another, in a pastiche of the heroic epic genre.