In this book, Dustin Griffin explores the lifelong conversation between two great eighteenth-century English writers, Swift and Pope.

This book investigates slavery in the work of Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope and John Gay. These writers were connected with a Tory ministry, which attempted to increase the English share of the international slave trade.

The writings and satire of Pope and Swift have aroused intense hostilities in women readers and feminists, both in their own day and ours, for their allegedly unsympathetic treatment of women. They have been accused of indifference to the plight of eighteenth-century women in a patriarchal society and even of exhibiting sexist and misogynistic attitudes in the case of the eighteenth-century woman writer.

Draws on discoveries made in the past three decades to paint a new portrait of the satirist, speculating on his parentage, love life, and relationships while claiming that the public image he projected was intentionally misleading.