“Hints Towards an Essay on Conversation”
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift, one of the greatest of English satirists, mused about the art of conversation (while poking fun and holes into politics, literature, and religion). In his “Hints Towards an Essay on Conversation,” he writes: “Nothing is more generally exploded than the folly of talking too much; yet I rarely remember to have seen five people together, where some one among them hath not been predominant in that kind, to the great constraint and disgust of all the rest.” Though this was written in the eighteenth century, his observations on conversations are as acute on those that happen today. Join Leigh, P. T., and Dr. Carol Andrews as they try to steer clear of all the follies Swift notes, while examining this essay and a bit about the Dean’s life. And as part of Listening to Literature’s feature “In Their Own Words,” they may also just let Swift speak for himself.
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