A Tale of a Tub
Robert Hendrickson notes in his book "British Literary Anecdotes" that "Swift was always partial to his strikingly original "The Tale of a Tub" (1704). On reading the work again in later years, he exclaimed 'Good God! What a genius I had when I wrote that book!'"
A Tale of a Tub
Although today very little of this debate remains, questions of the authorship of the "Tale" occupied many notable critics both in the 18th and 19th centuries. Famously, Samuel Johnson claimed that "A Tale of a Tub" was a work of true genius (in contrast to "Gulliver's Travels" where once one imagines "big people and little people" the rest is easy) and too good to be Jonathan Swift's. In the 19th century, many critics who saw misanthropy and madness in Jonathan Swift's later work wished to reject the "Tale" as his. In a way, a critic's view on who wrote the "Tale" reflected that critic's politics. Swift was such a powerful champion of Tory, or anti-Whig, causes that fans of the "Tale" were eager to attribute the book to another author from nearly the day of its publication.