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!'"
Digression
In 18th-century literature, the digression (not to be confused with subplot) was a substantial part of satiric works. Works such as Jonathan Swift's "A Tale of a Tub", Laurence Sterne's "Tristram Shandy" and Diderot's "Jacques le fataliste et son maître" even made digressiveness itself a part of the satire. Sterne's novel, in particular, depended upon the digression, and he wrote, "Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine; — they are the life, the soul of reading; — take them out of this book ("Tristram Shandy") for instance, — you might as well take the book along with them." This use of digression as satire later showed up in Thomas Carlyle's work.