"Leo Damrosch draws on discoveries made over the past thirty years to tell the story of Swift's life anew. Some daring speculations about Swift's parentage, love life, and various personal relationships show how Swift's public version of his life was deliberately misleading. Swift concealed aspects of himself and his relationships, and other people in his life helped to keep his secrets. Assembling suggestive clues, Damrosch re-narrates the events of Swift's life while making vivid the scents, sounds, and smells of his English and Irish surroundings. A complex Swift emerges: a restless, combative, empathetic figure, a man of biting wit and powerful mind" -- Publisher's description.

Prologue -- Beginnings -- A patron and two mysteries -- "Long choosing, and beginning late" -- Moor Park once more -- The village and the castle -- London -- "A very positive young man " -- The scandalous Tub -- Swift and God -- First fruits -- The war and the Whigs -- Swift the Londoner -- At the summit -- The Journal to Stella --- Enter Vanessa -- Tory triumph -- Tory collapse -- Reluctant Dubliner -- Political peril -- The Irish countryside -- Stella -- Vanessa in Ireland -- National hero -- The astonishing Travels -- Gulliver in England -- Disillusionment and loss -- Frustrated patriot -- Swift among the women -- The disgusting poems -- Waiting for the end -- Chronology -- List of abbreviations -- Notes -- Illustration credits -- Index.