Menippean Satire Reconsidered

Howard D. Weinbrot is the Ricardo Quintana Professor of English and William Freeman Vilas Research Professor in the College of Letters and Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I. Classical Practices and Early Modern Adaptions1. From Menippus the Gadaranean to Varro the Roman2. Petronius, Senecs, and Julian3. From Lucian the Debunker to Lucian the Blusher: Revolution in the Menippean Dialogues of the Dead4. Changes: Menippus Redivivus, menippus Idem, Menippus SensusPart II. Menippean Satire by Addition5. The Preeminence of Weeds: Swift's A Tale of a Tub and Its Parts6. A Tale of a Tub: "Leze-Majetse" and Further Joining7. Falling into the Pit: The Battle of the Books and the Mechanical Operation of the SpiritPart III. Menippean Satire by Genre8. A Tale of Two Cultures: Boileau's Art poetique in France and England9. Pope's Menippean Essay on Criticism in France and EnglandPart IV. Menippean Satire by Annotation10. Pope's Dunciad, Smithfield Royalty, and Subjects of Disputation11. The Dunciad and Notable PoemPart V. The Menippean Incursion12. Clarissa, Elias Brand, and Death by ParenthesesConclusion: In Which Something Is Summarized and Something about Evil Is SpeculatedNotesIndex

An impressive book. -- Joel Relihan New England Classical Journal 2006 Weinbrot's prose is clear and sharp and witty. -- Cynthia Wall Studies in English Literature 2006 Weinbrot's impressive dissection of the Menippean branch will likely be viewed as a tour-de-force... among studies of satire. -- Kirk Combe 1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics and Inquiries 2007 This admirable study makes for the thoughtful taming of an otherwise intractable form, both in the weight that it brings to bear upon its separate arguments and in the care that it applies to their articulation. -- Timothy Erwin Modern Philology 2009 This book... offers a strong model for determining the canon and demands that future discussions proceed with care. -- Christopher Fanning Scriblerian 2008 Weinbrot... is a proven scholar [and] a genial and generous student of literature, well aware of the intellectual perils involved in working his way through such an argument. He is also breathtakingly learned. -- John J. Burke, Jr. Eighteenth-Century Life 2007