''A Complete Collection of genteel and ingenious Conversation, according to the most polite mode and method now used at Court, and in the best Companies of England,'' commonly known as ''A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation,'' or more simply as ''Polite Conversation'' is a book by

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...

offering an

ironic Irony (), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique. Irony can be categorized into ...

and

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

commentary on the perceived banality of conversation among the upper classes in early-18th century Great Britain written in the form of a reference guide for those lacking in conversational skill. It was completed in 1731, but may have been conceived of as early as 1704. One of Swift's last works, it was written in between bouts of vertigo and was not presented for publication until 1738.A Modest Proposal and Other Satires, Introduction, pp. 23-24, George R. Levine, Prometheus Books, 1995, .

References

External links

''A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation'' at Google Books
1731 books 1738 books Works by Jonathan Swift Satirical books {{nonfiction-book-stub