Swift and Papa were lifelong friends and satirical hosts with shared literary sensibilities. But there were great differences - demographically, psychologically, and morally - among them: Anglican and Roman Catholic, Irish man and Englishman, one strongly committed to poetry that engages politically, the other reluctant to engage in partisanism and tends to distinguish between poetry.

Of politics. In this book, Dustin Griffin argues that we need to pay more attention to these differences, which were recognized by the authors and discussed.

Their letters, poems, and evasions can be read as stages of ongoing dialogue or cynical dialogue: they often write to each other, sometimes addressing them directly, sometimes mimicking or mimicking. In a sense, they were constantly responding to each other.

Of their lifelong dialogue shows not only the unusual affection and admiration they feel for each other, but also the occasional discontent and resentment, which keeps them together and segregates.

I want that book.