In 1728-9, Jonathan Swift and his friend Thomas Sheridan anonymously published the Intelligencer. This Dublin periodical offered trenchant and often witty commentary on the Irish social and political scene in the year before A Modest Proposal. The frequently anthologized review of The Beggar's Opera (no. 3) is not only the best contemporary criticism of it but also Swift's central pronouncement on satire. Several essays lash important enemies, anger being always a great creative stimulus to both Swift and Sheridan.

This is the first collected edition of the Intelligencer since 1730. It is based on the rare original Dublin pamphlets, each known copy of which has been collated. Full commentary and appendices draw upon contemporary pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, and manuscripts to site the Intelligencer papers in the personal, social, and political controversies in which they are engaged. There is also a fresh bibliographical analysis of the Intelligencer's textual transmission.