Includes bibliographical references (p. 120-121) and index.

1. Approaching the subject -- 2. Approaching the texts -- 3. Texts and extracts -- Geoffrey Chaucer -- from The Canterbury Tales: General Prologue -- John Skelton -- from Colin Clout -- Ben Jonson -- from The Alchemist -- John Dryden -- from Absalom and Achitophel -- William Congreve -- from The Way of the World -- Jonathan Swift -- 'A Meditation upon a Broomstick' -- from Gulliver's Travels -- from A Modest Proposal -- Alexander Pope -- from The Rape of the Lock -- from Moral Essays 'Epistle 4: On the Use of Riches' -- from 'Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot' -- William Hogarth -- Marriage A-la-Mode 'The Countess's Morning Levee' -- Jane Austen -- from Northanger Abbey -- Lord Byron -- from Don Juan -- Charles Dickens -- from Bleak House -- Arthur Hugh Clough -- 'The Laste Decalogue' -- Mark Twain -- from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- E. E. Cummings -- 'next to of course god america i' -- 'a salesman is an it that stinks Excuse' -- 'ygUDuh' -- Evelyn Waugh.

from Decline and Fall -- Joseph Heller -- from Catch-22 -- Carol Ann Duffy -- 'Poet for Our Times' -- 'Making Money' -- Steve Bell -- 'Righty Ho!' -- 4. Critical approaches -- 5. How to write about satirical texts -- 6. Resources.