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Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

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There are few great satirists who manage to judge their work so finely that it can be considered both a rip-roaring, fantastical adventure story suitable for children and adults alike, as well as a searing attack on the nature of society. In his Gulliver's Travels , Jonathon Swift has done precisely that and has bestowed upon us one of the great works of English literature in the process. A tale recognized far more widely than it is read, the story of Gulliver--a traveler who is, in turns, a giant, a tiny figure, a king and an idiot--is both excellent fun, as well as thoughtful, witty and wise.

The First Voyage

The travels that are referenced in Swift's title are four in number and always begin with an unfortunate incident that leaves Gulliver shipwrecked, abandoned, or otherwise lost at sea. On his first misadventure, he is washed up on the shores of Lilliput and awakes to find himself tied down by a hundred tiny threads. He soon realizes that he is a captive in a land of tiny people; compared to them, he is a giant.

The people soon put Gulliver to work--first of a manual kind, then in a war with neighboring people over the way that eggs should be properly cracked. The people turn against him when Gulliver puts out a fire in the palace by urinating on it.

Gulliver manages to return home, but he soon wishes to get out into the world again. This time, he finds himself in a land where he is tiny compared to the giants who live there. After numerous close encounters with the large animals that populate the land, and achieving some fame for his tiny size, he escapes Brobdingnag--a place he disliked because of the boorishness of its people--when a bird picks up the cage in which he resides and drops it into the sea.

On his third voyage, Gulliver pass through a number of lands, including one whose people literally have their head in the clouds. Their land floats above the normal Earth. These people are refined intellectuals who spend their time in esoteric and entirely pointless pursuits while others live below--as enslaved people.

Gulliver's final voyage takes him to a near utopia. He finds himself in a land of talking horses, called the Houyhnhnms, who rule over a world of brutish humans, called Yahoos. The society is beautiful--without violence, pettiness or greed. All the horses live together in a cohesive social unit. Gulliver feels that he is a stupid outsider. The Houyhnhnms cannot accept him because of his human form, and he escapes in a canoe. When he returns home, he is upset by the sordid nature of the human world and wishes he were back with the more enlightened horses that he left.

Beyond the Adventure

Brilliant and insightful, Gulliver's Travels , is not simply a fun adventure story. Rather, each of the worlds that Gulliver visits exhibits the features of the world in which Swift lived--often delivered in a caricatured , inflated form that is the stock in trade of a satirist.

Courtiers are given influence with a king dependent on how well they are at jumping through hoops: a sideswipe at politics. Thinkers have their head in the clouds while others suffer: a representation of intellectuals of Swift's time. And then, most tellingly, humanity's self-regard is punctured when we are portrayed as the beastly and incoherent Yahoos. Gulliver's brand of misanthropy is aimed at the lampooning and improvement of society through a form that is far removed from any kind of serious political or social tract.

Swift has a deft eye for an excellent image, and a uproarious, often bawdy sense of humor. In writing Gulliver's Travels , he has created a legend which endures up to our times and beyond.

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Book Review: Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

July 6, 2018 By Jessica Filed Under: Book Review 2 Comments

Gulliver's Travels

'I felt something alive moving on my left leg ... when bending my Eyes downwards as much as I could. I perceived it to be a human Creature not six inches high' Shipwrecked and cast adrift, Lemuel Gulliver wakes to find himself on Lilliput, an island inhabited by little people, whose height makes their quarrels over fashion and fame seem ridiculous. His subsequent encounters - with the crude giants of Brobdingnag, the philosophical Houyhnhnms and the brutish Yahoos - give Gulliver new, bitter insights into human behaviour. Swift's savage satire view mankind in a distorted hall of mirrors as a diminished, magnified and finally bestial species, presenting us with an uncompromising reflection of ourselves. This text, based on the first edition of 1726, reproduces all its original illustrations and includes an introduction by Robert Demaria, Jr, which discusses the ways Gulliver's Travels has been interpreted since its first publication.

Gulliver’s Travels immediately reminded me of the Princess Bride.  They are both travel novels that make fun of travel novels by having the author retell someone else’s story but edit out the things they don’t like from the “original” story.  For Princess Bride, it was pages and pages of packing and unpacking from the fictional novel it’s based on.  For Gulliver’s Travels, it was “innumerable passages relating to the winds and tides… (pg 9-10)”  although some overly technical passages were left in for kicks and giggles.  Another hilarious stab at travel novels was when Gulliver says, “This is enough to say upon the subject of my diet, wherewith other travellers fill their books, as if the readers were personally concerned whether we fared will or ill. (pg 215)” I wonder how many travel novels Jonathan Swift read before he thought, “Shut up about the food!!”

Part I is about the little people and is obviously the most famous part of Gulliver’s Travels, but I didn’t realize that their trees and animals were small, too.  Cute! I was surprised by the dark humor in this part, but I enjoyed it.  The best example is when the little people discuss the problems of killing Gulliver and the huge carcass that they would have to deal with and the awful plague that would probably come from it.

The little people going through his things and describing them had me as confused as they were.  I couldn’t figure out what some of the things were, either, because this book was so old.  But their descriptions were delightful.

We saw a hollow pillar of iron, about the length of a man, fastened to a strong piece of timber larger than the pillar; and upon one side of the pillar, were huge pieces of iron sticking out, cut into strange figures, which we know not what to make of. -Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (pg 35)

The little people took themselves way too seriously.  They pick their leaders based on tight rope walking and not actual skills.  This strange scene led me to Sparknotes  where I learned that Gulliver’s Travels was a political satire.  I just thought it was a fairy tale.  It’s enjoyable as both though it’s less confusing when I knew what he was making fun of.  Now I get the tight rope walking thing-it’s about politics and power.  Throughout the book, some of the social commentary seemed universal and some seemed to go over my head since I didn’t know some of the context of the time period.  The footnotes in this Penguin edition helped a lot.

I couldn’t believe the audacity of the little king asking Gulliver to let them poke his eyes out and calling it lenient. Gulliver says he must not be smart because it seemed the opposite of lenient to him.  That’s because it’s not lenient!!  Gulliver actually considers doing it because they did give him a nice noble title.  I can’t imagine in what universe a noble title would be more useful than your eyes (and I’m pretty sure that’s the point.)

I was also shocked by Part II .  I was familiar with the part where he becomes small in a land of giants.  But they do whatever they want to him since he’s small including the women playing with him naked.  Um…what?!   His reaction is to be repulsed by their smell and blemishes that he can now see because of his size.  This was disturbing on so many levels (luckily it’s short and not graphic.)  According to Sparknotes ,  the microscope was new at the time and they were interested in the small details of things that actually made them gross.

The political satire became more and more blatant (even without reading Sparknotes, I knew the dispute about the eggs in Part I was referring to Catholics and Protestants) with ironic criticisms of the places he visited, like this example for the giant king in Part II:

He confined the knowledge of governing within very narrow bounds, to common sense and reason, to justic and lenity, to the speedy determination of civil and criminal causes; with some other obvious topics, which are not worth considering. -Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (pg 126)

A more indirect criticism of English politics is when the king doesn’t want to learn about gun powder from Gulliver because he says must have been invented by Satan (which was actually an idea from Milton, according to the footnotes).  The king from part II is the one who says this famous quote:

“I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.” -Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (pg 123)

Part III was the strangest part and the least familiar to me.  The society is full of people called flappers who are always getting the attention of people by flapping them with a padded stick so they know when to talk and when to listen.  The whole society seemed as zoned out as someone who is severely addicted to their smartphone.  The flappers were weird, but maybe they would be useful today going around whacking people when they are on their phone too much.  Just a thought.

As strange as part III is, I found it the most relevant.  The whole section is a satire on technology.  They have such high and unrealistic aspirations that they neglect the present.  The experiments they did were absolutely crazy like extracting sunbeams from cucumbers.  But according to Sparknotes , all the experiments mentioned were either proposed or actually carried out at the time this was written.  After reading this section, I couldn’t help but think that we often use technology to come up with unnecessarily complicated solutions to things or that in the pursuit of advanced technology, we’ve come to neglect basic things.  We value innovation at the expense of maintenance .

Allow me to geek out about one interesting fact. In Part III, Jonathan Swift made a fictional predition that Mars had 2 moons that turned out to be true.  So cool!!!

Part IV probably had the best wisdom and advice.  He visits a utopia populated by intelligent horses.  I listened to the audiobook read by David Hyde Pierce and it was delightful, especially in part IV where he pronounces all the horse words like a horse would – neighing and all.  Probably my favorite tidbit of wisdom from the horses was when Gulliver was explaining wars.  He talks about the reasons and that the worst wars were caused by different opinions especially if they were about “things indifferent. (pg  226)”  Sad, but true.

I found this to be another piece of good advice:

He could not understand why nature should teach us to conceal what nature had given; that neither himself nor family were ashamed of any parts of their bodies. -Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels  (pg 219)

I was surprised that they believed at the time that depression only hit the lazy, luxurious, and rich.  They believed hard work was the cure.  I’m glad we know more about depression now and this isn’t true.  However, this old fashioned perspective reminded me that the lazy and luxurious lives we as modern people does not always make you happy.  I would rephrase his statement and replace “depression” with “unhappiness” and it’s a good reminder to me that hard work is more likely to make you happy than laziness.

What’s this? Is that a flash of feminism in this book written over two hundred years ago? The horses thought it “monstrous” that women were educated differently than men.  It made half the population “good for nothing but bringing children into the world. (pg 247)”

At the end when Gulliver finally makes it home, instead of trying to improve society from what he learned from the horses, he despairs that the world he lives in isn’t as perfect as theirs and does nothing.  He becomes almost crazy by talking to horses and becoming disconnected with his family. It’s quite a jarring ending to a fairy tale.  I didn’t like it at first, but the more I thought about it the more I realized that maybe his point was that we often give up when things need to be fixed.  We read satires or the news and see the many, many problems in the world and make no effort to fix any of them because we can’t fix them all.  And honestly the society of horses that he thinks is so perfects sounds downright boring.  No family connections, all logic, no emotions etc.  Even so, I wished Gulliver had at least tried to do something.   What a great insight, though.  Don’t be like Gulliver – do something .

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About Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for Whigs then for Tories), and poet, famous for works like Gulliver's Travels , A Modest Proposal , A Journal to Stella , The Drapier's Letters , The Battle of the Books , and A Tale of a Tub . Swift is probably the foremost prose satirist in the English language, and is less well known for his poetry. Swift published all of his works under pseudonyms — such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B. Drapier — or anonymously. He is also known for being a master of two styles of satire; the Horatian and Juvenalian styles.

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October 20, 2020 at 9:10 pm

I just am finishing up Gullivers Traveld. Our Classics book club will be discussing it this Saturday. I found your review and absolutely loved it! I will be sharing it with our book club and will definitely give you props!

I too loved part three the best in the book! Your techno observation of that Section was great!

Looking forward to following you on Instagram!

May 13, 2021 at 11:01 am

Well thank you! I read this book for my book club as well and we had a lot of fun talking about it. I hope your book club had fun too!

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The 100 best novels, No 3 – Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (1726)

Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels comes third in our list of the best novels written in English. Robert McCrum discusses a satirical masterpiece that’s never been out of print

S even years after the publication of Robinson Crusoe , the great Tory essayist and poet Jonathan Swift – inspired by the Scriblerus club, whose members included John Gay and Alexander Pope – composed a satire on travel narratives that became an immediate bestseller. According to Gay, Gulliver was soon being read “from the cabinet council to the nursery”. In its afterlife as a classic, Gulliver’s Travels works on many levels. First, it’s a masterpiece of sustained and savage indignation, “furious, raging, obscene”, according to Thackeray . Swift’s satirical fury is directed against almost every aspect of early 18th-century life: science, society, commerce and politics. Second, stripped of Swift’s dark vision, it becomes a wonderful travel fantasy for children, a perennial favourite that continues to inspire countless versions, in books and films. Finally, as a polemical tour de force, full of wild imagination, it became a source for Voltaire, as well as the inspiration for a Telemann violin suite, Philip K Dick’s science-fiction story The Prize Ship , and, perhaps most influential of all, George Orwell’s Animal Farm .

Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Lemuel Gulliver (to give its original title) comes in four parts, and opens with Gulliver’s shipwreck on the island of Lilliput, whose inhabitant are just six inches high. The most famous and familiar part of the book (“Lilliputian” soon became part of the language) is a satirical romp in which Swift takes some memorable shots at English political parties and their antics, especially the controversy on the matter of whether boiled eggs should be opened at the big or the little end.

Next, Gulliver’s ship, the Adventure, gets blown off course and he is abandoned on Brobdingnag whose inhabitants are giants with a proportionately gigantic landscape. Here, having been dominant on Lilliput, Gulliver is exhibited as a curious midget, and has a number of local dramas such as fighting giant wasps. He also gets to discuss the condition of Europe with the King, who concludes with Swiftian venom that “the bulk of your natives [are] the most pernicious race of odious little vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.”

In the third part of his travels, Gulliver visits the flying island of Laputa (a place-name also referenced in Stanley Kubrick’s film Dr Strangelove ), and Swift mounts a dark and complicated assault on the speculations of contemporary science (notably spoofing the attempted extraction of sunbeams from cucumbers). Finally, in the section that influenced Orwell ( Gulliver’s Travels was one of his favourite books), Swift describes the country of the Houyhnhnms, horses with the qualities of rational men. These he contrasts with the loathsome Yahoos, brutes in human shape. Orwell would later echo Swift’s misanthropy, looking ahead to a time “when the human race had finally been overthrown.”

At the end of it all, Gulliver returns home from his travels in a state of alienated wisdom, purged and matured by his experiences. “I write,” he concludes, “for the noblest end, to inform and instruct mankind… I write without any view to profit or praise. I never suffer a word to pass that may possibly give the least offence, even to those who are most ready to take it. So that I hope I may with justice pronounce myself an author perfectly blameless…”

When he died in 1745, Swift, remembered as “the gloomy Dean”, was buried in Dublin with the famous epitaph “ubi saeva indignatio ulterius cor lacerare nequit” (where fierce indignation can no further tear apart his heart) inscribed on his tomb.

A note on the text: Swift probably started writing Gulliver’s Travels in 1720 (when Crusoe fever was at it height), and delivered the manuscript to the London publisher Benjamin Motte in March 1726. The book was published, anonymously, at top speed. Motte, who sensed a bestseller, used several presses to foil any attempt at piracy, and made many cuts to reduce the risk of prosecution. The first edition appeared, in two volumes, on 26 October 1726, priced 8s 6d, and sold out its first printing in less than a week. In 1735 the Irish publisher, George Faulkner printed a collection of Swift’s works. Volume III became Gulliver’s Travels , based on a working copy of the original manuscript. The textual history of Gulliver’s Travels now becomes incredibly complicated, and Swift later disowned most versions, including Motte’s first edition, saying it was so much altered that “I do hardly know mine own work”. Later scholarly editions of Swift have to choose between Motte and Faulkner, but whatever the version it has never been out of print since the day it first appeared.

Three more from Jonathan Swift

A Tale of a Tub (1704); A Modest Proposal, an essay (1729); Verses on the Death of Dr Swift (1739)

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Gulliver’s Travels. By Jonathan Swift.

LITERATURE MATTERS

In 1726 essayist and poet Jonathan Swift published his magnum opus , now regarded as an indisputable classic of English literature. Gulliver’s Travels is both a satire on human nature and a parody of popular travel narratives of the day. Swift’s satirical fury — William Makepeace Thackeray called it “furious, raging, obscene” — is directed against almost every aspect of early-18th-century British life. The tale recounts the expedition of Lemuel Gulliver, a practical-minded former surgeon turned captain of the high seas, who sets sail in his aptly named ship, The Adventure , to visit “several remote nations of the world.”

The most well-known scene of Swift’s satirical tour de force is Gulliver’s shipwreck on Lilliput, an island inhabited by a race of six-inch-tall people who enjoy arguing over trivial matters, such as whether boiled eggs ought to be cracked open at the big end or little end, a clever parody of contemporary British political and religious disputes. It is here on the shores of Lilliput where the brave traveler awakes to finds himself a god-like giant bound by a thousand tiny threads. His Lilliputian captors regard him with awe — and later use him as their personal Goliath to subdue the neighboring Blefuscudians. Swift’s satire is on full display when Gulliver is charged with treason for publicly urinating in the capital, even though he was doing so in order to douse a raging fire.

Later, in the kingdom of Brobdingnag, Gulliver (like Lewis Carroll’s 19th-century Alice) finds the tables have turned: Here, he is a tiny man in a country of giants who treat him as a zoological curiosity and exhibit him for money.

Through Gulliver’s subsequent experiences with the philosopher-citizens on the flying island of Laputa, Swift spoofs the speculations of scientism. The Laputans are so obsessed with theoretical science — they contemplate ways to extract sunbeams from cucumbers, for example — that they have to be reminded to listen to and speak with one another. Then there’s the land of the virtuous horse-like Houyhnhnms, whom Swift contrasts with the Yahoos, vicious brutes who bear a disturbing resemblance to humans.

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Gulliver’s travels by jonathan swift | book review.

Posted by: Editor October 29, 2011 in Author , Books , Classic , English 78 Comments Updated: May 12, 2015

First published in 1726, this collection of Lemuel Gulliver’s fascinating voyages all over the world, has been loved, read and re-read by every child and adult familiar with the English language. The story appealing the children for its fictional quotient made of wonderful creatures ranging in size from a few inches to several feet, flying island, etc. and to adults for its keen representation of human nature and European society. The witty and satiric style of Jonathan Swift’s narrative has an universal appeal to every intelligent reader while the circumstances and surroundings aid in accomplishing the tale by providing the elements of fantasy and thrill.

Gulliver’s Travels – Book Cover (Published in year 1900)

A short introduction in form of a letter by Gulliver to his readers precedes the travel chronicles, which comprises of four parts, each containing Gulliver’s experiences in a different land. Following is the synopsis of each story:

Part I: A Voyage to Lilliput (4 May 1699 — 13 April 1702)

Gulliver, a surgeon on a merchandising ship, finds himself to be the lone survivor after a shipwreck on an unknown shore where he falls asleep out of weariness. The next morning, he wakes up to find himself bound by tiny threadlike ropes and surrounded by a crowd of people, less than 6 inches high. After a while, “the Lilliputians” are convinced of his being harmless to them and slowly Gulliver gets accustomed to the people and the place. His observations of this race and their way of living, their king and his court, Gulliver’s accommodation and way of living form the next few chapters of the book. Gulliver also assists the king in a war with their enemies, the Blefuscidians, by depriving them of their entire feet but refuses to help the king in enslaving them. This and the strong dislike for him by some of the king’s ministers bring on Gulliver the dislike and penalty of the king. To escape from this, he runs away to the island of Blefuscu, from where he manages to leave the country in an abandoned boat. A passing ship rescues him and brings him back to England.

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Part II: A Voyage to Brobdingnag (20 June 1702 — 3 June 1706)

Gulliver ventures to a sea voyage again on a ship called Adventure which facing a storm goes off course and is forced to land at an island for fresh water. Gulliver goes on the shore and finds himself abandoned while roaming around as his fellow shipmen are driven away from the land by a monster. On the island he finds himself with the race of giants with height more than 70 feet. A farmer brings Gulliver home where his daughter nurses him. The farmer treats him as a curiosity and exhibits him for money. The Queen of Brobdingnag takes a liking to Gulliver and buys him off along with hiring his nurse as governess. Gulliver becomes a favourite of the royal family and discourses with the king at length about his native country and the rest of mankind. Though treated kindly, he keeps encountering many ridiculous accidents due to his puny size. Finally, one day, when on sea-shore, a giant eagle takes away Gulliver’s wooden house with him inside and drops him in the sea, from where he is rescued by some sailors and comes back to England.

Part III: A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan (5 August 1706 — 16 April 1710)

This time, Gulliver’s ship is attacked by pirates who force him to leave the ship and the guy finds himself on a desolate rocky island, from where he is rescued by the inhabitants of a flying island, called Laputa. The description that Gulliver gives of the Laputians, is a strong caricature of that of musician and mathematicians, describing them as totally impractical race dwelling in the theoretical arts only. Laputa flies over a bigger island called Balnibarbi by virtue of its magnetic properties. Gulliver describes the people, the king and his kingdom, and his method of ruling from sky. He next ventures to visit the capital city of Lagado and its grand academy where all kinds of disgusting, ridiculous and fruitless research work is done.

Waiting for a ship to go to Japan, Gulliver takes a short trip to the island of Glubbdubdrib, which is inhabited by magicians. The chief of magician has power to bring back the dead and Gulliver enjoys conversations with all his favourite philosophers, politicians and other great men from history of his choice. In Luggnagg, he comes across immortals called struldburgs and for the first time starts considering the problems that immortality will bring in form of old age and infirmity. Finally, he goes to Japan, and from there to England with an intention for staying home for the rest of his life.

Part IV: A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms ( 7 September 1710 – 2 July 1715)

But the sea calls Gulliver again, and he starts his journey as a captain of a ship. During the voyage he loses some men due to illness and is forced to recruit others from different places, who finally turn the crew against him. This band of seamen is going to become pirates and hence casts away Gulliver in a landing boat. On this island, he first encounters a deformed, hideous and savage race of animals and later the masters of this land, apparently horses with advanced and reasoning intellectual capacity, who call themselves Houyhnhnms. The savage race is nothing but uncivilised and brute humans known as “yahoo” on this island.

Gulliver becomes a member of the horse’s household, and slowly becomes extremely fond of their lifestyle and way of thinking, realising all the follies and vices of humankind during his conversations with his master horse. He reloves to spend rest of his life on this island but the Assembly of the Houyhnhnms rules that Gulliver, a Yahoo with some semblance of reason, is a danger to their civilization, and expels him.

He is then rescued, against his will, by a Portuguese ship, and is surprised to see that Captain Pedro de Mendez, a Yahoo, is a wise, courteous and generous person. He returns to his home in England, but he is unable to reconcile himself to living among Yahoos and becomes a recluse, remaining in his house, largely avoiding his family and his wife, and spending several hours a day speaking with the horses in his stables.

Gulliver’s Travels is often considered to be a children’s book, mainly due to the wide publicity and popularity that the first part of the novel describing Gulliver’s adventures in Lilliput has received. But, the book in reality, is a reflective and mufti-dimensional work that addresses and represents many a traits of the human nature and human society. The chronicles are full of metaphors and the best part that links these together is the change of perspective. In every part of his voyage, Gulliver encounters a different race i.e., small, big, scientific and eccentric, wise and natural, and hence, starts viewing himself and rest of his brethren with a different point of view, identifying the evils in the human society and their root causes step-by-step. At the end of his voyages, Gulliver is a changed man, so much so that he abhors the mankind in general.

The book consists of ever-lasting wisdom and though the metaphors become crude and complex, especially in the last part, is still a worthy read. “Gulliver’s Travels” is one of those books that never lose its contemporariness …

Enjoy… 🙂

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A voyoge to Lilliput is so small

Because Lilliput is the island of small people 🙂

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We are glad to know that you find it helpful. Gulliver’s Travels book is available for free at Project Gutenberg. Here is the direct link to the book page, where you can select your desired version. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17157 The book is also available for free at Amazon.com as well. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1593081324 You may also like to read the following articles: A large list of free Ebooks – Kindle edition, available at Amazon.com Amazon India is giving away fee E-Books We publish such article periodically where we provide information about book offers where you can avail books for free. Do subscribe our RSS feeds to not to miss such articles. And yes you can share your love by linking us at various social media networks 🙂

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It helped me a lot …thanks..!! but i just have a request if you can even post the opinion/review on each part of this book..help if you can..

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it was a very useful review for school projects. sincere thanks to the concerned. regards atira

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Book Review: Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

Book Title : Gulliver’s Travels

Author: Jonathan Swift

Format/Print Length/Language:  Paperback/336 pages/English

Publisher: Penguin; Revised ed. edition (30 January 2003)

Book Blurb: Gulliver’s Travels

Gulliver’s Travels describes the four voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, a ship’s surgeon. In Lilliput he discovers a world in miniature; towering over the people and their city, he is able to view their society from the viewpoint of a god. However, in Brobdingnag, a land of giants, tiny Gulliver himself comes under observation, exhibited as a curiosity at markets and fairs.

In Laputa, a flying island, he encounters a society of speculators and projectors who have lost all grip on everyday reality; while they plan and calculate, their country lies in ruins.

Gulliver’s final voyage takes him to the land of the Houyhnhnms, gentle horses whom he quickly comes to admire – in contrast to the Yahoos, filthy bestial creatures who bear a disturbing resemblance to humans. This text, based on the first edition of 1726, reproduces all the original illustrations and includes an introduction by Robert Demaria, Jr, which discusses the ways Gulliver’s Travels has been interpreted since its first publication.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines.

Book Review: Gulliver’s Travels

I read this engaging novel again in my graduation days and one thing is for sure that every writer must read it and so should every reader. This beautiful piece of fiction is an adventure novel and Gulliver’s travel journey. In this book, Gulliver’s adventures are divided into four parts.

The first part is a  Voyage to Lilliput  where Gulliver finds himself in the land of miniature people which are less than 6 inches tall and  where you could see him as a giant among the race of little people.  The second part is  a voyage to Brobdingnag where he turns too little for your interpretations  and people over there are like giants to him. The third part is a  voyage to Laputa  which is a floating island and then the last part which is a  Voyage to the Land of the Houyhnhnms. 

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So, Gulliver’s Travels ends on a thought-provoking note at the place where gulliver enters the country of Houyhnhnms comparing humans to the status of an animal.

This book makes you a lover of satire beautifully penned in an interesting travel story. With lots of imagery, imaginations, and reality at play, this novel will definitely inspire you to keep on turning pages. The narration is great, but the language is not quite that simple or easy to grasp. Overall, the story has so many in-depth meanings that ensure you to grab a copy of it.

Although as a fiction Gulliver’s Travels has done fairly well as other novels, as an adventure novel and the so-called satirical novel, the author has done complete justice to the plot, words and the characters. I would highly recommend this book to the travel lovers.

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Book Reviewer:  NIKITA SINGH, a new age writer who works to build a parallel society for women and artists. She is an English literature graduate with PGDWE and a published author. Other than that, she is a content writer at a startup named ddkablog.

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Book Review

Gulliver’s travels.

• Jonathan Swift

Readability Age Range

Year published.

This political satire by Jonathan Swift is published by Sterling Publishing and is written for adults but is sometimes studied by kids ages 16 and up.

Plot Summary

Lemuel Gulliver is a ship surgeon whose voyages frequently end in shipwreck. He washes up on various islands where he meets, among others, tiny people called Lilliputians, giant Brobdingnagians, a race of horses morally superior to man known as Houyhnhnms, and the repulsive Yahoos who closely resemble humans. Jonathan Swift wrote the book as a satirical commentary on the political and social conduct of his day.

Christian Beliefs

If a Lilliputian doesn’t believe in “divine Providence,” he cannot hold a public office. The people of the islands Gulliver visits have holy men and religious rituals. There are a few brief mentions of the Christian faith, mainly as Gulliver enlightens his masters about European belief systems.

Other Belief Systems

Lilliputians believe the earth is flat and that people would be resurrected when the earth flips over. Therefore, they bury their dead upside down so that when they rise from death, they’ll be upright. Lilliputian children are removed from their families at infancy and raised by public institutions. The people of Laputa believe the stars play a major role in human affairs, and they are deeply concerned about the health of the sun as it relates to their survival. The island of Glubbdubdrib is named for its people, who are sorcerers. There, Gulliver is given the opportunity to conjure up spirits of many historical figures. Gulliver expresses his desire to be like the Struldbruggs, who live forever on earth.

Authority Roles

Most of the leaders Gulliver encounters are eager to learn more about his and generally treat him with respect. They are frequently perplexed, however, by his stories of human wars, weapons, excesses, deceit and man’s general treatment of one another. Gulliver’s first master in Brobdingnag tries to exploit him by forcing him to speak to the point of exhaustion before audiences. Although Gulliver loves living with the Houyhnhnms, he is eventually forced to leave because those in power believe him to be a vile Yahoo.

Profanity & Violence

None, per se, but Gulliver makes frequent references to urination and defecation. A few examples: In Lilliput, he angers a member of the royal family by urinating on her burning home to put out the fire. In Brobdingnag, Gulliver tries (and fails) to jump over a pile of dung. He is bothered by the torrential sound of the Brobdingnagians’ urination. On a later journey, he meets a researcher who attempts to create food from human waste. Gulliver often mentions private body parts. For example, he asks that the Lilliputians avert their eyes when walking under his legs, and he talks about the Brobdingnagian women stripping him naked and having him walk on their bare breasts.

The word anus appears a half-dozen times. One Laputan scientist attempts to cure a disease by inserting an apparatus there, and Gulliver describes the Yahoos as vile creatures with hair around the anus.

Sexual Content

Gulliver discovers that many of the historical characters he conjures up are whores, pimps and sodomites, some of whom are involved in incest or prostitute their own wives and children. Gulliver tells the Houyhnhnms about the excesses and unhealthy behavior of humans, including prostitution and its related diseases. Gulliver also comments on the Yahoo females’ aberrant sexual behavior, and he mentions how one, whom he believes to be about 14 years old, threw herself at him after seeing him bathe in the river.

Discussion Topics

If your children have read this book or someone has read it to them, consider these discussion topics :

Lying is so foreign to the Houyhnhnms that they don’t even have a word for it. What do you think our society would be like if lying didn’t exist?

Gulliver initially thinks that being immortal like the Struldbruggs would be wonderful. The people of the Laputa nation inform him otherwise. Would you like to live without dying? What would you do with your time? How would living forever on a new earth with Jesus be better?

What do you think are some of the most valuable things Gulliver learns on his journeys?

By the end of the book, Gulliver is convinced that he and all humans are descended from Yahoos. Can you name any aspects of the Yahoos that are similar to human traits or behaviors?

Which of the places Gulliver visits would you most like to see? Why?

Why do you think the book spends so much time discussing excrement and private body parts? Did that bother you, or did you think there was a purpose for it? Explain your answer.

Additional Comments

Book reviews cover the content, themes and world-views of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. A book’s inclusion does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.

You can request a review of a title you can’t find at [email protected] .

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Gulliver’s Travels – Book Review

Gulliver’s Travels is a book written by Jonathan Swift . It is based on the life of Lemuel Gulliver , an Englishman who lived in England and was trained as a surgeon who travels when his business fails . This story takes place in 1700’s.

In his first voyage his ship wrecked and he found himself bound by innumerable tiny threads and he met tiny people named  Lilliputians and the name of the land was Lilliput .When they understood that he is not an enemy they released him . He needed food as same as 1000 Lilliputians would eat . When the  were in war with the people in Blefuscu Gulliver helped Lilliputians to defeat them . After sometime he was blamed to fire the king’s palace and they decided to shoot  in his eyes and to starve him to death . When he had known that he escaped to Blefuscu and after sometime he gets back to his native place , England.

Gulliver next gets to a land named Brobdingnag were people are giants and he was like a Lilliputian to them . A farmer caught him and after sometime he selles Gulliver to the queen of the country . he was also a part of the court as he sings beautifully . One day he needed to fight with huge rats for his life . On a trip to frontier,accompanying the royal couple Gulliver leaves Brobdingnag when his cage was plucked up by an eagle and dropped into the sea .

Book review written by DEV NANDAN A , Class 8 B, Kendriya Vidyalaya Adoor Shift 1

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Yes its true that this book is v.Good. I red this book in Malayalam,my MOTHER TONGUE . It was available in English also BUT all sead I have to buy it in MALAYALAM ,well I have to learn my MOTHER TONGUE also

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Gulliver’s Travels

• September 30, 2023
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My book review is on Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift . It is a popular story because it is an adventure in lands filled with strange people. The idea of meeting different kinds of people or living beings with different kinds of society has always appealed to human beings. This is a story written almost 300 years ago and we see the same kind of interest even now.

In the book Gulliver is a surgeon and decides to work on a ship and travel the world. When his ship, Antelope, is sailing somewhere near the East Indies, a storm comes over them. Gulliver manages to swim to an island.   He falls asleep because he is tired but when he wakes up, he can’t move because his hand, legs and hair are all tied down. This is where he meets the Lilliputians, tiny people who feel he is a giant! They are friendly towards him in the beginning. Afterwards things become tricky, and he escapes from the island and returns home.

But he doesn’t stop for long in England. Instead, he sails on a ship to see the world again. Now, he ends up in a strange land near Africa called Brobdingnag. Now, he is the Lilliputian because the natives are all giants. Gulliver has to face the opposite end of everything that happened in Lilliput because he is the tiny one here. The giants are curious and come to see him from other parts of the land. Gulliver is treated like he is an attraction at the fair or zoo. After a couple of years in Brobdingnag, he feels homesick and wants to go back to England. By sheer luck a giant bird picks him up and drops him in the water, near a ship. Gulliver is rescued by the sailors, and goes home.

Like this, Gulliver keeps travelling. So, every time he comes back to England, and leaves again. Like this, he visits other lands like Laputa, Glubbdubdrib, Luggnagg and also the land of the Yahoo and Houyhnhnm. What does Gulliver learn from these people (and horses – the Houyhnhnm) and does he get back to England? Read the book to know more.

Gulliver’s Travels has always been my favourite book. I used to daydream about what I would do if I met people who were so small. When I reread the book for this contest, I realized that I still love it. Imagine going on a voyage and exploring new lands! But almost all corners of the world are well known now. SO maybe going to space is the next adventure for us humans!

I strongly recommend you read Gulliver’s Travels. Old is Gold!

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Reflection on Gulliver’s Travels Part One Essay (Book Review)

The author of A Voyage to Lilliput , which forms the first part of Gulliver’s Travels, introduces the reader to a brief historical account of his own life encounters coupled with his own family. According to The Literature Network, one can tell his travel from the evident shipwrecks and abductions coupled with instances of making long swims in an attempt to make his life safe and sound (Para. 1).

After swimming for long distances, he arrived to the shores of Lilliput. However, thinking that he was safe, his life turns otherwise and finds himself held as a captive in the upcountry. To make the narrations of this travel vivid and real, the author applies the stylistic devices such as satire, and symbols to build on his themes.

Satire is a stylistic a device where authors of literary works ridicule or rather make fun out of human weaknesses or vices. The main purpose of using satire lies predominately on the intents to correcting these vices through humor.

In part one of A Voyage to Lilliput the author incredibly satirizes the English people: something that makes them look like dwarfish especially in their capacity to cope with mega issues, thoughts and or deeds. In fact, he could not manage his business and his journey. He says, “I grew weary of the sea” (Swift Chapter 1).

This way, part one of A Voyage to Lilliput emerges as one of the enormous attacks made on humankind targeting people’s stupidity and or wickedness. As a way of example, Swift ridicules the wrangles existing between the Protestants and Roman Catholics, which resulted to war in the 18th century. Arguably, the egg controversy is a satirical strategy that enables the author to reflect and correct the eminent cultural and moral conflicts surrounding the interpretation of the holy book: The Bible.

Literary works deploy symbols to represent abstract ideas. These symbols could take the form of colors, objects, figures or even characters. Swift’s work does not fail also to make use of these symbols in an attempt to develop A Voyage to Lilliput themes.

Lilliputians, Brobdingnagians, laputans, houyhnhnms and England are some of the symbols used in A Voyage to Lilliput (Donaldson 2339). Lilliputians, as implied in the title of the chapter, depict people extensively characterized by pride. Lilliputians, not only show themselves off to the non-natives as Gulliver, but also amongst themselves.

On the other hand, Brobdingnagians is typically symbolic of personal, private and physiques of people when keenly scrutinized. Laputans symbolize the theoretical knowledge, which perhaps gives no value to humankind. While Houyhnhnms symbolize ideal and rational existence, which is depictive of life dictated by concepts of moderation and sense, England, on the other hand, is a symbol of a land of sufficiency or insufficiency.

The chief object of employing the symbols and satire is to help authors to develop successfully and in a detailed way the themes of their work. Themes encompass the universal or rather the fundamental idea introspected by a literary work. In part one of A Voyage to Lilliput, right as compared to a mighty society, as opposed to individual perceptions, and limitations of the capacity to understand among human beings, are amongst the key themes developed by Swift (Chapter 1).

Gulliver, for instance, stands out as a physically might person. By virtue of this physical mightiness, Gulliver acquires an advantage in the defeat of Blefuscudian (Donaldson 2360). Arguably, this presents a dilemma on what should regulate the actions of the society. Should mightiness or forces of moral righteousness characterize it?

Conclusively, through various characterizations, which largely serve as symbols and satire, Swift is able to build on the themes of part one of A Voyage to Lilliput. Satire presents humorous moments in the novel, though in the end, the author successfully manages to correct certain moral vices.

Works Cited

Donaldson, Talbot. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume 1 Gullivers Travels Part One: A Voyage To Lilliput . New York: Norton &company, 1980. Print.

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travel: A Voyage to Lilliput. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1727. Print.

The Literature Network. Part I. A Voyage to Lilliput , 2010. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2019, December 10). Reflection on Gulliver’s Travels Part One. https://ivypanda.com/essays/reflection-on-gullivers-travels-part-one/

"Reflection on Gulliver’s Travels Part One." IvyPanda , 10 Dec. 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/reflection-on-gullivers-travels-part-one/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'Reflection on Gulliver’s Travels Part One'. 10 December.

IvyPanda . 2019. "Reflection on Gulliver’s Travels Part One." December 10, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/reflection-on-gullivers-travels-part-one/.

1. IvyPanda . "Reflection on Gulliver’s Travels Part One." December 10, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/reflection-on-gullivers-travels-part-one/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Reflection on Gulliver’s Travels Part One." December 10, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/reflection-on-gullivers-travels-part-one/.

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Gulliver’s Travels | Jonathan Swift | Book Review | A Must Read Classic Book

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift is one of the most popular classic books. Featuring an English Surgeon’s adventures as a ship Captain as he travels to the remote parts of the world, this book is a popular children’s book too! So, read book summary, age rating, release date, genre, book quotes, and book review of Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift in this post below.

About Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift:

No. of Pages: 240 Pages

Release Date: 1726

Genre: Humour, Satire, Classics, Action, Adventure

Age Rating: 8 years and above

Buy From: AMAZON

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift Book Summary:

Lemuel Gulliver was a surgeon and also loved to travel. This book, divided into four parts, narrates his adventures travelling to the remote parts of the World. During his travels, he is shipwrecked and washed ashore on an island inhabited by tiny people called the Lilliputians who make him a prisoner.

The first part deals with his adventures on Lilliput. Then the second part of the book tracks his adventures on Brobdingnag where he is abandoned by his companions and found by a farmer. Thus starting his misadventures on this land inhabited by huge people.

Then the third part takes Gulliver to the flying Island of Laputa. This is the home of mathematicians and artists who are unable to use their talents to practical ends. And finally, the final part of the story leaves Gulliver meeting the Houyhnhnms who are a race of horses ruling the Yahoos, the humans in their base form.

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift Book Review:

First published in 1726, this book got immediate popularity and has never gone out-of-print since . Gulliver’s Travels, written by Jonathan Swift who was a clergyman as well as an Irish writer, is a satire on human nature as well as a parody of the “traveller’s tales” literary sub-genre . Also considered the best work by Swift and also an English literature classic , Cavehill in Belfast is thought to be the inspiration for this book .

The book is also a satire on the state of the European government . Swift questions whether a man is inherently corrupt or does he become corrupt with time and company. This book is valid even today and one can relate the events to the hypocrisy, corruption and politics of the human race prevalent in the present times.

Undoubtedly, philosophers are in the right when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison.” Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift Book Quote

Writing style, Plot, and Characterisation:

This made me reflect, how vain an attempt it is for a man to endeavor to do himself honor among those who are out of all degree of equality or comparison with him.” GULLIVER’S TRAVELS BY JONATHAN SWIFT BOOK QUOTE

The book is written in the first person with Gulliver as the narrator.

Then writing is simple and feels almost bland. There is no self reflection or any emotional touch to the narration.

The plot is meticulously planned and executed. And it shows that Swift knew exactly what he wanted from each scenario/character in the book.

Also the development of the characters is admirable and the reader is able to visualise and connect with each behavioural shift in their nature . Gulliver, who is practical and initially abhorred by politics and the viciousness of people. But, he, gradually, changes to a man with a hard attitude who is no longer shocked by the hypocrisy and the politicking nature of the humans.

So, a satire that is valid even today, Swift is successfully able to shed light on several aspects of human nature.

Difference in opinions has cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether the juice of a certain berry be blood or wine.” GULLIVER’S TRAVELS BY JONATHAN SWIFT BOOK QUOTE

Conclusion:

This is an intelligent piece of work and I was hooked till the very end. And then was left to reflect on what I had just read. So, a book that raises questions when read by adults, it is also capable of being read by children who will find it humorous, witty and imaginative. This is the beauty of the book as well the genius of the writer. A must read. 4.5 out of 5 stars to  Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, and Njkinny recommends this book to everyone.

You will also love reading:

• Gulliver’s Travels Wikipedia Page
• Britannica Page on Gulliver’s Travels
• Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Back Book Review, Book Quotes
• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie Book Review, Book Quotes
• The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle Book Review, Book Quotes (Sherlock Holmes Mystery)

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