Product Description
Read by children as an adventure story and by adults as a devastating satire of society, Gulliver and his four journeys make for a fascinating blend of travelogue, realism, symbolism, and fantastic voyage—all with a serious philosophical intent.
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 Review of Gullivers Travels
This is a highly intriguing story about a man who goes on many adventures to multiple different islands, each inhabited by a certian form of creature. The first island he arrives at has everything, except all of it is in miniture, including the people! on this island he is hailed as a powerful giant. This island is know as Lilliput. he escapes from Lilliput on a boat that washed up on the shore. The second island that he arrives on is populated by gigantic everything, trees,animals, people, and so forth. on this island he is captured and originnaly displayed for money and entertainment until he is bought by the queen. he escapes from this island in a miniture house that was made for him out of wood. this island was known as Brobdingnag. Once again, he journey to a distant island. this one is populated by people who are obsessed with music, math, and astromany. He leaves this island by way of a ship which takes him to Japan. His final voyage is to the land of the Houyhnhnms. This land is populated only by fully intelligent horses and creatures called Yahoos, which have many human aspects but have sharp claws and are somewhat violent. he takes his leave from this country with the help of the Houyhnhms, who aid him in making a canoe with a sail and paddle. That is a somewhat rough review of the main ideas of his journeys to multiple island on which he finds many strange things and learns multiple languages. I liked this book becauce of its sense of adventere and because of its many new, interesting ideas.
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Excellent book, not so good edition. ( anacovo )
This is an excellent book, no doubt about it. However, the edition is not so good. My copy, which is several years old, has yellowed considerably, and the print is small, so it does not make a very comfortable read.
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NOT Bringing Home the Bacon! ( captainreflection )
Our hero Gulliver and his wife could use some counseling. It seems that every time he plops down on the sofa with his better-half and children, Gulliver gets restless and needs to go have another adventure. (Did they have sofas back then? If not, how did people crash out in front of their TV sets?) And he lives in idyllic old England, go figure!
Each time he does this (gets the traveling jones) he hops aboard some ship, tantamount to suicide in those days, eats salted meat and spoiled porridge for a few weeks, months or years, (unless there is a Chili's or Olive Garden nearby along the way--but he always seems to forget his coupons,) generally shipwrecks and sooner or later encounters some bizarre form of intelligent life in whatever fairyland he has found for himself this time, in whatever chapter of the book he happens to be sojourning in at this particular intersection of the time-space continuum.
Usually he is held captive, and then embosomed or exploited by whoever the freaks of nature are this time around, invariably escapes and by a series of miracles eventually finds his way home again, only to discover the same boring wife and children at the hearth waiting patiently despite the years that have passed without so much as a text message.
Along the way we are treated to Swift's amazing writing, great humor, wit and stellar imagination. Highly recommended, but it takes a bit of work to get through the whole thing.
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Parody of man ( newtonooi )
Europe in the 17th and 18th century was much like Latin America in the 20th century, a place where direct criticisms of those in power can be lethal, if not fatal. As a result, those with opinions to voice often do so by writing tales of fiction that parallel events and characters in the real world. Some of these tales have gone on to become great works in Western Literature. One example is this children's classic by Jonathan Swift; Gulliver's Travels. Set in fictional places and filled with fictional characters, this book tells the story of Gulliver, a ship's surgeon who experiences adventures beyond anyone's belief. By chance and accident, he is transported from one place to another, and at each point, he encounters a society that at first, is utterly different from his own. But upon closer inspection, the characteristics of each place are exaggerations of actual circumstances found in actual societies. In each place, he also describes his own world to the locals, who in turn are amazed, astounded, and sometimes disgusted by what they hear.
One example is when Gulliver arrives on the land of the Houyhnhnms, and the Yahoos they tolerate in their midst. The Yahoos are dirty, greedy, sedentary, and spend their time squabbling amongst themselves and digging along riverbanks for shiny stones. The Houyhnhnms on the other hand, are clean, upright, and roam free through the countryside. Such a story reminds one of the dichotomy between white settlers and Native Americans in North America. The latter roamed free throughout the countryside, and were known to bath themselves quite often. The former, however, rarely bathed, often fought amongst themselves, and spent a lot of time and effort digging for shiny stones that many of the natives found useless.
Another example is the war between the Lilliputs and the Blefuscu. This war, as the King of Lilliput tells Gulliver, has been going on so long that nobody remembers how it started, who started it, or what they are fighting for. This sounds quite similar to the never-ending wars between France and England throughout the 2nd millenia AD. And so the parallels and allusions go.
All told, this is one of the great works of English literature. The book combines sharp wit, irony, adventure, high drama, and some action into a great story of learning new things, meeeting new people, and coming to understand yourself better in the process.
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Fellow Yahoos, read this book! ( megustacentolla )
Gulliver's Travels is not a children's fantasy written by an avuncular Englishman. This book, instead, is a searing indictment of the human race written by a brilliant satirist and misanthrope. The Lilliput episode is most clearly inscribed in the public consciousness, perhaps because it is the least overtly damning of the human species. By the end of the book, however, when Gulliver is forced to leave the equine utopia of the Houyhnhnms, the utter perfidy of humanity is laid bare without compunction. (And it is still as true and applicable to today's societies as it was three-hundred years ago.) No one likes being criticized, especially when guilty of the offense, and Swift is unsparing in his condemnation of our collective culpability. (He makes provision for the goodness of the individual, though, such as the Portuguese ship's captain.) One of the ten best books I've ever read.
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