Gulliver's Travels (Collector's Library)Jonathan Swift | 2011-03-01 00:00:00 | Collector's Library | 408 | Classics
Jonathan Swift's masterpiece is the finest satire in the English language. Shipwrecked traveller Lemuel Gulliver finds himself washed ashore in Lilliput, a kingdom populated by tiny people. Fascinated by their exotic visitor, the Lilliputians enlist Gulliver's services in their bitter civil war. But Gulliver becomes the object of a court intrigue and has to make a hasty escape. On his next voyage, his ship is blown off course to Brobdingnag, whose giant inhabitants strike him as horrific and occasionally revolting. A third journey takes him to Laputa, a floating island occupied by pedantic scientists and philosophers. Finally, he encounters a society of rational horses, the Houyhnhnms, and witnesses the appalling behaviour of their servants the Yahoos, a group who are in many ways disturbingly similar to Man at his most bestial. Swift's brilliantly original story is a timeless portrait of the human condition in all its misery and majesty.
Reviews This book is a masterpiece. I picked up an old dusty copy of this title at a book fair just so I could have this classic on my shelf. I was just out of college and not too interested in reading anything too boring and heavy. I figured I would scan through it just so I would be able to to say I read it and talk about it a little. What a surprise when I started reading- I couldn't put it down!
It was the original version with the addition of footnotes that explained the political climate and other relevant facts of the day. I strongly suggest that you obtain a version with this information as without it you are missing 3/4 of the reading experience. I actually read the whole book twice just to try and pick up the funny, quirky things I might have missed. There are just so many levels to this book. On the surface it is a book about a man and his travels to strange faraway places. Underneath it is a scathing, comical, statement on the state of society and the movers and shakers of the day. I did not know that Jonathan Swift was a comic genius, but this is a fact you cannot miss if you read this book understanding the social satire weaved throught its chapters. I actually would find myself laughing out loud and being overcome with awe at the complexity of the humor the author was able to conjure.
Reviews It is difficult to review a "classic" novel given the weight of history and the number of reviews already written. However, this is an enjoyable adventure with very imaginative settings.
I agree with earlier reviews that the first 2 voyages are the more interesting, or at least not so laden with political messages. The later two are more interesting ideas for alternative fantasy settings but are bogged down by too much preaching.
There is a gem in here for Studio Ghibli fans, the third voyage was inspiration for a popular Ghibli movie.
Reviews My first experience of Gulliver's Travels was when I was about 7 or 8. My father had been a part of this subscription service from some publisher (I think it's the Franklin Library) called the "100 Greatest Books of All Time." The edition he had was heavy with gilded pages and was something that seemed like one of those medieval illuminated manuscripts. Each few pages had a beautiful, colored illustration of Gulliver struggling.
Before I'd go to bed, he'd sit by my dresser on his wooden chair with a glass of water--at least that's what I thought it was--on his knee, and I'd be wrapped in a blanket with my back to the head of my bed frame. When he started reading, his posture would straighten out and he'd hold the gold hardback up to his eyes with one hand, the glass of "water" held in the other. Every few page turns, he'd sip at the glass and inhale sharply as if he were washing down what he had read. I remember hearing his voice bellow above the reading lamp in a kind of dark monotone. It wasn't like when he read My Father's Dragon or Wonderland. He would describe Gulliver trapped and tied down, and I remember feeling guilty for laughing. The most he would do is invisibly smile in the shadow of the lamplight and snicker.
My father died this past summer. About a month after the funeral, I was walking through Border's trying to figure out what books I wanted my students to read (I just started a teaching apprenticeship at a local high school), and I ended up finding this edition. The good thing about it is that the price is so cheap.
Upon rereading it this past summer, I suddenly realized what Swift and my Father saw in the text. This was by no means simply a children's book or even a "misanthropic" novel, but instead, Gulliver's Travels maps perfectly the lifespan of a human being. This novel is clearly a bildungsroman. This occurred to me when I realized that the reader's concept of the author "Gulliver" is a result of his travels. Each world he visits, he is at first considered an outsider and then becomes, somewhat, a part of the society. Gulliver is an amorphous narrator; he exists only through these worlds and therefore, grows with the text. He is not just a passive observer to these magical places, but the context of his visits shapes him, the narrator, as much as it does change the reader.
How he is seen is through the context in which he is put. The Lilliputians are, obviously, a symbol for childhood. Brobbindang is pubescence as in this section, Gulliver sees the ugliness of the human form. The things that were cute in childhood now are these frightening forms. The last world Gulliver visits is a reference to the cynicism of old age. He sees humanity for what it is, a bunch of Yahoos. With this key in mind, you can clearly see how Gulliver's Travels is not misanthropic but an acceptance and analysis of the "human life cycle." We all go through these stages during our life, just like how we go through them while reading the text. My father helped me realize this. When he read this novel to me as a child, he was teaching me what to expect from this world.
However, this edition is worth "four stars" because the book is fairly cheap and feels like it will fall apart at any second. It feels as if there is no weight to it and is poorly constructed. Pages would be ripped out as they were turned. My father's stable, gold hardback edition was sold in a garage sale for a few cents four years ago. It's sad to say i don't think you can read it like that hardback tomb anymore.
Reviews I purchased this book in Kindle form in order to use it as a reference book for a research paper regarding Swift & Gulliver;s Travels. I thought it would be easier than using the Google Books version, since it would be at my disposal regardless of being online or not. Imagine my surprise when I opened the book & it was the exact same book I already have, Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift & NOT Gulliver's Travels (Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism) by Swift & Christopher Fox. Kindle didn't even pick it up as the same book, but when I clicked on this new book, it actually opened up to the place I had bookmarked in my previously purchased "Gulliver" book. I do NOT need two exact copies of the same book!!! Bad Amazon!!!
Reviews What a good story. If you remove the fairy tale element and actually listen to the political and ethical issues raised in the commentary, it really hits home. Well worth the time to read.
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