Product Description

Shipwrecked castaway Lemuel Gulliver's encounters with the petty, diminutive Lilliputians, the crude giants of Brobdingnag, the abstracted scientists of Laputa, the philosophical Houyhnhnms, and the brutish Yahoos give him new, bitter insights into human behavior. Swift's fantastic and subversive book remains supremely relevant in our own age of distortion, hypocrisy, and irony.

Edited with an Introduction by Robert DeMaria, Jr.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14873 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780141439495
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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About the Author
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), a poet, satirist, and clergyman, published many satirical works, among them A Modest Proposal.

Robert DeMaria, Jr. is Henry Noble McCracken Professor of English at Vassar College. He has published widely on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century literature.

Customer Reviews

No More Excuses - It's Time to Read Gulliver's Travels
I am certain that nearly every person in the Western world (and some beyond it) is familiar with the quintessential scene of "Gulliver's Travels," that of a man tied down to the ground and surrounded by tiny humans. I am equally certain however, that only a very small percentage of these people have actually read Jonathan Swift's satirical novel, first published in 1726. If you consider yourself a serious reader, then "Gulliver's Travels" is essential reading, one of the many classic novels that you simply *have* to read before you die.

Divided into four parts, "Gulliver's Travels" is presented as the historical memoirs of Lemuel Gulliver who narrates his strange adventures in undiscovered countries. In doing so, Swift explores and satirises almost every conceivable issue important in both his time and in ours: politics, religion, gender, science, progress, government, family and our basic ideas of defining humanity. As well as this, the novel is full of wonder and humour (some of it bordering on the vulgar!) and Swift's exploration of imaginary societies and countries is satire at its peak - no one before or since has reached Swift's mastery of this style.

Some of the more direct parodies concern people and events that have long since passed away, and as such an index or extensive background is required in order to fully understand the allusions that Swift is making. However, a far larger portion of the text discusses issues that are still relevant to today's readers, especially in the responsibilities of power and the limits to technological/scientific progression.

Part One: "A Voyage to Lilliput" is the most famous segment of the novel, and the context of the afore-mentioned "hostage episode". After taking leave of his family and country, Gulliver is washed up on the shores of an island inhabited by humanoid beings not more than six inches tall. Though at first suspicious, Gulliver soon earns the trust of the Lilliputian people who enlist their newfound giant in defending them from their enemies on the bordering island of Blefufeu - who likewise are desperate to use the giant in their war against Lilliput. Hmm, a squabble over what is considered a weapon capable of mass destruction. Sound familiar? This ability to place modern day references over older texts and their meanings is what separates literature from books - universal themes and concerns that do not age with time.

In Part Two, Gulliver reaches the polar opposite of Lilliput in "A Voyage to Brobdingnag", a country of giants where he becomes the helpless victim of a greedy farmer who exploits his diminutive stature to his own advantage. Displayed as a freak of nature, the tiny Gulliver is forced to perform circus tricks till he finally comes into the care of the royal court. Despite being cared for by the gentle farmer's daughter Grildrig, Gulliver has to survive wasp-attacks, hungry cats and a malicious dwarf before he is finally seized by a hunting bird and set adrift at sea.

One of the most appealing things about Gulliver's travels in both Lilliput and Brobdingnag is the disorientation he feels on re-entering the company of humans of a normal stature - each time they seem either too small or too big and Gulliver is constantly slouching or tip-toeing in an attempt to reconcile his body to what his mind tells him he should see. The best part is that we share this confusion with him, as we ourselves become accustomed to life in the tiny and giant worlds.

Part Three is the least known of the four parts, and for those who have read the novel, the least popular. I consider this unfortunate as it is more full of variety and wonderment than the other segments, contains some of his sharpest parodies and is my personal favourite `voyage' in the novel. Titled "A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Gluggdubdrib and Japan", it is easy to see that it this episode is filled with Swift's most creative inventions. It is here that Gulliver discovers a floating island, a race of immortals, a university in which they attempt to discover the answers to all things and an island of spirits who summon historical figures up out of the past. With everything from inward-eyed people to Alexander the Great to exploding dogs, Part Three has it all.

Finally, in Part Four, the novel reaches its most critical and thought-provoking statement on humankind in "A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms". Gulliver reaches a country inhabited by a remarkable race of horses with the intelligence of humans - perhaps with even *more* intelligence than humans. Also living here is a disgusting race of beings known as "Yahoos" - filthy, greedy, slothful, lecherous creatures who embody every vice known to mankind - and who are suspiciously humanoid in shape and form. Gulliver is faced with a crisis of the soul: does he really come from the race of Yahoos? Will the Houyhnhnms accept him as one of their own or as a Yahoo? And how can he ever return home with the devastating wisdom he has gained? Swift presents a fascinating study on the dark side of humanity and the nobility of animals in the climax of the novel that is the most controversial, the most studied and the most memorable.

"Gulliver's Travels" is not an easy book to read; like all older literary novels it requires the attention and patience of the reader, has complicated and contemporary issues to discuss and a tendency to be a bit long-winded at times. But regardless of this, "Gulliver's Travels" is a fascinating and enjoyable read and one of those books that just *has* to be read during your lifetime - if not for any other reason but to say that you *have* read it. Though the scanty amount of reviews on this page is disheartening, "Gulliver's Travels" is a must-read, pure and simple.

I also recommend the Hallmark adaptation of Swift's novel - NOT to be watched instead of reading the book, but as a surprisingly faithful and intelligent miniseries that accompanies the novel well.

A great text that will live on for centuries
Swift's Gulliver's Travels is one of the smartest British novels ever written. It is a funny, sharp, poignant, and startling look at human nature. The most interesting part of the novel is the many conversations between Gulliver and the Houyhnhnm master relating to the causes of war and other aspects of human nature. This novel is a wonderful reflection of human society that really makes the reader question his or her methods or discourse.

On Extracting Sunlight From Cucumbers, And Other Human Follies
"Gulliver's Travels" is perhaps the best known of a classical satires, following the adventures of Lemuel Gulliver on multiple journeys all of which serve his objective of profiling the moral (and physical) fragility of mankind, with special care taken to point out problems associated with hubris and war (Swift was an extreme pacifist.) This edition of the book features commentary and notes by Robert DeMaria which are helpful putting the book in context, especially for those deficient in knowledge of English political history. As an aside, the textual notes are so numerous, that footnotes would have been vastly more functional to the reader than endnotes, nevertheless, the commentary is largely on the mark and helpful.

The book is written in four parts, of which most students are only exposed to part one, as I was previously. In part one, Gulliver ventures to Lilliput, where he is a giant among men, the Lilliputians being very small. He is in fact referred to as "Quinbus Flestrin," or, the "Man-Mountain." Part one is essentially about political strife in England, and directly skewers the Walpole government with the character of Flimnap. One of the issues for readers will be keeping a running account of all the over-the-top names Swift uses throughout the book (Houyhnhnms, Traldragdubb, Balnibarbi, Brobdingnag, etc.) The notes explain how these are clever, playful words satirizing specific people or things in Europe as it then was, but I must admit to finding them a bit wearisome to wade through after a few hundred pages. Perhaps the most recognizable of the satirized states is Blefuscu, a dead ringer for France. These are minor inconveniences to endure to read one of the greatest works of satire (and allegory) ever written, though I think Swift tops this in the pure satire department with "A Modest Proposal."

Part two has Gulliver in a role-reversal as he ventures to Brobdingnag where he is now small relative to the population. He is exploited and used as entertainment, but is cared for by the young Glumdalclitch, who becomes his tutor as well. Throughout the book Swift uses extremely expressive language ("She would craunch the Wing of a Lark, Bones and all, between her Teeth...") and displays an unfortunate predilection for describing human waste production (I actually considered titling the review "Obsession With Excrement" but decided to leave that to a future student's dissertation in psychology.) This section highlights the parallels between Swift and the equally brilliant, though much less known work, "The Monikins" by James Fenimore Cooper from 1835. I believe that part two is the most pointed towards government with passages like "You have clearly proved that Ignorance, Idleness, and Vice are the proper Ingredients for qualifying a Legislator" (pages 122-123.) Later he similarly skewers lawyers (most notably on page 229, and in the information provided in the "Textual Notes" on page 303,) a feature of the book I enjoyed immensely.

Section three is the weakest of the four, and also the last written. It concerns Gulliver's adventures with the flying island, Laputa, and while comparatively weak, is delightfully whimsical. A favorite example is on page 150 where the serving methods of foods are discussed ("...a Shoulder of Mutton, cut into an Equilateral Triangle...," etc.) One other note I will make about the book is the very unconventional (by modern standards) capitalization, italic usage, and spelling. DeMaria explains his process for cleaning up the text which is admirable in its purity, though I would have been more pleased if he had applied contemporary conventions of font use at least. Also of note is the fact that Swift himself is irritating in his very irregular and inconsistent spelling and punctuation.

Part four is my personally least favorite, as it quickly devolves into what could today be seen as a socialist fantasy world of the Houyhnhnms, horses who rule wisely and justly over the savage and detestable Yahoos (humans.) This part drags, and turns to human self-loathing very rapidly (Gulliver can't even stand the smell of his wife when he returns to England, preferring the odor of his stable, for one example of many.) While I grasp the satirical points that Swift was attempting to make in this part, it falls short for me, although it does make his pacifist bent quite clear. Part four makes the points that Swift sets out to make, and on that level it is successful, I just don't think all the points he seeks to make are valid.

Overall this in combination with "A Modest Proposal" (an essay from 1729 which suggests that the Irish eat their own children) are the most famous works of satire ever written, and should be read by any serious student of English literature or history.