Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift
By Peter on Nov 26, 2009 in Classical novel, Excellent book, Fiction Books, Jonathan Swift, The World of Books, World literature, book review, fantasy
The world literature is full of treasures. One of them is Gulliver’s Travels, a truly remarkable and excellent book. It is a book everybody has read. But most have read it as a children’s book, and many in an 
As many of the other most cherished books in world literature, Gulliver’s Travels is a book that has much to offer along several different dimensions. It addresses fundamental questions about humans and their societies, and brings a very satirical view of the state of European government, and of the petty differences between religions. As well, it asks the old philosophical question about whether men are inherently corrupt or whether they become corrupted.
Gulliver’s Travels spins a compelling, wild, intriguing and challenging tale of one of the most fantastic voyages in classic literature. It describes the four fantastic voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, a kindly ship’s surgeon.
In the first part of the book, Lemuel Gulliver is shipwrecked on Lilliput, a strange land where the inhabitants are only 6 inches tall. Gulliver is a giant observing tiny people. There the rivalry between Britain and France is satirized.
Then he 
And in the third part Gulliver is taken aboard the floating island of Laputa. Now Swift seizes the opportunity to satirize medicine and science altogether – Swift did actually not make up the crazy experiments he describes; they were all sponsored at one time or another by the Royal Society.
Finally, in the fourth part, Gulliver is marooned by mutineers in his own crew on the island of the Houyhnhynms. Here it is gentle horses who rule the land. Now Swift fires his parting shot at human society, and presents them in degraded form as the Yahoos.
Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels has withstood the wear and tear of time and progress exceedingly well, in my opinion. It is a brilliant satirical adventure, and still a must-read for book lovers. An intelligent book with charm, whimsy and wit. A book that makes you laugh, as well as a book that makes you think.
, amazon UK
, Amazon CAN
, Amazon DE
, Bokkilden and Haugenbok.
1 Trackback(s)
You must be logged in to post a comment.