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“Regard to good morals than to great abilities;
for, since the government is necessary to mankind, they believe, that the common
size of human understanding is fitted to some station or other; and that
Providence never intended to make the management of public affairs a mystery to
be comprehended only by a few people of sublime.” - Gulliver
Introduction:
Book Name: Gulliver’s
Travels
Author Name: Jonathan
Swift
Genre: Satire,
children’s literature
Language: English
I read this engaging novel again during 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.
About the Author:
Jonathan Swift [30 November 1667 - 19 October 1745] was an Anglo – Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer. Swift is remembered for works such as Gulliver’s travels, The Battle of the Books, A Tale of a Tub.
He is regarded by the Encyclopaedia Britannica as the foremost
prose satirist in the English language, and less well known for his poetry. He
originally published all of his work under pseudonyms. He is also known for
being a master of two styles of satire, the Horatian and Juvenalian styles.
About the Book:
Gulliver’s Travels was written in 1726 by English writer Jonathan Swift. Originally titled Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In four parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a captain of several ships, the book tells the story of a surgeon who has a taste for adventure.
In each of its four books the hero, Lemuel Gulliver, embarks on a voyage; but a shipwreck or some other hazard usually casts him up on a strange land. The first part is a voyage to Lilliput where Gulliver finds himself in the land of miniature people who are less than 6 inches tall where you could see him as a giant among the race of little people.
Man - Mountain, as Gulliver is called ingratiates himself with the arrogant, self-important Lilliputians when he wades into the sea and captures an invasion fleet from neighboring. Learning of a plot to charge him with treason, he escapes from the island.
The second part is a voyage to Brobdingnag
where the inhabitants are giants. He is cared for kindly by a nine-year-old girl,
Glumdalclitch, but his tiny size exposes him to dangers and indignities, such
as getting his head caught in a
squalling baby’s mouth. Also, the giants’ small physical imperfection is
highly visible and disturbing to him. Picked up by an eagle and dropped into
the sea, he manages to return home.
The third part is a voyage to Laputa which is a floating island, whose absent-minded inhabitants are so preoccupied with higher speculations that they are in constant danger of accidental collisions.
He visits
the Academy of Lagado, where he finds its lunatic savants engaged in such
impractical studies as reducing human excrement to the original food. In
Luggnagg meets the Struldbruggs, a race of immortals, whose eternal senility
is brutally described.
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The last part is a voyage to the Land of the Houyhnhnms – grave, rational, and virtuous horses. There is also another race on the island, uneasily tolerated and used for menial services by the Houyhnhnms. These are the vicious and physically disgusting Yahoos.
Although
Gulliver pretends at first not to recognize them, he is forced at last to admit
the Yahoos are human beings. He finds perfect happiness with the Houyhnhnms,
but as he is only a more advanced Yahoos, he is rejected by them in the general
assembly and is returned to England, where he finds himself no longer able to
tolerate the society of his fellow human beings.
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,
imagination, and reality at play, this novel will 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 no many in-depth meanings.
My rating for the book 4/5
You can easily buy this book from Amazon: Gulliver's Travels
Written By – Prachi Mann
Edited By - Anamika Malik
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