Gulliver's Travels (Signet Classics)

Book Description

This masterpiece tells the incredible tale of Lemuel Gulliver, an English ship's surgeon. He is shipwrecked upon the shores of Lilliput, where the residents are only six inches high, then journeys takes him to the land of Brobdingnag, populated by giants, a floating island in the sky, and a land where horses have intelligence and man lives as a beast. His adventures, while read by children as an adventure story, are a devastating satire of society and human foibles. Part travelogue, part realism, part symbolism, Gullivers Travels remains a treasured classic of literature.

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One of the unique books of world literature, Swift's masterful satire describes the astonishing voyages of one Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon, to surreal kingdoms inhabited by miniature people and giants, quack philosophers and scientists, horses endowed with reason and men who behave like beasts. Written with great wit and invention, Gulliver's Travels is a savage parody on man and his institutions that has captivated readers for nearly three centuries.

Customer Reviews:

Parody of man.......2007-02-11

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.

Fellow Yahoos, read this book!.......2006-12-31

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.

Great book, great price.......2006-10-05

I am quickly becoming a fan of the Dover Thrift editions of classic literature. They are well-made, sturdy, and a great bargain. All of them that I have bought and assigned to my students have been $2.50. What can you buy for $2.50 anymore? Now you can have an entire library of unabridged classics at a more than reasonable rate.

Jonathan Swift's "Gullivers Travels" is no exception to the rule. This brilliant 18th century satire endures to our times. Swift, in turns, attacks (in his subversive way) makind's vanities, follies, cruelties, and morals. The floating island crushing the lower island is still, to my mind, the best attack on England's merciless domination of Ireland.

Some readers think: "I've heard so much about this book, but I didn't think it was so great." Certainly, our expectations about something that is considered a classic may outweigh the book itself. Please put aside whatever you might have heard and approach this book with an open mind. You will see it for the monument of English literature that it is.

Rocco Dormarunno
College of New Rochelle

A lazy edition.......2006-04-04

A proper critical account of Swift's text would exceed by far the space given here. As someone doing scholarly work on Gulliver's Travels, I would merely like to point out that Mr. Rivero's edition is a bit confusing. For some reason, he has decided that it was a good idea to move the letter prefacing the text to the end (which, as the "Advertisement" itself says should be "prefixed" to the volume). The critical apparatus is truly commonsensical, and at times, reduces the novel to a sad, straightforward allegory. One would only wish that the criticism section were as interesting as it is extensive. All this said, there is nothing violently "wrong" with this edition.

Mixed feelings.......2006-03-08

This book was brilliantly written relating the human nature of the time. Whoever criticizes it for the lack of character development, does not fully understand the nature of the book. It is a satire, Swift purposely wrote as little as possible about the main character so we won't relate to him. His purpose was to compare the creatures he met on each of his voyages to the English government and politicians. Even though he was pretty accurate about the politics of the time, he was too negative. Yes, it is the human nature to be corrupt, greedy, selfish and all the other things he mentioned in his book. But people also express kindness, love and compassion and he failed to convey any of that in his work.

Average customer rating:

Misanthropic and proud of it
Swift's satire finds time travel difficult, but it's a great read anyway
Worth dusting off, except for Book IV
On Extracting Sunlight From Cucumbers, And Other Human Follies
The best-priced edition

Gulliver's Travels (Penguin Classics)
Jonathan Swift , and Robert DeMaria
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0141439491

Book 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.

Customer Reviews:

Misanthropic and proud of it.......2007-09-16

Swift's masterwork has lost none of its bite. His acerbic misanthropy is on full display here.

As the book progresses, Swift's contempt for humanity grows. This is partly what made the book so compelling for me. Gulliver is only truly happy when he is among the Houyhnhnms, the horse people in the final part of the book. He develops such a dislike for humans that he finds it hard to re-acclimate upon returning to his family in England. What is compelling is that Swift was so obviously misanthropic, yet was able to get away with it. It really speaks to his skill as a novelist. In the hands of a lesser writer, this book would have come out horribly wrong.

Swift's descriptions of the different worlds are something to behold. As the reader, I could clearly picture each place in my mind. Swift gives the reader just enough to vividly imagine the world Gulliver is in at that time. Swift has the idea that the reader can do some of the work on his own, which is sadly not something authors ascribe to these days. This is partly the reason why this book is such a classic.

A wonderful commentary on the follies and shortcomings of humanity.

Swift's satire finds time travel difficult, but it's a great read anyway.......2007-08-27

It's a good read and probably every bit the masterpiece its reputation claims. The problem with satire, however, is that it doesn't stand alone. Parody, on the other hand, ought to make sense in itself, but obviously more sense if the object of the parody is understood and familiar. Satire only seems to make sense if you know the original.

The section in Lilliput describing the bloke with different sized heels on his shoes, for instance, is very funny, but only when the footnote has provided the context. He is described as having to negotiate a political line between the faction that likes high heels and the other that likes low ones. He makes awkward progress with both groups, since he can barely walk or stand up straight in a pair of shoes made up so he can have a foot in each camp. The reference is beautiful. It refers to High Church and Low Church in the Anglican tradition, and therefore to Whig and Tory, the opposing political parties of the time. To stay sweet with both, certain royals kept a foot in both camps, making their progress as ridiculous as the rough-shod Lilliputian.

In the books three sections, Gulliver is too big, then too small, then everyone is a horse except for the noxious Yahoos, of course. It was still a lot of fun and, probably, hard witting. The trouble, again, was knowing the targets. If today's Yahoos are considered... perhaps Swift might have googled his yahoos if he had been writing today.

One last observation is about well-known classics in general. The most famous scene from Gulliver's Travels, at least the one most depicted, is of Gulliver strapped to the ground by Lilliputian string and twine, while the little blighters run all over him. In Don Quixote, an equally quintessential scene is the tilting at windmills, mistaken by the knight for giants. It is interesting that both of these much quoted scenes appear very early in their respective books. I wonder if that might have something to do with certain people never getting very far through them!

Worth dusting off, except for Book IV.......2007-01-28

On a dreary January day, I ran across some old High School literature books and decided on re-reading Gulliver's Travels, this time for enjoyment rather than a grade.
Now that I have a little more knowledge of European history than I did as a teenager, I did indeed enjoy a fair amount of the satire in Gulliver's voyages.
However, I've got to say that his fourth book with the talking horses slowed me down so much I feared I wouldn't finish the book. Swift moved from satire to moaning and griping about everything human. Wasn't he a priest? I would've expected a man of God to at least have run across one or two worhty persons who might have uplifted him a little.
The starry-eyed gushing over the Utopian horses and unrelentingly negative portrayals of mankind gets very old, very fast. Makes me wish I hadn't picked up the dusty old book in the first place. I'm glad I did, though, for the sake of the first two books.

On Extracting Sunlight From Cucumbers, And Other Human Follies.......2006-10-10

"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.

The best-priced edition.......2006-09-11

Like some of my other reviews, there's no need to rehash the narrative of a story that any English literature major already knows.

What's imperative here is that this is one of the best editions of Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" with an excellent introduction, and is, as most Penguin books are, perfectly bound. Most importantly, it is cheaply priced. This is the perfect edition of Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" for both the college student, and anyone who has wanted to finally read this great tale, but has been putting it off. Now you have no excuse.

Rocco Dormarunno
College of New Rochelle

Gulliver and the Gentle Reader: Studies in Swift and Our Time

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Gulliver and the Gentle Reader: Studies in Swift and Our Time
Claude Rawson
Manufacturer: Humanities Press Intl
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Critical Companion to Jonathan Swift: A Literary Reference to His Life and Works (Critical Companion)

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Critical Companion to Jonathan Swift: A Literary Reference to His Life and Works (Critical Companion)
Paul J. Degategno , and R. Jay Stubblefield
Manufacturer: Facts on File
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0816050937

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Gulliver's Travels
Jonathan Swift
Manufacturer: Ann Arbor Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1587263904

Gulliver's Travels (Oxford World's Classics)

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Gulliver's Travels (Oxford World's Classics)
Jonathan Swift
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192805347

Book Description

'Thus, gentle Reader, I have given thee a faithful History of my Travels for Sixteen Years, and above Seven Months; wherein I have not been so studious of Ornament as of Truth.' In these words Gulliver represents himself as a reliable reporter of the fantastic adventures he has just set down; but how far can we rely on a narrator whose identity is elusive and whoses inventiveness is self-evident? Gulliver's Travels purports to be a travel book, and describes Gulliver's encounters with the inhabitants of four extraordinary places: Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the country of the Houyhnhnms. A consummately skilful blend of fantasy and realism makes Gulliver's Travels by turns hilarious, frightening, and profound. Swift plays tricks on us, and delivers one of the world's most disturbing satires of the human condition. This new edition includes the changing frontispiece portraits of Gulliver that appeared in successive early editions.

A Tale of a Tub and Other Works (Oxford World's Classics)

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The most elusive of great books
Damagingly Funny

A Tale of a Tub and Other Works (Oxford World's Classics)
Jonathan Swift
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192835939

Book Description

This volume includes "The Battle of the Books" and "The Mechanical Operation of the Spirit", both which accompanied "A Tale of a Tub" on its first publication in 1704.

Customer Reviews:

The most elusive of great books.......2000-04-24

A Tale of a Tub is certainly Swift's least classifiable work. He's best known, of course, for Gulliver's Travels. This work was mostly written at the very start of his career, when he hadn't yet totally hardened into his later misanthropy, and it has all the demented exuberance of a great writer in his mid-20s finding a voice.

It defies description. The kernel of it is a satire on religious controversies, but that makes up about a third of the actual text. The rest is a series of prologues, forewords, dedications, prefaces, afterwords, epilogues and appendices, the sheer profusion of which suggest very much that Swift is poking dire fun at the idea of writing itself. In that respect, it goes further than any 20th century French golden boy of artistic revolt; Artaud looks like a stamped-in-tin romantic poet when set against Swift's manic nihilism. A Tale of a Tub is the closest anyone has ever got to writing a book that tackles head-on the futility of writing books, but that's only one interpretation of it. It exhausts interpretation by being as near as possible about nothing at all - and hence about everything. Plus it's not even 200 pages long. Swift never wrote as irresponsibly ever again, although the Travels, 'A Modest Proposal', the Bickerstaffe Papers, the 'Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift' and the Drapier's Letters are all admirable enough. A Tale of a Tub is as comprehensive a piece of literary terrorism as was ever attempted.

Damagingly Funny.......2000-03-28

Swift, the greatest English satirist, is of course best known for Gulliver's Travels, but the Tale of a Tub is more complex, more vicious, and funnier. In some of the best prose of the 18th century, he ridicules all sorts of conventions, religious, literary, rhetorical, and otherwise. He makes full use of the capacity that prose has for being deliriously irrelevant and digressive. It is similar in some ways to Tristram Shandy and the novels of postmodernism. It'll give you fits.

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Jonathan Swift: Political Writer
J. A. Downie
Manufacturer: Routledge & Kegan Paul Books Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics)

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Good introduction to Swift
GREAT IRISH WRITER STILL FRESHER THAN TODAY
No Gulliver's Travels
Gulliver
Hey! Where's all the reviews?

The Major Works (Oxford World's Classics)
Jonathan Swift
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

ASIN: 0192840789

Book Description

This authoritative edition was originally published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series under the general editorship of Frank Kermode. It brings together a unique selection from the full range of Swift's fifty-year career - prose, poetry, and letters - to give the essence of his work and thinking. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) is best known as the author of Gulliver's Travels, which alone would have secured his place in the history of English literature. But in addition to this classic fictional satire, Swift wrote numerous works concerning politics, religion, and Ireland, some savage (such as A Modest Proposal), others humorous, and all suffused with his tremendous wit, inventiveness, and vigour. This anthology includes satirical works such as A Tale of a Tub and The Battle of the Books, political pamphlets, pieces for the popular press, poems, and a generous selection from Swift's correspondence. Presented chronologically, the anthology offers a new and clearer awareness of the unity as well as the complexity of Swift's vision, and the powerful bonds between disparate pieces.

Customer Reviews:

Good introduction to Swift.......2007-01-05

I like this book. It gives you a good introduction to Swift. If you like the man, which this book tries to present through letters, then you can later read a more complete book with his writings.

GREAT IRISH WRITER STILL FRESHER THAN TODAY.......2006-07-25

Jonathon Swift, a wonderful Irish satirist long before such great Irish twentieth century parodists, ironists and satirists such as Joyce, Shaw, WIlde and Beckett, served as an inspiration for much of what is best in our twentieth century literature. Particularly post-modern is his Tale of the Tub which first satirized the then new conventions of the printed book, as well described by PRof. Hugh Kenner.

This volume gives a full view of the spectrum of Mr. Swift's writings, beyond Gulliver. By the way, do read Gulliver unabridged (not Disney) to understand among other things how he put out the palace fire, and how he served as intimate toy in the land of the giants, and as always, get intelligent commentaries for fullest understanding and insight

FOr the greatest in English literature beyond Shakespeare, turn to the Irish, always, odd for a nation whose greatest tale-telling tradition and tour-de-forces remain spoken rather than written.

No Gulliver's Travels.......2006-07-07

I haven't yet read the pieces in this book, but I was disappointed to find out that this book does NOT contain Gulliver's Travels.

One would expect that Jonathan Swift's Great Works would contain his greatest work. One would be wrong.

Gulliver.......2006-06-28

Gulliver's Travels has stood the test of time, but the question can still be asked: What kind of work is it? I would not qualify it as a "novel". Scholars continue to debate what "a novel" is and when it emerged in the English literature. My own feeling is that Gulliver's Travel is not part of "the rise of the novel". To begin with, it lacks the attention to detail and characterization that typify novels generally. In my opinion, there are many other reasons why GT cannot be deemed a novel. Unfortunately, there is not space enough to list them all. UGT is a satiric 'tale', not a novel. To prove that GT is a novel would be a large task.

Indeed, when GT was published the idea of "character" as being important in writing was not firmly established yet. As for the notion that Swift taught satire to England, this is again debatable. Certainly Swift broadened satire, but satire typifies the seventeeth and eighteenth century in general. Dryden, especially, redefined satire in a major way, long before Swift. Regarding the claim that England produced/produces the best literature in the world, this is debatable. What about Germany and France? In the last 50 years, France has produced a considerable amount of Nobel Prize winning authors - far more than England. What about Russia? Dostyovski and Tolstoy are widely held to be the greatest novelists ever. To say that England reigns supreme, without having read French authors in French, German authors in German, Russian authors in Russian (and so on), is presumptious.

To return to GT, it is chock-full of political allusions but enjoyable even to readers unaware of the politics.

Hey! Where's all the reviews?.......2005-06-10

This book, the major works of possibly the greatest English writer to ever live (that's saying something since England has the greatest writers, well, until the Beat Generation came along)should have a very long list of reviews. I want to know about this book people! You are being selfish!

Having read Gulliver's Travels, I can say that Jonathan Swift was a genius. These works have so much with their irony, wit, and expert satire to teach us. It contains Swifts two early works of prose, A Tale of a Tub, from 1704, exposes and satires abuses in religion. Swift was the Dean of the St. Patrick's church in Ireland. The Battle of the Books, written in 1696, but not published until 1704, was Swift's first book and I think it is in this great book. The Great Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)is usually known as the writer of the Greatest Novel of the 18th Century, Gulliver's Travels, but he is also known as Britain's greatest satirist. Swift is the one who taught the modern world how to satire and, like they say, "Whom Gods destroy, they first make mad." Swift went slowly insane after writing awesome works like Gulliver's Travels (1726) and A Modest Proposal (1729)because he was just too much of a genius for the human body to hold and because of the Menier's Syndrome and probable Alzheimer's Disease, October 19, 1745 was the day Great Britan and the whole world lost the greatest satirist to ever live.

Somebody Write a REVIEW DAMNIT!!!

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Only half the story...

Gulliver's Travels (Young Reading 2)
Jonathan Swift , and Gill Harvey
Manufacturer: Usborne Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0794503292

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Only half the story..........2004-03-24

I had been reading the unabridged version of Gulliver's Travels myself, and my 7-year old son kept asking me to read it to him. The text is dense and we kept having to pause for lengthy explanations, so I decided to buy a "children's" version of Gulliver's Travels to read to my two boys, ages 5 and 7. This book is well illustrated, with a picture on every page, and is split into 6 short chapters. At 60-plus pages, you can read this book aloud in 15 minutes. However, the adventures in this book cover ONLY Gulliver's trip to Lilliput, and even that in only the most superficial way. There is no mention of his three subsequent voyages to island homes of equally fascinating peoples. If all you really want to share with your children is the most well-known of Gulliver's travels, and you are comfortable presenting it in a simplistic, picture-book way, then this book is for you. I would have prefered a book that covered all of Gulliver's travels, and in more detail, yet still providing illustrations and vocabulary appropriate for the 7-12 age group.

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