One of the first novels ever published, Gulliver's Travels is a sharply written satire of 18th Century society and of the folly of human endeavor. Unfortunately, due to the abstractions of size in the text, with the minute Lilliputians and giant Brobdingnagians, the text is often mistakenly read as fantasy and thus tends to be presented to children. This is a shame because Gulliver's Travels is probably the finest example of literary satire ever written. The story should be familiar to most, Lemuel Gulliver is a traveler and ship's surgeon that is repeatedly shipwrecked on alien shores, learning the culture, language and customs of wherever he finds himself.
To go too much into the detail of this text would be to ruin many of the delightful surprises that await the reader, such as when politicians start, literally, jumping through hoops to get elected and scientists attempt to return feces to its component foodstuffs. Although it was Swift's aim to "vex the world" of the Age of Reason, the text remains relevant to contemporary society as humans continue to be unpredictable, foul, political and argumentative and far inferior to the noble Houyhnhnms, a race of pacifist, equine philosophers.
One of the hardest parts of reading Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels will be finding a copy of the text that is not adapted for children, a Penguin Classic or similar is about the only way to find the original in its entirety. If that can be managed, prepare yourself for dense 18th Century English ripe with metaphor and allusion, an annotated version (Norton) may be of some help here. For most, Gulliver's Travels is a novel to challenge, but the rewards can be great, if you haven't encountered this text since childhood, it is well worth revisiting.
Hat Guy
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