Gulliver’s Travels
Swift's 1726 satire of politics, science and human vanity, disguised as a book of voyages.
Gulliver sails four times and returns from each voyage less sure of his own species: to Lilliput, where politics is conducted in miniature; to Brobdingnag, where a king hears an account of England and is appalled; to a flying island of abstracted projectors; and finally to a country of rational horses. Swift wrote it in 1726 as a satire on the parties and philosophies of his day, and it has been read as an adventure ever since.
Recommended by 1 Person
P. J. O’Rourke
In the first place, it is very funny. We read it first as an adventure story, when we were kids, without understanding the political context in Europe or the philosophical context. Then when we read it again as adults we realise that Swift is having a good deal of fun here. Just the religious allegory with the Big-enders and the Little-enders and the idea of people who live forever.
Interview · November 2010
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