Gulliver's Travels and Other Writings

By Jonathan Swift

Book Overview

Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read "It is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery," remarked Alexander Pope when Gulliver's Travels was published in 1726. 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. As bestselling author and critic Allan Bloom observed: " Gulliver's Travels is an amazing rhetorical achievement. Swift had not only the judgment with which to arrive at a reasoned view of the world but the fancy by means of which he could re-create that world in a form which teaches where argument fails and which satisfies all while misleading none." This representative collection of Swift's major writings includes the complete Gulliver's Travels as well as A Tale of a Tub, "The Battle of the Books," "A Modest Proposal," "An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity," "The Bickerstaff Papers," and many more of his brilliantly satirical works. Here too are selections from Swift's poetry and portions of his Journal to Stella. Swift's savage ridicule, corrosive wit, and sparkling humor are fully displayed in this comprehensive collection.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 055321232X
• ISBN13: 9780553212327
• Release Date: September 1984
• Publisher: Bantam Classics
• Length: 656 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 4.1" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

A closet libertarian.

It is not Jonathan Swift’s fault that the writing is archaic. This may be overlooked if it were not so redundant and trivial. It can easily put you to sleep. We all know that these stories are supposed to be a thin veil for an agenda. Everyone from H. G. Wells to Ayn Rand hit you over the head with their agenda from the first. But no, Jonathan rattles with 10 pages to describe what is in his pockets, including his hidden pocket. (Who Cares?) And the book is filled with mundane descriptions. I think he is using this to flesh out what would be a 25-page manifesto. It is not until you get halfway through the book that, except for a few snide remarks about kings, he finally coughs up his point. “…, Whether a private man’s house might not be better defended by himself, his children, and family, than by half-a-dozen rascals, picked up at a venture in the streets for small wages, who might get a hundred times more by cutting their throats?” He goes on to pick on just about all the politics and ventures of England at the time. Paranoid readers can see the parallels between the book and today’s news. However, if it is that important, then dump Swift and just watch the news. Anyhow, it is not worth the time to read this book unless you are interested in someone who defecates at the end of his chain and tells about it in detail.

Not An Annotated Version

This comment refers to the Bantam Classics Paperback version. And is just a small criticism. This very affordable little paperback is a jam packed with most of Swifts writings, but if you start to venture beyond Gulliver's Travels and his lighter proposals you will find yourself quickly wishing for a little more in the way of footnotes or endnotes. I picked this book up to read A Tale of the Tub for the first time. It is wonderful piece of writing, and many scholars call it Swift's best. However, even the introduction to the Bantam edition points out that we have to sometimes rely on scholarship to fill in many of the allusions in the text that have been lost to time. I enjoyed reading it, but found myself many times wondering what Swift's target or motivation was for writing certain passages. This edition won't help you out. I wish to reread Tale of a Tub, but I will probably pick up a better annotated version. Any suggestions for a well-annotated version. The Oxford Classics or maybe the Norton?