Gulliver's Travels (Warbler Classics Annotated Edition)

By Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift skewered society, commerce, politics, and war in his greatest work, Gulliver's Travels. The four-part tale opens with a shipwreck on the island of Lilliput, whose inhabitants are just six inches tall. One fierce controversy concerns which end of an egg to crack open. In part two, Gulliver's ship ends up on Brobdingnag, an island of giants, where he is exhibited as a curiosity and partakes in cutting political t te- -t tes with its king. In part three, Gulliver encounters Houyhnhnms, horses with the qualities of rational men. These he contrasts with the barbaric Yahoos, brutes in human shape. Finally, Gulliver returns from his travels with bitter insights into the nature of man and the barbarism that underlies so-called civilization. This Warbler Classics edition is based on the complete first edition of 1726, reproduces all of the original illustrations, and includes a biographical timeline of Swift's enigmatic life.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1962572803
• ISBN13: 9781962572804
• Release Date: June 2024
• Publisher: Warbler Classics
• Length: 246 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

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.