Gulliver's Travels: Illustrated Classics

By Jonathan Swift

Book Overview

Written in the Year 1727. I hope you will be ready to own publicly, whenever you shall be called to it, that by your great and frequent urgency you prevailed on me to publish a very loose and uncorrect account of my travels, with directions to hire some young gentleman of either university to put them in order, and correct the style, as my cousin Dampier did, by my advice, in his book called "A Voyage round the world." But I do not remember I gave you power to consent that any thing should be omitted, and much less that any thing should be inserted; therefore, as to the latter, I do here renounce every thing of that kind; particularly a paragraph about her majesty Queen Anne, of most pious and glorious memory; although I did reverence and esteem her more than any of human species. But you, or your interpolator, ought to have considered, that it was not my inclination, so was it not decent to praise any animal of our composition before my master Houyhnhnm: And besides, the fact was altogether false; for to my knowledge, being in England during some part of her majesty's reign, she did govern by a chief minister; nay even by two successively, the first whereof was the lord of Godolphin, and the second the lord of Oxford; so that you have made me say the thing that was not. Likewise in the account of the academy of projectors, and several passages of my discourse to my master Houyhnhnm, you have either omitted some material circumstances, or minced or changed them in such a manner, that I do hardly know my own work. When I formerly hinted to you something of this in a letter, you were pleased to answer that you were afraid of giving offence; that people in power were very watchful over the press, and apt not only to interpret, but to punish every thing which looked like an innuendo (as I think you call it). But, pray how could that which I spoke so many years ago, and at about five thousand leagues distance, in another reign, be applied to any of the Yahoos, who now are said to govern the herd; especially at a time when I little thought, or feared, the unhappiness of living under them? Have not I the most reason to complain, when I see these very Yahoos carried by Houyhnhnms in a vehicle, as if they were brutes, and those the rational creatures? And indeed to avoid so monstrous and detestable a sight was one principal motive of my retirement hither.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1435148231
• ISBN13: 9781435148239
• Release Date: January 2012
• Publisher: MACMILLAN COMPANY
• Length: 47 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.

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.

This 2002 version is lame

This 2002 "specially adapted version by Malvina G. Vogel" is lame because parts of the story have been cut out, and Gulliver's 3rd and 4th adventures are cut out as well.