Katherine
Honestly? I chose to read this for a book challenge as a bit (published in year ending in ‘26).
It really wasn’t what I expected! I knew it was sold as a children’s book and that the protagonist got shipwrecked a million times and found giants and tiny people and that was about it. Turns out Gulliver’s Travels is actually a long-winded political satire based on the (popular at the time) travel memoir, and especially based on throwing shade at Robinson Crusoe, since it wasn’t revealed that book was fictional! So Swift decided to make fun of everyone by writing a “true” travel memoir that is absolutely ridiculous and has many, MANY conversations about the absurdity of government and how awful ~~humans~~ Yahoos are.
From the tiny Lilliputans where Gulliver learns about the corruption of ministers and princes, to the giants of Brobdingnag that criticize European politics, to the Laputans who quite literally have their head in the clouds, and lastly the Houyhnhnms, civilized talking horses, and Yahoos, wild men, that highlights once again how corrupt and awful humanity is. There some really funny moments, like when Swift essentially tells philosophers that they should enjoy pondering about Gulliver’s description of what he had to do “when nature called” in each of these odd lands. Other passages with humor come from Gulliver ranting about lawyers, the stupidity of war, lying, and greed, and describing English history in the last century as “only a heap of conspiracies, rebellions, murders, massacres, revolutions, banishments, the very worst effects that avarice, faction, hypocrisy, perfidiousness, cruelty, rage, madness, hatred, envy, lust, malice, and ambition, could produce.”
Now, there are some things that haven’t aged particularly well (not surprising, given it’s been THREE HUNDRED YEARS). For one, the writing style is extremely verbose, with an excessive use of commas and semicolons accompanying long lists of nouns pertaining to the current topic (see the above quote- many, many passages follow a similar pattern). It’s not impossible to read, but it takes some adjustment to understand it. At times it gets very tedious to read, especially because there is some repetition of ideas in each new society.
There are some odd passages where Swift *seems* to be comparing certain aspects of whatever society Gulliver is in to slavery or race relations, but it doesn’t explore this topic like it does… pretty much everything else. It does somewhat address colonialism and driving natives away from their homeland out of greed, so there is that. The amount of misogyny is astounding. I honestly cannot tell how much of it is exaggerated (some of it HAS to be… right? It’s so over the top) and how much is reflective of the time.
Overall, I liked it more than I thought I would! It’s pretty good as a political satire, if you are able to look past the aged views on some aspects of society. And it did make me laugh a few times with its absurdity and how cleverly Swift came up with insults. So, maybe give it a try? It is an interesting read for purely historical reasons, and it’s more entertaining than some of the classics I had to read for school.
Honestly? I chose to read this for a book challenge as a bit (published in year ending in ‘26).
It really wasn’t what I expected! I knew it was sold as a children’s book and that the protagonist got shipwrecked a million times and found giants and tiny people and that was about it. Turns out Gulliver’s Travels is actually a long-winded political satire based on the (popular at the time) travel memoir, and especially based on throwing shade at Robinson Crusoe, since it wasn’t revealed that book was fictional! So Swift decided to make fun of everyone by writing a “true” travel memoir that is absolutely ridiculous and has many, MANY conversations about the absurdity of government and how awful ~~humans~~ Yahoos are.
From the tiny Lilliputans where Gulliver learns about the corruption of ministers and princes, to the giants of Brobdingnag that criticize European politics, to the Laputans who quite literally have their head in the clouds, and lastly the Houyhnhnms, civilized talking horses, and Yahoos, wild men, that highlights once again how corrupt and awful humanity is. There some really funny moments, like when Swift essentially tells philosophers that they should enjoy pondering about Gulliver’s description of what he had to do “when nature called” in each of these odd lands. Other passages with humor come from Gulliver ranting about lawyers, the stupidity of war, lying, and greed, and describing English history in the last century as “only a heap of conspiracies, rebellions, murders, massacres, revolutions, banishments, the very worst effects that avarice, faction, hypocrisy, perfidiousness, cruelty, rage, madness, hatred, envy, lust, malice, and ambition, could produce.”
Now, there are some things that haven’t aged particularly well (not surprising, given it’s been THREE HUNDRED YEARS). For one, the writing style is extremely verbose, with an excessive use of commas and semicolons accompanying long lists of nouns pertaining to the current topic (see the above quote- many, many passages follow a similar pattern). It’s not impossible to read, but it takes some adjustment to understand it. At times it gets very tedious to read, especially because there is some repetition of ideas in each new society.
There are some odd passages where Swift *seems* to be comparing certain aspects of whatever society Gulliver is in to slavery or race relations, but it doesn’t explore this topic like it does… pretty much everything else. It does somewhat address colonialism and driving natives away from their homeland out of greed, so there is that. The amount of misogyny is astounding. I honestly cannot tell how much of it is exaggerated (some of it HAS to be… right? It’s so over the top) and how much is reflective of the time.
Overall, I liked it more than I thought I would! It’s pretty good as a political satire, if you are able to look past the aged views on some aspects of society. And it did make me laugh a few times with its absurdity and how cleverly Swift came up with insults. So, maybe give it a try? It is an interesting read for purely historical reasons, and it’s more entertaining than some of the classics I had to read for school.
