Gulliver's Travels

It seems odd to give a rating to one of the great classics of English Literature, but there you go. I first read it about 40 years ago, and it was fun to revisit the countries Gulliver voyages to, but I was more interested this time around in his themes, and for that I really relied on the critical essays at the back of this edition and my other copy, the tattered Norton Critical Edition that I've had since that first reading . . .

Will the real Gulliver please stand up?

Is it an authentic Gulliver experience to read the children's picture book?

Or is it a more genuine experience to read it, unedited, without pictures, on a Kindle?

I read both this week. I liked the children's version better. The pictures were fun and the edited text included the best of the original and omitted the extraneous material that seemed irrelevant to the heart of the book.

I'm happy I read the original as well as the edited version. I can see the appeal of this book for readers. Funny. Thoughtful. Gulliver visits places in the world that make his entire worldview shift and crumble and, finally, evolve.

A wonderful book. Or books.