A wickedly clever satire uses comic inversions to offer telling insights into the nature of man
and society the Penguin Classics edition of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels is edited with
an introduction and notes by Robert Demaria Jr. Gulliver's Travels describes the four
voyages of Lemuel Gulliver a ship's surgeon. In Lilliput he discovers a world in miniature
towering over the people and their city he is able to view their society from the viewpoint of
a god. However in Brobdingnag a land of giants tiny Gulliver himself comes under observation
exhibited as a curiosity at markets and fairs. In Laputa a flying island he encounters a
society of speculators and projectors who have lost all grip on everyday reality while they
plan and calculate their country lies in ruins. Gulliver's final voyage takes him to the land
of the Houyhnhnms gentle horses whom he quickly comes to admire - in contrast to the Yahoos
filthy bestial creatures who bear a disturbing resemblance to humans. This text based on the
first edition of 1726 reproduces all the original illustrations and includes an introduction
by Robert Demaria Jr which discusses the ways Gulliver's Travels has been interpreted since
its first publication. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was born in Dublin. Sent to Kilkenny Grammar
School when he was six Swift later attended Trinity College Dublin where he received his BA
degree in 1686. He is considered the foremost prose satirist in the English language which
stemmed from his criticism of Britain's repressive colonial policies in Ireland. Among Swift's
best known works is his ironic masterpiece 'A Modest Proposal' (1729) and his novel
Gulliver's Travels (1726). If you enjoyed Gulliver's Travels you might like H.G. Wells's The
Time Machine also available in Penguin Classics. 'A masterwork of irony ... that contains
both a dark and bitter meaning and a joyous extraordinary creativity of imagination' Malcolm
Bradbury
