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Loading... Gulliver's Travelsby Jonathan Swift
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Interleaves Gulliver's story with fictionalized biography of Swift. This story is about Gulliver's travels as title. He traveled to three countries, but they were all strange. First, it was the country of small peaple,this was that we already well-known story.Next, he went to big peaple's country.Finally,he traveled the country of animals. These three country had each good points and faults. They taught me important things through the travels. Please read and enjoy the book! The book is a little boring, but overall it is nice. "I attempted to rise, but was not able to stir: for, as I happened to lie on my back, i found my arms and legs were strongly fastened on each side to the ground; and my hair, which was long and thick, tied down in the same manner. I likewise felt several slender ligatures across my body, from my armpits to my thighs. I could only look upwards; the sun began to grow hot, and the light offended my eyes. I heard a confused noise about me, but in the posture I lay, could see nothing except the sky" - page 7 In the same vein as "The Odyssey" and "Castaway", "Gulliver's Travels" takes us on four different voyages with Lemuel Gulliver as the adventurous traveler. He's tied down by Lilliputians who bury people upside down and punish fraud with death; dressed up by Brobdingnagians where he defends himself from giant bees with a fly stinger; held hostage by crazed mathematicians called Laputians who travel the countryside in their floating diamond fortress; pitied by horse-headed philosophers whose name sounds similar to the clearing of one's throat. I found this book incredibly frustrating. The main reason being that Swift's satire as a book just didn't work for me. I'm sure the reason being that I'm so far removed from the 18th century society Swift was mocking. I feel that the book may have worked better as a lecture. I had so many questions about various delicious tidbits Swift doles out. For example, there was a temple in Lilliput "polluted by an unnatural murder". What exactly happened we never find out. As well, the idea of the Laputians calling people back from the dead and conversing with them was very H.G. Wells. I also liked how the floating diamond fortress only occasionally crushed people. What I found interesting and enjoyed though, was far outweighed by what I found boring and pedantic, especially when it came to describing how the diamond fortress stayed aloft. We skip moments that might have added to the story like Gulliver's shipwreck. The reader is only given a small summary of what happened and they miss what might have been an amazing description of the storm and his survival. As well, Swift occasionally writes "I shall not trouble the reader", as if to excuse him from removing what little excitement might be found in a particular story. The sentences are convoluted, there's little description of action and the plot suffers while Swift's busy making his point about society and everything about it that he finds insufferable. The thing I find most frustrating though is that Swift could have done so much more with the story. It could have stayed a satire while beefing up the story. Instead of spending so much time describing the silly rituals and culture of the specific peoples he meets, Gulliver could have been taking action. The part where he's attacked by giant bees is exciting and interesting but it takes up less than a paragraph before Swift moves on. The result being that if I was asked I couldn't tell you much about what happens in the book because that's exactly what happens. Not much. 0.039 seconds to build listing no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0140430229, Paperback)When Lemuel Gulliver sets off from London on a sea voyage, little does he know the many incredible and unbelievable misadventures awaiting. Shipwrecked at sea and nearly drowned, he washes ashore upon an exotic island called Liliput--where the people are only six inches tall! Next he visits a land of incredible giants called the Brobdingnagians. They are more than sixty feet tall! he travels to Lapauta, a city that floats in the city, and to Glubbdubdrib, the Island of Sorcerers. his final voyage brings him into contact with the Yahoos--a brutish race of subhumans--and an intelligent and virtuous race of horse, the Houyhnhnms. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:18 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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I found it hard to believe that a man would travel as much and encounter this many extravagant creatures within the span of his life, leaving his happy wife at home with all their children. What wife would just accept that from her husband. I guess it is fiction but I found it tedious and long and drawn out and nothing I really enjoyed much of.