Gulliver's Travels (Penguin Classics)

by Jonathan Swift

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Conversations
3,900	61	3,161	(3.53)	None
Shipwrecked and cast adrift, Lemuel Gulliver wakes to find himself on Lilliput, an island inhabited by little people, whose height makes their quarrels over fashion and fame seem ridiculous. His subsequent encounters - with the crude giants of Brobdingnag, the philosophical Houyhnhnms and brutish Yahoos - give Gulliver new, bitter insights into human behaviour, Swift's savage satire views mankind in a distorted hall of mirrors as a diminished, magnified and finally bestial species, presenting us with an uncompromising reflection of ourselves. This text, based on the first edition of 1726, reproduces all its original illustrations and includes an introduction by Robert Demaria, Jr., which discusses the ways Gulliver's Travelshas been interpreted since its first publication.… (more)

all members

▾Members

Recently added by

happyysav, milbourt, NightMarily, Rob_May, todosloslibrosdecasa, Unwornstarship, marinaizra, SonomaLibrary12, Selmo

▾Tags

▾LibraryThing Recommendations

▾Lists

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (969)

The College Board: 101 Great Books Recommended for College-Bound Readers (98)

1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up (753)

▾Will you like it?

▾Conversations (About links)

No current Talk conversations about this book.

▾Member reviews

English (59) Dutch (2) All languages (61)

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 59 (next | show all)

Nearly 300 years ago this book was published - gosh! Small and Big (Parts I and II) I found pretty easy reading but some of Part III was hard-going; Part IV, about 'the Country of the Houyhnhnms' was hard-going in part but I am glad I kept reading and finished the whole book! Advice as to how to pronounce Houyhnhnms would have been helpful and I allowed myself to call it Horseland. Good to read, even in later life, a classic of English literature. (

)

lestermay | Dec 27, 2023 |

I believe I read this first in a Classic Comic Book, and a few years later in an unexpurgated edition, though the 18c way of writing may have been modernized. (

)

mykl-s | Aug 13, 2023 |

Language is just so immaculate. So is the subtle wittiness induced in the stories. Wish i could write like this, but people wouldn't understand as this language belongs to 18th century. :( (

)

paarth7 | May 6, 2023 |

Interesting satire on mankind disguised as adventure. (

)

kslade | Dec 8, 2022 |

I read this book in a conscious effort to read more of the classics. There were parts of this book that were very interesting but the enjoyment for me was spoilt by the flowery ramblings of Swift. The book became a tedious read and I was very close to giving up on several occasions. I accept that this book was written nearly 300 years ago and the style is naturally dated but generally I found the book slow and bland. Never mind there are lots more classics to read and I am sure that I will read lots of great reads and unfortunately the odd bad one.

Azmir_Fakir | Oct 31, 2022 |

date ▼ | votes

Showing 1-5 of 59 (next | show all)

▾Published reviews

no reviews | add a review

▾Other authors

» Add other authors

▾Series and work relationships

▾Awards and Honors

view history

▾Common Knowledge

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.

For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.

Canonical title

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

First words

Quotations

Last words

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

▾Book descriptions

Shipwrecked and cast adrift, Lemuel Gulliver wakes to find himself on Lilliput, an island inhabited by little people, whose height makes their quarrels over fashion and fame seem ridiculous. His subsequent encounters - with the crude giants of Brobdingnag, the philosophical Houyhnhnms and brutish Yahoos - give Gulliver new, bitter insights into human behaviour, Swift's savage satire views mankind in a distorted hall of mirrors as a diminished, magnified and finally bestial species, presenting us with an uncompromising reflection of ourselves. This text, based on the first edition of 1726, reproduces all its original illustrations and includes an introduction by Robert Demaria, Jr., which discusses the ways Gulliver's Travelshas been interpreted since its first publication.

▾Library descriptions

No library descriptions found.

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

Haiku summary