Swift, Jonathan
About the Author:
Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1667. He graduated from Trinity College and was ordained into the priesthood in 1694. Swift died in 1745.
AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:
3 out of 5
(1 book)
Gulliver's Travels
Told in the first-person, this book chronicles the voyages of ship's surgeon Lemuel Gulliver. His journeys take him to various strange lands where he encounters miniature people, giants, an island that floats in the sky, necromancers and hyper-intelligent horses.
This book is one of the most famous of all time and is regarded as a children's classic. And, honestly, my biggest problem with the book is the whole 'children's classic' thing. 'Gulliver's Travels' is written in fully-adult 18th Century English which would likely be almost impenetrable to most children and, frankly, was ponderous for me. On top of that are the references to pissing, giant breasts, sodomy and prostitutes (and their associated diseases) that mean this really isn't a book for children. I'm sure Swift wouldn't have intended it for children and I suspect it has been labelled thus dismissively, because how could a book featuring so much that is made-up and whimsical have anything of worth to say to an adult audience?
What this book truly represents is Swift using the vector of an Englishman adrift among strange cultures as a way of unleashing his scathing satire of European life. The satire begins fairly obliquely, but increases in its pointedness as the book progresses to the point, when Gulliver is among the horse-like Houyhnhnms, that parts are just vitriolic descriptions of politicians, lawyers, judges and others. Honestly, there's really no veil over Swift's condemnation of those professions and individuals he sees driven by dishonesty and greed. I mean, we get it Jonathan; you really don't like lawyers.
As a reading experience I found this book to be of mixed value. Swift's satire is delightfully sharp and many elements of this book have subsequently fully entered the English vernacular ('Yahoos' for ruffians being the most well-known), which makes for interesting retroactive discoveries. But the prose is so dense and awkward at times that I can't say that I particularly enjoyed reading it.
3 out of 5
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