Gulliver's Travels
A satirical voyage through strange societies, where scale, reason, pride, and political absurdity expose the weaknesses of human civilization.
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The book
Gulliver's Travels follows Lemuel Gulliver across a sequence of extraordinary journeys, each bringing him into contact with unfamiliar worlds that reflect human society in distorted form. In Lilliput, petty rivalries and ceremonial politics are reduced to miniature absurdity. In Brobdingnag, the human body and human ambition are made grotesquely large. In Laputa and related lands, abstract intellect and impractical theory are pushed to comic extremes. In the land of the Houyhnhnms, rational order stands in severe contrast to the degraded impulses represented by the Yahoos. Across these episodes, Jonathan Swift turns the travel narrative into a sharp instrument of satire, forcing readers to confront vanity, cruelty, self-deception, and the fragile dignity of civilized life.
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Significance
Jonathan Swift’s novel remains one of the defining works of satirical prose in English literature. It moves beyond adventure fiction by using fantasy and exaggeration to critique politics, empire, reason, class, and the human tendency toward self-importance. Its lasting power lies in the way it balances comic invention with deep pessimism about human behavior. Gulliver's Travels continues to matter because it can be read both as a lively imaginative journey and as a devastating moral and political critique of modern society.
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Fragments from this book
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One of these grand assemblies was held in my time, about three months before my departure, whither my master went as the representative of our district. In this council …
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The women were proposed to be taxed according to their beauty and skill in dressing, wherein they had the same privilege with the men, to be determined by their own judg…
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However, since the king was pleased to allow me access to his royal person, I was resolved, upon the very first occasion, to deliver my opinion to him on this matter fre…
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I was curious to know how this prince, to whose dominions there is no access from any other country, came to think of armies, or to teach his people the practice of mili…
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In a little time, I and my family and friends came to a right understanding: but my wife protested “I should never go to sea any more;” although my evil destiny so order…
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The empress’s apartment on fire by an accident; the author instrumental in saving the rest of the palace. The empire of Blefuscu is an island situated to the north-east …
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The emperor also confers on him some public mark of his favour, and proclamation is made of his innocence through the whole city. They look upon fraud as a greater crime…
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That upon coming nearer, and finding his error, he sent out his long-boat to discover what it was; that his men came back in a fright, swearing they had seen a swimming …
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She gave me a large bowlful, of which I drank very heartily, and found myself well refreshed. About noon, I saw coming towards the house a kind of vehicle drawn like a s…
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The good woman, with much difficulty, at last perceived what I would be at, and taking me up again in her hand, walked into the garden, where she set me down. I went on …
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Three days after my arrival, walking out of curiosity to the north-east coast of the island, I observed, about half a league off in the sea, somewhat that looked like a …
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In the smaller pocket on the right side, were several round flat pieces of white and red metal, of different bulk; some of the white, which seemed to be silver, were so …