Summer fetches with itself some leisure time for Everyone.
Reading can be a best hobby at any age. Taste
and selection of books may vary, but the enjoyment up to some extent is lauded
by all. In general, vacations are mostly synonymous with travels. If one can’t
make a travel trip, they can at least go through the travels & experiences
of Gulliver.
LORD LYTTON on Gulliver travels: “”And lo! The book, from all
its end beguiled, A harmless wonder to some happy child.
Gulliver Travels was published in 1726. The book combines in
a measure the interest of Robinson Crusoe and the that of the fairy tale; its
style is objective, the narrative is simple, and the matter appeals strongly
& can be read with profit by the child as well by the young man or woman of
mature years.
Travels into several remote Nations of the world in four
parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, first surgeon, and then the captain of several
ships, better known simply as Gulliver’s Travels, is a novel by Irish writer
& clergy man Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature & a
parody of the “travelers’ tales” literary sub-genre. It is swift’s best known
full length work, &a classic of English literature.
The book became popular as soon as it was published. John Gay
wrote in 1726 a letter to Swift that “”It is universally read, from the cabinet
council to the nursery””, since then, it has never been out of print.
In terms of story- telling & construction the parts follow
a pattern;
*The cause of Gulliver’s misadventures becomes more malignant
as time goes on- he is first ship wrecked, then abandoned, then attacked by
strangers, then attacked by his own crew
*Gulliver’s attitude hardens as the book progresses- he is
genuinely surprised by the viciousness &politicking of the Lilliputians but
finds the behaviour of the yahoos in the fourth part reflective of the
behaviour of people.
*Each part is the reverse of the preceding part – Gulliver is
big/ small/ wise/ ignorant, the countries are complex/ simple/ scientific/
natural, forms of government are worse/ better/ worse/better/ than England’s.
* Gulliver’s viewpoint between parts is mirrored by that his
antagonists in the contrasting part- Gulliver sees the tiny Lilliputians as
being vicious & unscrupulous, and then the king of Brobdingnag sees Europe
in exactly the same light; Gulliver sees the Lilliputians as unreasonable, and
his Houyhnhnm master sees humanity as equally so.
* No form of government is ideal- the simplistic
Brobdingnagians enjoy public executions and have streets infested with beggars,
the honest and upright Houyhnhnms who have no word for lying are happy to
supress the true nature of Gulliver as a yahoo and are equally un concerned about his reaction to
being expelled.
*specific individuals may be good even where the race is
bad-Gulliver finds a friend in each of his travels and, despite Gulliver’s
rejection and horror toward all yahoos, is treated very well by the Portuguese captain,
Dom Pedro, who returns him to England at the novel’s end.
Gulliver’s Travels is a very modern and complex novel. There
are subtle shifts throughout the book, such as when Gulliver begins to see all
humans, not just those in Houyhnhmn- land as yahoos.
Also, although Gulliver is presented as a common place “’every
man’, lacking higher education, he possesses a remarkable natural gift for
language. He quickly becomes fluent in the native tongue of any strange land in
which he finds himself, a literary device that adds much understanding and
humour to swift’s work.
Despite the depth and subtlety of the book, it is often
classified as a children’s story because of the popularity of the Lilliput
section as a book for children. One can still buy books entitled “’Gulliver’s
Travels’’ which contain only parts of the Lilliput voyage.
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