When Gulliver finds himself washed up on the shores of the island of Lilliput inhabited by ‘little people’ and taken prisoner his life is to change forever but that is just the beginning of his story. For following his escape from Lilliput his travels take him to the huge people of Brobdingnag, the floating island of Laputa and to the land of Houynhnmland where there are horses with great virtues. The characters are wonderfully drawn, and Gulliver has a great talent for the languages of each land and his travels also provide bitter insights into human behaviour. It is in the end an uncompromising reflection of mankind in its many guises but riveting all the same and essential reading.
Gulliver's Travels is one of the few works of English literature which is also a landmark in world literature. Jonathan Swift's account of Lemuel Gulliver's adventures in the fantastical societies of 'remote nations' was an instant best-seller on publication in 1726 and has remained in the public imagination ever since, as both a satiric fantasy and an analysis of the human condition. This scholarly edition offers an authoritative text, based on the widest possible historical collation of the many editions published in Swift's lifetime; a detailed introduction and textual apparatus; and appendices and illustrations presenting important ancillary material with new clarity. Extensive notes and commentary open out the many layers of meaning and allusion in the text, identify new sources and parallels and offer wide-ranging historical background information. An important addition to the Cambridge Swift Edition, this volume will be indispensable for scholars and students of eighteenth-century literature and ideas.
'A masterwork of irony... that contains both a dark and bitter meaning and a joyous, extraordinary creativity of imagination. That is why it has lived for so long.' Malcolm Bradbury
Author
About Jonathan Swift
Anglo-Irish poet, satirist and clergyman, Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), was born in Dublin to English parents. He embarked on a career as diplomatic secretary and became increasingly involved in politics. He published many satirical works of verse and prose, including A Tale of a Tub, A Modest Proposal, and Gulliver's Travels.
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