Gulliver's Travels, originally titled Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships, is a 1726 satirical prose novel by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift. It is one of the most famous classics of both English and world literature, and popularised the fictional island of Lilliput. The poet John Gay remarked of the work, "It is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery." The novel satirises human nature and the imaginary "travellers' tales" literary subgenre, and it has been adapted for theatrical performances, films, television, and radio over the centuries.
The story is about Lemuel Gulliver, an adventurous Englishman who travels to a series of strange and distant lands, each inhabited by unusual beings that reflect different aspects of human nature and society. In Lilliput, he encounters tiny people engaged in petty political disputes; in Brobdingnag, he is a small man among giants who criticise European customs; in Laputa, he meets impractical intellectuals disconnected from reality; and in the land of the Houyhnhnms, he finds rational horses living peacefully alongside savage human-like creatures called Yahoos. Through these journeys, the novel satirises the flaws of various civilisations.
It is uncertain when Swift began writing the novel, but it is considered to have been an attempt at satirising popular literary genres. By mid 1725, the book was finished and as the work was a political satire, it is very likely that Swift had the manuscript copied by another writer so that his writing could not be used as evidence if a legal case should arise. The novel also has numerous made-up words, referred to as Liliputian language, which critics say might have been inspired by Hebrew. On its publication, the book was an immediate success, and Swift claimed that he had written Gulliver's Travels "to vex the world rather than divert it". Initial public opinions were overwhelmingly positive, with most readers lauding the clever satire, realistic depictions of travel to distant lands, and the political dangers that travelers often face as visitors. However, some critics accused Swift of excessive misanthropy. The English novelist William Thackeray, in particular, described the work as being "blasphemous", saying it was overly harsh in its depiction of human societies.
Gulliver's Travels remains popular in modern times due to its insightful social commentary and political themes. Although the novel is popularly regarded as children's literature, Swift wrote it as a political satire. The book's satire, particularly its elaborate critique of human nature, societal flaws and norms, and personal relations, continues to be studied in literary circles. Since his death, Swift has emerged as the most widely read and translated Irish author, and Gulliver's Travels has retained its position as the most printed book by an Irish writer in libraries, bookstores, and reading cafes worldwide.
The travel begins with a short preamble in which Lemuel Gulliver gives an outline of his life and history before his voyages.
During his first voyage, Gulliver is washed ashore after a shipwreck and finds himself a prisoner of a race of tiny people less than 6 inches (15 cm) tall, much like the little people in mythology, who are inhabitants of the island country of Lilliput. After giving assurances of his good behaviour, he is given a residence in Lilliput and becomes a favourite of the Lilliput Royal Court. He is also given permission by the King of Lilliput to go around the city on the condition that he must not hurt their subjects.
At first, the Lilliputians are hospitable to Gulliver, but they are also wary of the threat that his size poses to them. The Lilliputians reveal themselves to be a people who put great emphasis on trivial matters. For example, which end of an egg a person cracks becomes the basis of a deep political rift within that nation. They are a people who revel in displays of authority and performances of power. Gulliver aids the Lilliputians against the rival island nation of Blefuscu by stealing its naval fleet. He refuses to reduce Blefuscu to a province of Lilliput, displeasing the King and the royal court.
Gulliver is charged with treason for, among other crimes, urinating in the capital as his way of putting out a fire. He is convicted and sentenced to be blinded. With the assistance of a kind friend, "a considerable person at court", he escapes to Blefuscu. Here, he spots and retrieves an abandoned boat and sails out to be rescued by a passing ship, which safely takes him back home with some Lilliputian animals he carries with him.
Part II: A Voyage to Brobdingnag
Gulliver soon sets out again. When the sailing ship Adventure is blown off course by storms and forced to sail for land in search of fresh water, Gulliver is abandoned by his companions and left on a peninsula on the western coast of the North American continent. The grass of this new land called Brobdingnag is as tall as a tree.
Gulliver is found by a farmer who is about 72 feet (22 m) tall, judging from Gulliver estimating the man's step being 10 yards (9 m). The giant farmer brings Gulliver home, and his daughter Glumdalclitch cares for Gulliver. The farmer treats him as a curiosity and exhibits him for money.
After a while, the constant display makes Gulliver sick and the farmer sells him to the queen of the realm. Glumdalclitch (who accompanied her father while exhibiting Gulliver) is taken into the queen's service to take care of the tiny man. Since Gulliver is too small to use their huge chairs, beds, knives and forks, the queen commissions a small house to be built so he can be carried around in it; this is referred to as Gulliver's "travelling box".
Between small adventures (such as fighting giant wasps unleashed by a jealous court dwarf and being carried to the roof by a monkey), Gulliver discusses the state of Europe with the King of Brobdingnag. The king is dissatisfied with Gulliver's accounts of Europe, especially upon learning of the use of guns and cannon. On a trip to the seaside, Gulliver's traveling box is seized by a giant eagle which drops Gulliver and his box into the sea. He is rescued by sailors who return him to England.
Part III: A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib and Japan
Setting out again, Gulliver's ship is attacked by pirates, and he is marooned close to a desolate rocky island near India. He is rescued by the flying island of Laputa, a kingdom devoted to the arts of music, mathematics, and astronomy but unable to use them for practical ends. Rather than using armies, Laputa has a custom of throwing rocks down at rebellious cities on the ground.
Gulliver tours Balnibarbi, the kingdom ruled from Laputa, as the guest of a low-ranking courtier and sees the ruin brought about by the blind pursuit of science without practical results, in a satire on bureaucracy and on the Royal Society and its experiments. At the Grand Academy of Lagado in Balnibarbi, great resources and manpower are employed on researching preposterous schemes such as extracting sunbeams from cucumbers, softening marble for use in pillows, learning how to mix paint by smell, and uncovering political conspiracies by examining the excrement of suspicious persons. Gulliver refers in passing to his visit to Tribnia (that is, Britain), called by some Langden (that is, England), where the main occupations are plotting and informing. Gulliver is then taken to Maldonada, the main port of Balnibarbi, to await a trader who can take him on to Japan.
While waiting for a passage, Gulliver takes a short side-trip to the island of Glubbdubdrib which is southwest of Balnibarbi. On Glubbdubdrib, he visits a magician's dwelling and discusses history with the ghosts of historical figures, the most obvious restatement of the "ancients versus moderns" theme in the book. The ghosts include Julius Caesar, Brutus, Homer, Aristotle, René Descartes, and Pierre Gassendi.