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Summary: One of the best summer reading books ever!
Review: Time may not have been on my side with this book, as summer was closing and I was frantically reading this book as well as two others. I feel as though this novel caught me in a way that none other has yet. It seemed to teach more about myself than any novel ever could. It showed me more about foolish pride than any person could ever advise me. I own the Cliffs notes, however I did not need them. This is an easily-read novel, and the Penguin Classics version shows the two-fold meaning of the political and fantasy novel. Because of the footnotes, I learned more about the novel than any teacher could ever even attempt to achieve. If you are required to read this novel, or would just like to give it a try, I strongly recommend it, and I also recommend that the reader tries to purchase a copy of the Penguin Classics version.
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Summary: Hidden Beauty
Review: The book Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift, is a very interesting and well thought out book. It is about the travels of an Englishman named Gulliver and the lands that he visits during his travels. Most books could not hold together without some underlying plot or scheme, but the way that Jonathan Swift wrote Gulliver's Travels, it isn't totally necessary. Throughout the entire book, Gulliver goes about describing in detail how eight different societies work and function as he observed them during his travels. The true beauty of the book is not completely appreciated until a little more is known about the author, Jonathan Swift, and the time period he wrote in. The events and people in this book do not follow the famous clause: "The following story and characters are completely fictional. Any resemblance to real-life people and events is purely coincidental." Swift, as a matter of fact, takes great pride in using real-life people to base his characters on. Many of the rulers and lands in the book exaggerate the faults and likenesses of the current rulers and lands of the time period. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who can take the time to sit down and read it.
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Summary: The greatest satirist of all time
Review: Jonathan Swift, - satirist, churchman, reformer, - is perhaps one of the greatest satirists of all time. "Gulliver's Travels", his masterpiece, demonstrates the full breadth of his ingenious and far-sighted critique of almost the entire social order of his time, which included the Enlightenment belief in progress, reason and science, as well as the system of government. Critics have gone so far as to interpret him as a libertarian, an anarchist, even a nihilist, as he tended to see how even the highest ideals of civilisation, its most august institutions, were actually the products of barabarism. Like many men of his generation, including Alexander Pope, Swift believed in the "retournons du nature", though nature was not seen as equivalent to the unchaining of passion and the blind gratification of appetite, but as something that was achieved through effort and discipline. The humour is bawdy and sometimes coarse, no less than that of Rabelais, such as the scene in Lilliput in which the giant Gulliver puts out the fire in the queen's tiny palace by urinating on it. Altogether, the book is an amusing and marvellous satire. Religion, however, is the one topic that Swift, being an ecclesiastic, refrains from subjecting to criticism.
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Summary: Humor and social satire that is still relevant and enjoyable
Review: A common misconception about this famous book is that it is just a kid's story about some guy's adventures with tiny people in Lilliput. I guess you can blame that on popular movies and TV (although a recent telemovie with Ted Danson was not so far off the mark). The reality is much richer. This is one of the greatest pieces of satire and social commentary ever written. Lilliput is just one of the places visited by Gulliver. Other societies visited by Gulliver help illustrate the failings perceived by Swift in his own culture of the early 1700s. Cruelty to animals, bureaucracy, government and human injustices are just a few of the issues targeted. Don't let the social commentary I've outlined put you off. Although this book was published in 1726, "to vex the world rather than divert it", Swift is very readable today. The book is full of humor, and can be read as a simple adventure fantasy. Even without footnotes the book is very accessible, but an edition with footnotes will make some of the more obscure references and humor easier to appreciate. As for the social commentary, sadly much of it is as relevant today as it was when the book was written.
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Summary: Travels into strange worlds...
Review: Gulliver's Travels is a classic novel written by Jonathan Swift. It involves a ships surgeons, Gulliver, travels into unknown lands, where people are little, small, or a country ruled by horses and filled with odd creatures known as Yahoos. The book is filled with humor, some which would be still funny today, I got a few chuckles. Its a great book, for young and old. It definently will never be forgotten and is a true classic.
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Summary: There is nothing new under the sun
Review: If you feel that the modern era is the worst that man has experienced....if you think that the physical and moral crises we face today are unique and know no parallel in human history....then you must read "Gulliver's Travels". Written in 1726, this is much more than the story of some clod who falls into the hands of big people and little people. It is a savage social satire, and it takes on just about every aspect of contemporary society, including the decline of physical and moral character from the earlier "good" eras; the malice and intransigence of bureaucracy and government; the obfuscation of law and justice by lawyers and the legal clique; the rampant advance of science and the resulting misery and pollution and general future shock, man's love of war and cruelty, etc., etc. This may sound strange, but it makes me feel better to know that the intellectuals of every age have perceived their cultures as being in decline and inferior to the grand works of those who came before. Jonathan Swift was a man of great passion and great frustation, and this comes through in his works. The epitaph he wrote for himself reads as follows: "He has gone where savage indignation can lacerate his heart no more." "Gulliver's Travels" is very readable; however an edition with a few footnotes is helpful.
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Summary: A classic, but still a good read.
Review: I have trouble reading classic literature. I am an avid reader and I want to enjoy the classics, but just find it difficult to understand the meaning in some of the writing. This, however, was a pleasant surprise. Although written in the early 1700s, the story itself was fairly easy to follow. Even towards the end, I began to see the underlying theme of the satire that Swift has been praised for in this work. Being someone who reads primarily science fiction and fantasy novels, I thought this might be an opportunity to culture myself while also enjoying a good story. I was correct in my thinking. Even if you can't pick up on the satire, there is still a good classic fantasy story. Essentially, the book details the travels of Lemuel Gulliver, who by several misfortunes, visits remote and unheard of lands. In each, Gulliver spends enough time to understand the language and culture of each of these land's inhabitants. He also details the difference in culture of his native England to the highest rulers of the visted nations. In his writing of these differences, he is able to show his dislike with the system of government of England. He does this by simply stating how things are in England and then uses the reaction of the strangers as outsiders looking in, showing their lack of respect for what Gulliver describes. I found it very interesting to see that even as early as the 1700s there was a general dislike of government as well as lawyers. I would recommend this book to anyone who reads the fantasy genre. Obviously, it's not an epic saga like so many most fantasy readers enjoy, but it's a nice break. I would also recommend this to high school students who are asked to pick a classic piece for a book report. It reads relatively quick and isn't as difficult to read as some of the others that I've tried to read.
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Summary: The Problem with Pride
Review: Recently, in my 11th grade english class, we studied the novel Gulliver's Travels. A brilliant writer named Jonathan swift, who knew how to satirize exceptionally well, wrote Gulliver's Travels. When he wrote the novel his intent was not to vex the world, but to train the mind. Gulliver's Travels trains your mind through the knowledge of human sin. The number one sin is pride, and swift defines pride as a failure to realize your own limitations. Pride and the training of the mind are pointed out through all four books of this novel.... I enjoyed this book because it points out that pride is good, yet you have got to be careful because too much pride can send you down the wrong path. The book also shows our complex, human vices. Through pointing out our complex vices swift is trying to alert us about the direction that we are headed in. By doing so, he is trying to show correct direction to take, which would help to improve our lives.
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Summary: Great Book
Review: The book Gulliver's Travels, written by Johnathan Swift is a very good book for people of all ages from children to adults. This novel consists of four books, which tell of Gulliver's adventures he go on. In the first book, he goes to the town of the little people. Gulliver is the "big man" in this town, which gives him a lot of pride. He soon finds out that no matter how small the Liliputians are they can commit human sized vices. In book two Gulliver travels to the land of the giants. In this book, he knows sees what it's like to be little and everything is turned around for him. He is picked on and looses all his pride, which he tries his hardest to regain, but fails. In book three, he finds himself on the "floating" island of Laputa. This book is not a very great book but it still is interesting in some ways. In the last and final book, book four, Gulliver travels to the Island of the Houyhnhum's and Yahoo's. In this book, Gulliver begins to fall in love with the Houyhnum way of life. However, they consider Gulliver a Yahoo and will not let him interact with the Houyhnhum's. This novel was very good and entertaining. I would suggest this book to every reader.
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Summary: great book
Review: Gulliver's Travels is a great book with many adventures. Gulliver, the main character, takes many trips to different islands, where he learns the viewpoints of other people, on him and his country. He goes to a country of people that are only six inches tall. He begins to think that they can do no wrong. He soon learns that they are very corrupt individuals. He tells them about how his government works and they compare each other's. Gulliver thinks that his is the ideal government after this. The next stop for him is on an island of giants where he finds a better government than his. He is actually kind of embarrassed of his government. This occurs in book two. In book three Gulliver is brought to a floating island. He does not really interact with people like he did in the other books. He is really just Swift's mouthpiece. In book four Gulliver meets the horse like Houyhnhms. He starts to want to be a Houyhnhm. All in all this is a pretty good book and everyone should read it sometime.
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