Gulliver’s Travels (Collins Classics) - Softcover

Swift, Jonathan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 000735102X ISBN 13: 9780007351022

Publisher: William Collins, 2010

Synopsis

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.

'I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.'

Shipwrecked on the high seas, Lemuel Gulliver finds himself washed up on the strange island of Lilliput, a land inhabited by quarrelsome miniature people. On his travels he continues to meet others who force him to reflect on human behaviour - the giants of Brobdingnag, the Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos. In this scathing satire on the politics and morals of the 18th Century, Swift's condemnation of society and its institutions still resonates today.

About this title

Review:

"Gulliver's Travels is a timeless work, but Allan Ingram's edition reminds us that it's a timely one, too. His introduction, notes, and appendices put the eighteenth century's greatest satire in a wide variety of contexts--biographical, historical, political, scientific, and literary--giving us an ideal edition for classroom use. No edition does a better job of explaining Swift's masterpiece as a product of its age."--Jack Lynch, Rutgers University

"This new edition of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels provides both first-time and return readers with a well-constructed framework within which to place a familiar work. Allan Ingram's engaging introduction deftly combines a summary of contemporary controversies over politics, religion, learning, science, and Ireland, with a summary of Swift's life and a history of the composition, publication, and critical reception of the Travels. The footnotes to the text anticipate the kinds of knowledge a twenty-first-century reader might lack: the outmoded usage of a single word or the identity of an individual, as well as references to broader issues and ideas. Ingram observes that Swift 'asks the kinds of questions of his readers to which we have few answers.' His edition will enable readers to carry on the debate about those questions."--Melinda Alliker Rabb, Brown University

From the Publisher:

Lemuel Gulliver, ship's surgeon and castaway, has awaken in Lilliput, where the size of the tiny inhabitants makes their concerns and quarrels seem ridiculous. A second journey takes him to the kingdom of giants, where again his size gives him new adrift by pirates, Gulliver's final voyage brings him to the land of the Houyhnhms, horses with reason, who share their domain with the brutish Yahoos. He returns to England a changed man.

Swift's corrosive satire embraces all aspects of humanity. It is witty when dealing with foibles and frailty, bitterly when facing pride and stupidity, but compassionate and unsentimental when focused upon suffering.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Collins
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 000735102X
• ISBN 13: 9780007351022
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336