Gulliver's Travels: Jonathan Swift (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Swift, Jonathan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141439491 ISBN 13: 9780141439495

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2003

Synopsis

A wickedly clever satire uses comic inversions to offer telling insights into the nature of man and society, the Penguin Classics edition of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels is edited with an introduction and notes by Robert Demaria, Jr.

Gulliver's Travels describes the four voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon. In Lilliput he discovers a world in miniature; towering over the people and their city, he is able to view their society from the viewpoint of a god. However, in Brobdingnag, a land of giants, tiny Gulliver himself comes under observation, exhibited as a curiosity at markets and fairs. In Laputa, a flying island, he encounters a society of speculators and projectors who have lost all grip on everyday reality; while they plan and calculate, their country lies in ruins. Gulliver's final voyage takes him to the land of the Houyhnhnms, gentle horses whom he quickly comes to admire - in contrast to the Yahoos, filthy bestial creatures who bear a disturbing resemblance to humans.

This text, based on the first edition of 1726, reproduces all the original illustrations and includes an introduction by Robert Demaria, Jr, which discusses the ways Gulliver's Travels has been interpreted since its first publication.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was born in Dublin. Sent to Kilkenny Grammar School when he was six, Swift later attended Trinity College, Dublin, where he received his BA degree in 1686. He is considered the foremost prose satirist in the English language, which stemmed from his criticism of Britain's repressive colonial policies in Ireland. Among Swift's best known works is his ironic masterpiece, 'A Modest Proposal' (1729), and his novel, Gulliver's Travels (1726).

If you enjoyed Gulliver's Travels, you might like H.G. Wells's The Time Machine, also available in Penguin Classics.

'A masterwork of irony ... that contains both a dark and bitter meaning and a joyous, extraordinary creativity of imagination'
Malcolm Bradbury

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: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0141439491
• ISBN 13: 9780141439495
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336
• Editor: DeMaria Robert