THE BEST OF GULLIVER'S TRAVELS

Jonathan Swift’s satirical novel was first published in 1726 yet it is still valid today. Gullivers travels describes the four fantastic voyages of Lemuel Gulliver a kindly ship’s surgeon. Swift portrays him as an observer a reporter and a victim of circumstance. His travels take him to Lilliput where he is a giant observing tiny people. In Brobdingnag the tables are reversed and he is the tiny person in a land of giants where he is exhibited as a curiosity at markets and fairs. The Flying island of Laputa is the scene of his next voyage. The people plan and plot as their country lies in ruins. It is a world of illusion and distorted values. The fourth and final voyage takes him to the home of the Houyhnhnms gentle horses who rule the land.