Author Jonathan Swift

Genre Satire, fantasy

Publisher Benjamin Motte

Publication date 28 October 1726

Lemuel Gulliver, a surgeon and sea captain who travels to distant parts of the world, tells the story of four adventures in Gulliver’s Travels, a first-person narrative. In the first, Gulliver swims to Lilliput after being the only survivor of a shipwreck, where he is restrained by people who are no taller than 6 inches.Then, after being transported to the capital, he is eventually set free. The little size of the Lilliputians reflects their dimwittedness. They participate in silly traditions and trivial arguments. Men who wear high-heeled shoes (symbolising the English Tories) and men who wear low-heeled shoes (representing the English Whigs), for instance, represent different political parties, and court positions are filled by those who are the greatest at rope dancing.

Gulliver is invited to assist in Lilliput’s defence against the Blefuscu empire, with whom Lilliput is at war over the proper end of an egg to break, a matter of religious dogma. Gulliver stops an invasion by taking the naval fleet of Blefuscu, but he rejects to help the emperor of Lilliput conquer Blefuscu.Later, Gulliver uses urine to put out a fire in the royal palace. He eventually loses favour and is given the punishment of being starving and blinded. He runs away to Blefuscu, where he discovers a typical boat and is able to get back to England.

On his second journey, Gulliver visits the giants’ homeworld of Brobdingnag. Gulliver is located by a farm worker, who then brings him to the farm’s owner. The farmer starts selling Gulliver as an exhibit, and his young daughter, Glumdalclitch, looks after him. One day the farmer is told to bring Gulliver to the queen, who then buys him. Even though the king reacts with disgust when Gulliver describes the wonderful accomplishments of his own culture, he quickly gains favour at court. The monarch concludes that the English must be a race of “odious vermin” in response to Gulliver’s explanation of the politics and history of England.

The monarch rejects Gulliver’s offer to create gunpowder and cannons because he finds the idea of such weapons repulsive. Gulliver offers to make gunpowder and cannon for the king, but the king is appalled by the idea of such weapons. Eventually, Gulliver is picked up by an eagle and then saved at sea by people his own size. Gulliver offers to make gunpowder and cannon for the king, but the king is appalled by the idea of such weapons. Eventually, Gulliver is picked up by an eagle and then saved at sea by people his own size. Gulliver is eventually rescued at sea by people his own size after being carried up by an eagle.

Gulliver is cast adrift by pirates on his third voyage, where he eventually finds himself on the flying island of Laputa. Laputa’s inhabitants are so engrossed in their own thoughts that they need to be reminded to pay attention to their surroundings. They all have one eye pointing upward and the other inward. They are very interested in music and mathematics, but their learning has no real-world applicability. The king of Balnibarbri, the continent below it, resides in Laputa. Gulliver is given permission to travel to Lagado, the nation of Balnibarbri’s capital, from the island. He discovers the farm fields in disrepair and the residents appearing to live in filth.

According to Gulliver’s host, the locals adhere to the rules set down by a learned academy in the city, where the scientists work on completely unrealistic projects like drawing sunbeams from cucumbers. Later, Gulliver travels to Glubbdubdrib, the island of sorcerers, where he meets famous historical figures and learns the lies of history from them. He encounters the sad struldbrugs in the kingdom of Luggnagg, who are immortal but age as though they were mortal. He can sail to Japan from Luggnagg and then return to England.

In the fourth chapter, Gulliver travels to the land of the Houyhnhnms, an intelligent horse race that is cleaner and more rational, communal, and kind than the brutish, filthy, greedy, and degenerate Yahoos race, some of which they have tamed in an ironic twist on the human-beast relationship.The Houyhnhnms are highly interested in Gulliver since he appears to be both a Yahoo and civilised, but after Gulliver tells the master Houyhnhnm about his country and its history, the master Houyhnhnm comes to the conclusion that the English are no more civilised than the Yahoos. Gulliver will eventually be ordered to leave the Houyhnhnms. When Gulliver eventually makes it back to England, he is so disgusted with people that he avoids seeing his family and spends his time talking to horses instead.