Al-Warraq Library does not host book files; it takes you to the copy at the original source. Public-domain status differs from country to country, so check the law where you live before downloading or republishing the book. Do you hold rights in this work? Request its removal
Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon, describes four voyages. In Lilliput the people are six inches tall, and their politicians leap over ropes for office and…
Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon, describes four voyages. In Lilliput the people are six inches tall, and their politicians leap over ropes for office and go to war over which end of an egg to break. In Brobdingnag the giants find him a curious toy, and their wise king, hearing about Europe, concludes that its people are 'the most pernicious race of little odious vermin'. He visits the flying island of Laputa and the absurd academy of Lagado, where scientists try to extract sunbeams from cucumbers, and finally the land of the Houyhnhnms, rational horses who rule over the filthy, human-like Yahoos.
Context and significance
Jonathan Swift, Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, published the book anonymously in 1726; he wrote to Alexander Pope that his aim was 'to vex the world rather than divert it'. Children love the first two voyages as adventures, but the whole book is one of the fiercest satires ever written on human pride. His shortest and most savage satire is A Modest Proposal.
About the author
Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) was born in Dublin after his father's death, studied at Trinity College and worked as secretary to the diplomat Sir William Temple in England. Disappointed in his hopes of advancement, he became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin in 1713 and a fierce defender of the Irish against English policy.
His satires, Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal above all, are among the sharpest in any language. He left most of his fortune to found a hospital for the mentally ill, and his epitaph speaks of the savage indignation that tore at his heart.