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3.29 AVERAGE
3.29 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I read this out of duty - it's a classic everyone should read. It's a satire - I get that. I found it often unpleasant and only mildly amusing, occasionally thought provoking.
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
probably gonna write a proper review after I read some critical essays and write an academic assignment because this was a no-no when it comes to leisure reading
adventurous
challenging
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
One of the classics that I read during my school days. Although I first read the simplified version (Penguin's popular classics for children), after I finished my high school, I read the unabridged version from the library.
Jonathan Swift created a whole new world. (I like to think that maybe he really met all the islanders)
Jonathan Swift created a whole new world. (I like to think that maybe he really met all the islanders)
I began reading this on my new Kindle in January and got through Part 1 before I got sidetracked by other books. Since then, Heather at CraftLit picked up on my zeitgeist and starting doing Gulliver, so I have just been listening the the rest of the book via her podcast.
There's a reason that general knowledge of this book stops at story of the Liliputians. If you try to read any further you die of tedium.
Swift spends so much time trying to be clever he forgets what he's already told us and so he tells us again, and again. And again. It's tolerable for the first two sections but by the third it becomes pretty off-putting (and seems to occur more), particularly given that all four of the "stories" follow the same basic plot and the same basic outcome already.
Every now and then he gets off a good shot that hits its mark but for the most part the observations seem trite. Gulliver is an unlikable character - so smart he knows every language in the world and learns the ones he didn't even know existed within days, so likable and humble that he's taken into the inner sanctum of everywhere he visits, so full of himself that he reports this to us under the guise of complete fact since he wouldn't dare mislead us. In other words, despite all this traveling to "undiscovered" worlds, he's rather a bore.
Fortunately I ended up with the Dover Thrift Study Edition which helpfully provides section summaries, analysis, and study questions so that when it got to the point where I was seeing words and turning pages but not really taking it in, I still got the gist of anything significant buried within.
I always feel a sense of achievement at completing another "classic" that my education overlooked, but this one is not necessarily high on the list of ones I'm glad to have read.
Swift spends so much time trying to be clever he forgets what he's already told us and so he tells us again, and again. And again. It's tolerable for the first two sections but by the third it becomes pretty off-putting (and seems to occur more), particularly given that all four of the "stories" follow the same basic plot and the same basic outcome already.
Every now and then he gets off a good shot that hits its mark but for the most part the observations seem trite. Gulliver is an unlikable character - so smart he knows every language in the world and learns the ones he didn't even know existed within days, so likable and humble that he's taken into the inner sanctum of everywhere he visits, so full of himself that he reports this to us under the guise of complete fact since he wouldn't dare mislead us. In other words, despite all this traveling to "undiscovered" worlds, he's rather a bore.
Fortunately I ended up with the Dover Thrift Study Edition which helpfully provides section summaries, analysis, and study questions so that when it got to the point where I was seeing words and turning pages but not really taking it in, I still got the gist of anything significant buried within.
I always feel a sense of achievement at completing another "classic" that my education overlooked, but this one is not necessarily high on the list of ones I'm glad to have read.
This book allowed me to look at society in a different light. The years between now and when the book was written are irreverent, all that Swift proposes and states in the masterfully written satire still remains true today.
adventurous
funny
reflective
medium-paced
I enjoy the humor of the author, and the world building was solid and representation of the society of the writers time.