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3.29 AVERAGE
3.29 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Bro really travelleddddd he was an icon for that for real. Fav island was Laputa bc what do you mean you live on a floating island and if the people below don’t do what you say you just float over there and drop on them. Lilliputia was also silly with those small guys and Brobdingnag had that bitchy king who was also right about how weird England is. Swift was actually a real one for his anti-imperialist critiques in this though, like good for you dude speak for Ireland. Those Houhynhms sure were talking horses and somehow he made that scary. And I love when the main character is defeated and hypocritical, Gulliver is so prideful and falls into every pitfall of colonialism and then ends up hating his own species. Like what a way to end the book.
adventurous
slow-paced
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This will be more clever and entertaining if you have a working knowledge of English politics, government, and the monarchy in the 1700s, as well as England's relationship history with other countries like France, the Netherlands, Ireland (Lindalino symbolizes Dublin, for example, with its spelling using a "double lin"), etc., and wars involving England. Then you'll get the full story of the Irish satirist Jonathan Swift's opinions of it all through his writings and deadpan humor. Otherwise, it just seems like he went on a giant acid trip while writing it. Long-winded but also a classic in satirical writings.
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Gulliver is an entitled selfish man who puts his needs over his family and after it all he can barely stand to be in his family presence 🚶🏾♀️➡️
A good story, but he's long winded. Goes into a lot of detail that is sometimes unnecessary.
adventurous
funny
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Not giving this a star rating because it’s 200+ years old and rating anything from such a different context with a single number is at best reductionist and at worst misleading.
This is an interesting books, and I can see why it became so popular in the 18th century. It feels as close to science fiction as possible while still being accessible in it’s day - after all, at the time, unknown lands across the sea were just as foreign and exciting as unknown planets are today.
Reading with a modern eye, it’s interesting to see how Swift approached world building at a time when there were few precedents for the idea, and still did a pretty good job of it in how he imagined other peoples being the same - but different. It was just as interesting to see what he changed in imagining these other races, as it was to see what he left the same. Beings one fifteenth our size are believable, but women being leaders of a household are not. Horses exhibiting reason while humans behave as animals is feasible, but denying a natural hierarchical order of nobles and commoners is inconceivable.
This is a powerful look into the ideas of people at the time, and from that perspective it’s a good read. But for a modern leisure reader, it’s also long in the tooth and some topics are covered in excessive depth, just by nature of being written when it was. This is why it’s impossible to give it a star rating - are you reading to hear thrilling stories of adventure? Probably not for you. Are you reading for fantastic tales? There are elements that could be interesting. Are you reading to learn about the politics and philosophy of the time? Definitely take a look.
This is an interesting books, and I can see why it became so popular in the 18th century. It feels as close to science fiction as possible while still being accessible in it’s day - after all, at the time, unknown lands across the sea were just as foreign and exciting as unknown planets are today.
Reading with a modern eye, it’s interesting to see how Swift approached world building at a time when there were few precedents for the idea, and still did a pretty good job of it in how he imagined other peoples being the same - but different. It was just as interesting to see what he changed in imagining these other races, as it was to see what he left the same. Beings one fifteenth our size are believable, but women being leaders of a household are not. Horses exhibiting reason while humans behave as animals is feasible, but denying a natural hierarchical order of nobles and commoners is inconceivable.
This is a powerful look into the ideas of people at the time, and from that perspective it’s a good read. But for a modern leisure reader, it’s also long in the tooth and some topics are covered in excessive depth, just by nature of being written when it was. This is why it’s impossible to give it a star rating - are you reading to hear thrilling stories of adventure? Probably not for you. Are you reading for fantastic tales? There are elements that could be interesting. Are you reading to learn about the politics and philosophy of the time? Definitely take a look.
adventurous
challenging
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A