Take a photo of a barcode or cover
reidob 's review for:
Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
In my ongoing effort to catch up with some of the classics I have never read, I took up this title not long ago. As with, I suspect, most people, I had an odd vision of this book as a rather lighthearted romp of one man through several countries, in one of which he is tiny in comparison and one in which he is gigantic, and so on. Um, not so much. Of course, the basic outlines (the big and small thing) is certainly true, but this book is far from lighthearted. What Swift seems to be expressing above all is his contempt for human society, specifically that of Great Britain. He apparently finds his countrymen and -women crude, slovenly, absurd, corrupt, ignorant, amoral, and unintelligent. And that's just for starters. All governments and courts are corrupt. All human institutions are suspect. What we eat, drink, think, create, and do is contemptible. And so on.
Which is not to say this is not an extremely clever book. Though Swift is rather acerbic, he is very witty and can be charming. Had the story stopped after the first two episodes, it might even have been considered fairly mild in its criticisms. But as the book progresses, Gulliver's (which is to say, Swift's) perspective darkens as he compares the rest of us both to the noble creatures he meets (we are sadly lacking) and the ignoble (we resemble them). In the final book, he is downright maudlin, one might even say pathologically antisocial, in his attitudes. Apparently the company of the nearly perfect Houyhnhnms (a race resembling our horses, though far more intelligent, of course) ruins Gulliver for the society of his fellow humans, while he resemblance to the despicable Yahoos (disgusting, corrupted beasts in the Houyhnhnms' world) shames him so deeply that, even by the end of the book, when he has returned to the bosom of his family, he has not yet recovered much self-respect.
Heavy-handed stuff, this, and well within the range of the political satire of his time. It is a bit disturbing, though, to sit through such an inquisition of the human race, no matter how well-written. Not that I'm sorry I read it. But I am just as glad to be back on the terra firma of my own human life. I like you all much better than Jonathan Swift seems to have done.
Which is not to say this is not an extremely clever book. Though Swift is rather acerbic, he is very witty and can be charming. Had the story stopped after the first two episodes, it might even have been considered fairly mild in its criticisms. But as the book progresses, Gulliver's (which is to say, Swift's) perspective darkens as he compares the rest of us both to the noble creatures he meets (we are sadly lacking) and the ignoble (we resemble them). In the final book, he is downright maudlin, one might even say pathologically antisocial, in his attitudes. Apparently the company of the nearly perfect Houyhnhnms (a race resembling our horses, though far more intelligent, of course) ruins Gulliver for the society of his fellow humans, while he resemblance to the despicable Yahoos (disgusting, corrupted beasts in the Houyhnhnms' world) shames him so deeply that, even by the end of the book, when he has returned to the bosom of his family, he has not yet recovered much self-respect.
Heavy-handed stuff, this, and well within the range of the political satire of his time. It is a bit disturbing, though, to sit through such an inquisition of the human race, no matter how well-written. Not that I'm sorry I read it. But I am just as glad to be back on the terra firma of my own human life. I like you all much better than Jonathan Swift seems to have done.