Description

Gulliver’s Travels is a 1726 satirical prose novel by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift. It is one of the most famous classics of both English and world literature, and popularised the fictional island of Lilliput. The novel satirises human nature and the imaginary “travellers’ tales” literary subgenre, and it has been adapted for theatrical performances, films, television, and radio over the centuries.

The story is about Lemuel Gulliver, an adventurous Englishman who travels to a series of strange and distant lands, each inhabited by unusual beings that reflect different aspects of human nature and society. In Lilliput, he encounters tiny people engaged in petty political disputes; in Brobdingnag, he is a small man among giants who criticise European customs; in Laputa, he meets impractical intellectuals disconnected from reality; and in the land of the Houyhnhnms, he finds rational horses living peacefully alongside savage human-like creatures called Yahoos. Through these journeys, the novel satirises the flaws of various civilisations.