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Title: Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (Barron's Book Notes) by Jonathan Swift, Marguerite Feitlowitz, Marguente Feitlowitz ISBN: 0-8120-3416-3 Publisher: Barrons Educational Series Pub. Date: November, 1984 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $2.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.17 (81 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A classic, but still a good read.
Comment: I have trouble reading classic literature. I am an avid reader and I want to enjoy the classics, but just find it difficult to understand the meaning in some of the writing.
This, however, was a pleasant surprise. Although written in the early 1700s, the story itself was fairly easy to follow. Even towards the end, I began to see the underlying theme of the satire that Swift has been praised for in this work.
Being someone who reads primarily science fiction and fantasy novels, I thought this might be an opportunity to culture myself while also enjoying a good story. I was correct in my thinking. Even if you can't pick up on the satire, there is still a good classic fantasy story.
Essentially, the book details the travels of Lemuel Gulliver, who by several misfortunes, visits remote and unheard of lands. In each, Gulliver spends enough time to understand the language and culture of each of these land's inhabitants. He also details the difference in culture of his native England to the highest rulers of the visted nations. In his writing of these differences, he is able to show his dislike with the system of government of England. He does this by simply stating how things are in England and then uses the reaction of the strangers as outsiders looking in, showing their lack of respect for what Gulliver describes.
I found it very interesting to see that even as early as the 1700s there was a general dislike of government as well as lawyers.
I would recommend this book to anyone who reads the fantasy genre. Obviously, it's not an epic saga like so many most fantasy readers enjoy, but it's a nice break. I would also recommend this to high school students who are asked to pick a classic piece for a book report. It reads relatively quick and isn't as difficult to read as some of the others that I've tried to read.
Rating: 5
Summary: The greatest satirical novel ever
Comment: Gulliver's Travels is an excellent book. In it Swift satirizes what he thought were the foibles of his time, in politics, religion, science, and society. In Part One Lemuel Gulliver is shipwrecked on Lilliput where the inhabitants are only 6 inches tall. The rivalry between Britain and France is there satirized. In Part Two he is marooned on the subcontinent of Brobdingnag where the inhabitants are giants. The insignificance of many of mankind's achievements are there satirized. Next in Part Three Gulliver is taken aboard the floating island of Laputa, where Swift takes the opportunity to satirize medicine and science altogether - incredibly Swift did not make up the crazy experiments he describes; all were sponsored at one time or another by the Royal Society. Finally in Part Four Gulliver is marooned by mutineers on the island of the Houyhnhynms, in which Swift takes his parting shot at human society - presenting them in degraded form as the Yahoos. Most people read no further in the book than Brobdingnag - I urge you to read the rest.
Rating: 1
Summary: Great books do not exist
Comment: While cultural pundits try to convince you that some literature is better than other literature, the truth is that all art is relative to individial tastes. Thus, it doesn't make any sense to think that a novel like this one is really any better than say, Michael Crichton or Stephen King. Aesthetic standards can't be grounded.
Thus, don't listen to anyone who tries to distinguish between "serious" works of literature like this one and allegedly "lesser" novels. The distinction is entirely illusory, because no novels are "better" than any others, and the concept of a "great novel" is an intellectual hoax.
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Title: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe ISBN: 0486404277 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 02 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $2.50 |
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Title: Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens ISBN: 0812580036 Publisher: Tor Classics Pub. Date: 15 August, 1998 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne ISBN: 0812550927 Publisher: Tor Classics Pub. Date: 15 October, 1995 List Price(USD): $3.99 |
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Title: Treasure Island (Signet Classic) by Robert Louis Stevenson ISBN: 0451527046 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: December, 1998 List Price(USD): $3.95 |
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Title: Moby-Dick by HERMAN MELVILLE ISBN: 0553213113 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 February, 1981 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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