Gulliver’s Travel

Author : Jonathan Swift 

Country : England

Genre : Fantasy,  Fiction 

Date of Publication: 28 October 1726

First published in 1726, this book got immediate popularity and has never gone out-of-print since. Gulliver’s Travels, written by Jonathan Swift who was a clergyman as well as an Irish writer, is a satire on human nature. 

The book, divided into four parts, narrates Gulliver’s adventures travelling to the remote parts of the World. During his travels, he is shipwrecked and washed ashore on an island inhabited by tiny people called the Lilliputians who make him a prisoner.

The first part deals with his adventures on Lilliput. Then the second part of the book tracks his adventures on Brobdingnag where he is abandoned by his companions and found by a farmer. Thus starting his misadventures on this land inhabited by huge people.

Then the third part takes Gulliver to the flying Island of Laputa. This is the home of mathematicians and artists who are unable to use their talents to practical ends. And finally, the final part of the story leaves Gulliver meeting the Houyhnhnms who are a race of horses ruling the Yahoos, the humans in their base form.

Swift questions whether a man is inherently corrupt or does he become corrupt with time and company. This book is valid even today and one can relate the events to the hypocrisy, corruption and politics of the human race prevalent in the present times.