**Gulliver’s Travels**, or **Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships** is a 1726 prose satire by the Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift, satirising both human nature and the “travellers’ tales” literary subgenre.
It is Swift’s best known full-length work, and a classic of English literature. Swift claimed that he wrote Gulliver’s Travels “to vex the world rather than divert it”.
As Gulliver’s Travels was a transparently anti-Whig satire, it is likely that Swift had the manuscript copied so that his handwriting could not be used as evidence if a prosecution should arise, as had happened in the case of some of his Irish pamphlets (the Drapier’s Letters).
In March 1726 Swift travelled to London to have his work published; the manuscript was secretly delivered to the publisher Benjamin Motte, who used five printing houses to speed production and avoid piracy.
Motte, recognising a best-seller but fearing prosecution, cut or altered the worst offending passages, added some material in defence of Queen Anne to Part II, and published it. The first edition was released in two volumes on 28 October 1726.
Motte published Gulliver’s Travels anonymously.
Depicted: First edition of Gulliver’s Travels.
300 years before Washington elites started eating babies on pizza, Swift was already extolling their nutritional value. Truly a man ahead of his time.
The oldest book I’ve read. It’s alright.
It’s a pretty good book eh
That’s a pretty long title. Now I know where the Japanese light novel authors got their inspiration from.
6 comments
**Gulliver’s Travels**, or **Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships** is a 1726 prose satire by the Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift, satirising both human nature and the “travellers’ tales” literary subgenre.
It is Swift’s best known full-length work, and a classic of English literature. Swift claimed that he wrote Gulliver’s Travels “to vex the world rather than divert it”.
As Gulliver’s Travels was a transparently anti-Whig satire, it is likely that Swift had the manuscript copied so that his handwriting could not be used as evidence if a prosecution should arise, as had happened in the case of some of his Irish pamphlets (the Drapier’s Letters).
In March 1726 Swift travelled to London to have his work published; the manuscript was secretly delivered to the publisher Benjamin Motte, who used five printing houses to speed production and avoid piracy.
Motte, recognising a best-seller but fearing prosecution, cut or altered the worst offending passages, added some material in defence of Queen Anne to Part II, and published it. The first edition was released in two volumes on 28 October 1726.
Motte published Gulliver’s Travels anonymously.
Depicted: First edition of Gulliver’s Travels.
300 years before Washington elites started eating babies on pizza, Swift was already extolling their nutritional value. Truly a man ahead of his time.
The oldest book I’ve read. It’s alright.
It’s a pretty good book eh
That’s a pretty long title. Now I know where the Japanese light novel authors got their inspiration from.
Still relevant nowadays.