Gulliver's Travels (Royal Collector's Edition) (Case Laminate Hardcover with Jacket)

by Jonathan Swift

Overview

Gulliver's misadventures begin when he is first shipwrecked, then abandoned, then attacked by strangers, then attacked by his own crew. Gulliver's attitude hardens as the book progresses. Throughout, Gulliver is presented as being gullible; he believes what he is told, never perceives deeper meanings, is an honest man, and expects others to be honest. This makes for fun and irony; what Gulliver says can be trusted to be accurate, and he does not always understand the meaning of what he perceives.

Gulliver's Travels has been the recipient of several designations: from Menippean satire to a children's story, from proto-Science Fiction to a forerunner of the modern novel. A possible reason for the book's classic status is that it can be seen as many things to many different people. Broadly, the book has three themes. First, a satirical view of the state of European government, and of petty differences between religions. Second, a restatement of the older "ancients versus moderns" controversy. Third, an inquiry into whether men are inherently corrupt or whether they become corrupted. Gulliver's Travels is Swift's best known full-length work, and a classic of English literature.

This case laminate collector's edition includes a Victorian inspired dust-jacket.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781774760864
Publisher:	Royal Classics
Publication date:	12/30/2020
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.69(d)
Age Range:	2 - 12 Years

About the Author

Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 - 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet and cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. Swift is remembered for works such as A Tale of a Tub (1704), An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity (1712), Gulliver's Travels (1726), and A Modest Proposal (1729). He is regarded by the Encyclopædia Britannica as the foremost prose satirist in the English language, and is less well known for his poetry. He originally published all of his works under pseudonyms - such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M. B. Drapier - or anonymously. He was a master of two styles of satire, the Horatian and Juvenalian styles. His deadpan, ironic writing style, particularly in A Modest Proposal, has led to such satire being subsequently termed "Swiftian." Swift was part of the inner circle of the Tory government, and often acted as mediator between Henry St John (Viscount Bolingbroke), the secretary of state for foreign affairs (1710-15), and Robert Harley (Earl of Oxford), lord treasurer and prime minister (1711-1714). Swift recorded his experiences and thoughts during this difficult time in a long series of letters, collected and published after his death as A Journal to Stella. On 19 October 1745, Swift, at nearly 80, died. After being laid out in public view for the people of Dublin to pay their last respects, he was buried in his own cathedral, in accordance with his wishes. The bulk of his fortune was left to found a hospital for the mentally ill, which opened in 1757, and which still exists as a psychiatric hospital.