Book Review: Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

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As a small child, I watched a cartoon of Gulliver in Lilliput and had firmly formed the image, as so many people do, that this was a children’s book. Having read the book now, this is the most unchildren’s book children’s book I have ever read!

Gulliver’s Travels was written in 1725 by the clergyman, Jonathan Swift, as a parody of the popular romantic travel logs of his day. He was part of a writer’s group that created a satire of popular genres, and this was one of his assignments. It soon became known as a children’s book after it’s publication because of its fantasy elements, but the Whig party were angered seeing it for what it was, political satire.

The book follows Gulliver on four journeys. Lilliput is only the first journey and the most famous one when we think of this novel. Each of the journeys, Gulliver meets an extraordinary culture that he describes in detail and then makes a great deal of commentary on the politics or philosophy of that people group. The first group is a people who are only 6 inches tall, the second voyage is to a land of giants, the third is to a pseudo-scientific people, and the last is a land of intelligent horses. There are minimal action scenes and a lot of philosophy and dry humor.

I enjoyed the book, but I honestly can’t imagine a child under 13 being able to get much from it. It would be like calling Utopia a children’s book. Human nature is dissected in all ways possible by the dialogues. A young reader would find it hard to see the irony and satire in the way governments are run or how institutional academia in being ridiculed.

Wikipedia discusses this book in a very informative article but seems to me to miss the themes of the book. It isn’t easy to reduce the message of this novel because it covers so many topics. The book is critical of everyone and everything in the most ridiculous ways. Gulliver is brought from a pride in civilized man to an awareness of just how base and animal-like we are. He explores the absurdity of law, politics, academic institutions, and basic greed. Each government he encounters he feels like is better than his own in certain ways, but the excesses and absurdity of those governments only act to highlight why we do things the way we do.

When Gulliver returns from his journeys, he is more and more unable to cope with normal society. Is he mad or just dealing with reverse culture shock? We really don’t know. We as the reader are never told what to think about the experiences Gulliver has. Some casual readers may miss the irony of various sections to emphasize the ridiculousness of others. It is a book to chew on and ponder because no conclusions are made.

I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy books like Utopia, 1984, or Animal Farm. I would NOT recommend this to children. It is a classic for good reason, but not the way it is typically portrayed. It is a good exploration of what does it mean to be a modern human.