The New Gulliver: Or, the Adventures of Lemuel Gulliver Jr. in Capovolta

by Esmé Dodderidge

"The New Gulliver" is a sparkling, entertaining satire on male domination and the double binds that are imposed on women. Like his famous ancestor, Lemuel Gulliver Jr. finds himself in a strange land amongst people with strange customs. Gulliver is astounded to discover that women are the dominant sex. Along with all other men, he finds himself harrassed, abused, exploited, unfairly used at work, a domestic drudge at home. Gulliver begins to reflect on the workings of the society he was once proud to be part of.

Genres: Science Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[John Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book, written by a 20th century woman ahead of her time. The theme of role reversal between the sexes has been done may times, but this novel does it brilliantly, with both humor and passion. It is extremely clever and sensitive in its analysis of gender relations, by a woman who is capable of respecting men, and in my view is superior to many other efforts to tackle this theme, which often veer towards the crudest simplifications. Although not bad on the depiciton of sex, nowadays more attention would be placed on some aspects of female sexuality and on the possibility of gay sex.

I read this many years ago and it left such a good memory that yesterday i looked out for my old copy and read it again.

[Amanda Ure · Rating 5 out of 5]

The idea behind this book is beautifully simple. A man is lost in the atmosphere and discovers a new world where gender roles are reversed. There's not much more to say than that. Capovolta means "turned on its head". Most of the ideas work well and leave you questioning why things are the way they are in the real world with respect to gender roles.

[Pippa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite funny at times.