Week 3 - Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

[Jenny]

And we're on to week 3.
From the essay:

"Seven years after the publication of Robinson Crusoe, the great Tory essayist and poet Jonathan Swift – inspired by the Scriblerus club, whose members included John Gay and Alexander Pope – composed a satire on travel narratives that became an immediate bestseller. According to Gay, Gulliver was soon being read "from the cabinet council to the nursery".
In its afterlife as a classic, Gulliver's Travels works on many levels. First, it's a masterpiece of sustained and savage indignation, "furious, raging, obscene", according to Thackeray. Swift's satirical fury is directed against almost every aspect of early 18th-century life: science, society, commerce and politics. Second, stripped of Swift's dark vision, it becomes a wonderful travel fantasy for children, a perennial favourite that continues to inspire countless versions, in books and films. Finally, as a polemical tour de force, full of wild imagination, it became a source for Voltaire, as well as the inspiration for a Telemann violin suite, Philip K Dick's science-fiction story The Prize Ship, and, perhaps most influential of all, George Orwell's Animal Farm"

Read the full article/essay here

More information on Jonathan Swift here

Have any of you read it? Thoughts?

[Leslie]

I have read it, by listening to it as an audiobook, last fall. I had attempted reading it before but had never gotten past the Lilliputians (the first part). Swift's style, like DeFoe's, can be difficult for the modern reader but the story is worth persevering. The last part is the best, in my opinion.

[Dhanaraj]

I have read only the first part of the novel - Gulliver's adventure in the land of the Lilliputians. Like the other two earlier novels this too (only the first part) was part of our syllabus in the college years.

[Shirley]

I don't think I have read it, I think I have probably read an abridged version...

[[deleted user]]

I've read it and I really enjoyed it. I loved the adventure in the book and the ending.

[Elisa]

Shirley wrote: "I don't think I have read it, I think I have probably read an abridged version..."

Me too, at elementary school, and I was not interested enough in it to pick up the original versions in more recent years

[LauraT]

It is one I still have to go!!!!
It was considered a book for children even if it definitly not for children. It was a way to deprive it of its virulence and sharp critics ...

[Gill]

I note that both this book and Robinson Crusoe were first published anonymously (as was also Tristam Shandy). Very different from nowadays.

I read this whilst at school; one of the things I was studying was 18th century history, so it linked with that.

Has anyone readA Modest Proposal?

[LauraT]

Gill wrote: "Has anyone readA Modest Proposal? "

No, but I've always wanted it!

[Shirley]

LauraT wrote: "Gill wrote: "Has anyone readA Modest Proposal? "

No, but I've always wanted it!"

Yes, when I was studying A level history. Very interesting reading.

[Leslie]

Gill wrote: "Has anyone read A Modest Proposal? ..."

Yes, that was my introduction to Swift at school! I think that is one of the best examples of satire I have ever read (and that was why we read it at school).

[LauraT]

I definitly have to have a go with it!

[Gill]

Shirley wrote: "LauraT wrote: "Gill wrote: "Has anyone readA Modest Proposal? "

No, but I've always wanted it!"

Yes, when I was studying A level history. Very interesting reading."

It's interesting how many of these earlier 'classic' novels, link well into the study of history.

This can be said of much earlier works also eg Beowolf gives a clear picture and evidence of a ruler's housing and funeral ceremonies.

[Tweedledum]

Gullivers Travels is one of those books I always thinking I must have read but actually haven't. Or at least have only read the Lilliputian bit. Recently bought the Delphi Classics Swift and am becoming increasingly fascinated by the mercurial Swift. I began a biography of him Jonathan SwiftVictoria Glendinning which is fascinating. Goodness knows when I will finish it though. I know the whole thing is supposed to be a satire but feel I don't know enough about the history of the day to appreciate this.

[Harold]

Once upon a time I read Gulliver's Travels. At university perhaps. Maybe I even enjoyed parts of it. The palace fire; the Yahoos.

[Holly]

I've been meaning to read this forever. Maybe I'll get round to it...

[LauraT]

Holly wrote: "I've been meaning to read this forever. Maybe I'll get round to it..."

Next year? I'm thinking abouti it.

[Pink]

LauraT wrote: "Holly wrote: "I've been meaning to read this forever. Maybe I'll get round to it..."

Next year? I'm thinking abouti it."

me too :)

[Holly]

Next year sounds really good! A buddy read?

[Pink]

Holly wrote: "Next year sounds really good! A buddy read?"

Yes please, it will give me the push to finally pick it up!

[Holly]

Pink wrote: "Holly wrote: "Next year sounds really good! A buddy read?"

Yes please, it will give me the push to finally pick it up!"

Sounsd good! When do you want to do it?

[Pink]

I don't mind, whenever suits everyone else, I don't have too much planned for 2014 yet!

[Holly]

My planning only really goes up to early December, so how about like early 2014? January/February time?

[Pink]

Jan/Feb works for me

[Holly]

Sounds awesome! :D

[LauraT]

Pink wrote: "Jan/Feb works for me"

Perfect for me as well

[[deleted user]]

Another book firmly on my shelves, I have read portions of this novel throughout my university days. The whole thing in its entirety though is still to be conquered.

[LauraT]

Shall we think again of reading it?