Novel
Gulliver's Travels
Jonathan Swift · 1726
Synopsis
Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon, is shipwrecked, swims to land and falls asleep in the grass. He wakes up tied to the ground, his hair bound, and sees a human creature less than six inches tall advancing across his chest. He is fed, his pockets are searched, and he is lodged in a former temple that has become profane. A minister tells him that Lilliput and the neighbouring empire of Blefuscu have been at war for thirty-six moons, over which end the eggs should be broken.
Context
The author had his manuscript copied out so that neither the printer nor the authorities would recognise his handwriting; the text was delivered in secret, at night, to the publisher Benjamin Motte, who entrusted it to five printing houses at once to be quick and to forestall counterfeits. The book appeared anonymously on 28 October 1726, under the name of its character, and the publisher had had its harshest passages softened. The text was largely restored in 1735, in Dublin; a friend had corrected a copy of the first edition by hand. The poet John Gay wrote to the author that he was being read everywhere, from the cabinet council to the nursery.
Who it is for
A novel in four parts; editions for young readers are often limited to the first two voyages.
Prizes and reception
Translated into French as early as 1727 by the abbé Desfontaines, it was translated again in the twentieth century by Émile Pons, José Axelrad and Guillaume Villeneuve.
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