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Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland. He was the second child and only son of Jonathan Swift (1640–1667) and his wife Abigail Erick (or Herrick), of Frisby on the Wreake His father, a native of Goodrich, Herefordshire, accompanied his brothers to Ireland to seek their fortunes in law after their Royalist father's estate was brought to ruin during the English Civil War. Swift's father died in Dublin before he was born, and his mother returned to England. He was left in the care of his influential uncle, Godwin, a close friend and confidante of Sir John Temple, whose son later employed Swift as his secretary. Swift's family had several interesting literary connections: His grandmother, Elizabeth (Dryden) Swift, was the niece of Sir Erasmus Dryden, grandfather of the poet John Dryden. The same grandmother's aunt, Katherine (Throckmorton) Dryden, was a first cousin of Elizabeth, wife of Sir Walter Raleigh. His great-great grandmother, Margaret (Godwin) Swift, was the sister of Francis Godwin, author of The Man in the Moone which influenced parts of Swift's Gulliver's Travels. His uncle, Thomas Swift, married a daughter of the poet and playwright Sir William Davenant, a godson of William Shakespeare. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, poet and cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.
This book was written by JONATHAN SWIFT . The book was first published in 1726 by BENJAMIN MOTTE in English. The Real title of the book was TRAVEL INTO SEVERAL REMOTE NATIONS OF THE WORLD. The book become so popular that it had not stopped publishing yet now.
VOYAGE TO LILIPUT The book begins with a short preamble in which Lemuel Gulliver, in the style of books of the time, gives a brief outline of his life and history before his voyages. He enjoys travelling, although it is that love of travel that is his downfall. During his first voyage, Gulliver is washed ashore after a shipwreck and finds himself a prisoner of a race of tiny people, less than 6 inches tall, who are inhabitants of the island country of Lilliput. After giving assurances of his good behaviour, he is given a residence in Lilliput and becomes a favorite of the court. From there, the book follows Gulliver's observations on the Court of Lilliput. He is also given the permission to roam around the city on a condition that he must not harm their subjects. Gulliver assists the Lilliputians to subdue their neighbours, the Blefuscudians, by stealing their fleet. However, he refuses to reduce the island nation of Blefuscu to a province of Lilliput, displeasing the King and the court. Gulliver is charged with treason for, among other "crimes", "making water" in the capital (even though he was putting out a fire and saving countless lives.) He is convicted and sentenced to be blinded, but with the assistance of a kind friend, he escapes to Blefuscu. Here he spots and retrieves an abandoned boat and sails out to be rescued by a passing ship, which safely takes him back home. This book of the Travels is a topical political satire.
Voyage to Brobdingnag When the sailing ship Adventure is blown off course by storms and forced to put into land for want of fresh water, Gulliver is abandoned by his companions and found by a farmer who is 72 feet (22 m) tall (the scale of Brobdingnag is about 12:1, compared to Lilliput's 1:12, judging from Gulliver estimating a man's step being 10 yards (9.1 m)). He brings Gulliver home and his daughter cares for Gulliver. The farmer treats him as a curiosity and exhibits him for money. Since Gulliver is too small to use their huge chairs, beds, knives and forks, the queen commissions a small house to be built for him so that he can be carried around in it; this is referred to as his 'travelling box'. Between small adventures such as fighting giant wasps and being carried to the roof by a monkey, he discusses the state of Europe with the King. The King is not happy with Gulliver's accounts of Europe, especially upon learning of the use of guns and cannons. On a trip to the seaside, his travelling box is seized by a giant eagle which drops Gulliver and his box into the sea, where he is picked up by some sailors, who return him to England. This book compares the truly moral man to the representative man; the latter is clearly shown to be the lesser of the two. Swift, being in Anglican holy orders, was keen to make such comparisons.
Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan After Gulliver's ship was attacked by pirates, he is marooned close to a desolate rocky island near India. Fortunately, he is rescued by the flying island of Laputa, a kingdom devoted to the arts of music and mathematics but unable to use them for practical ends. Since Swift was in Anglican holy orders, he, like so many of them, viewed reason as what Martin Luther had called "that great whore" and regarded Deism, whose practitioners attacked revealed religions, with pure horror. Laputa's custom of throwing rocks down at rebellious cities on the ground seems the first time that the air strike was conceived as a method of warfare. Gulliver tours Laputa as the guest of a low-ranking courtier and sees the ruin brought about by the blind pursuit of science without practical results, in a satire on bureaucracy and on the Royal Society and its experiments. At the Grand Academy of Lagado, great resources and manpower are employed on researching completely preposterous schemes such as extracting sunbeams from cucumbers, softening marble for use in pillows, learning how to mix paint by smell, and uncovering political conspiracies by examining the excrement of suspicious persons (see muckraking). Gulliver is then taken to Balnibarbi to await a trader who can take him on to Japan. While waiting for a passage, Gulliver takes a short side-trip to the island of Glubbdubdrib, where he visits a magician's dwelling and discusses history with the ghosts of historical figures, the most obvious restatement of the "ancients versus moderns" theme in the book. In Luggnagg he encounters the struldbrugs, unfortunates who are immortal. They do not have the gift of eternal youth, but suffer the infirmities of old age and are considered legally dead at the age of eighty. After reaching Japan, Gulliver asks the Emperor "to excuse my performing the ceremony imposed upon my countrymen of trampling upon the crucifix," which the Emperor does. Gulliver returns home, determined to stay there for the rest of his days.
Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms Despite his earlier intention of remaining at home, Gulliver returns to the sea as the captain of a merchantman as he is bored with his employment as a surgeon. On this voyage he is forced to find new additions to his crew, whom he believes to have turned the rest of the crew against him. His crew then mutiny, and after keeping him contained for some time resolve to leave him on the first piece of land they come across and continue as pirates. He is abandoned in a landing boat and comes upon a race of hideous, deformed and savage humanoid creatures to which he conceives a violent antipathy. Shortly afterwards he meets a race of horses who call themselves Houyhnhnms (which in their language means "the perfection of nature"); they are the rulers, while the deformed creatures called Yahoos are human beings in their base form. Gulliver becomes a member of a horse's household, and comes to both admire and emulate the Houyhnhnms and their lifestyle, rejecting his fellow humans as merely Yahoos endowed with some semblance of reason which they only use to exacerbate and add to the vices Nature gave them. However, an Assembly of the Houyhnhnms rules that Gulliver, a Yahoo with some semblance of reason, is a danger to their civilization, and expels him. He is then rescued, against his will, by a Portuguese ship, and is surprised to see that Captain Pedro de Mendez, a Yahoo, is a wise, courteous and generous person. He returns to his home in England, but he is unable to reconcile himself to living among 'Yahoos' and becomes a recluse, remaining in his house, largely avoiding his family and his wife, and spending several hours a day speaking with the horses in his stables; in effect becoming insane. This book uses coarse metaphors to describe human depravity, and the Houyhnhms are symbolized as not only perfected nature but also the emotional barrenness which Swift maintained that devotion to reason brought.
It is uncertain exactly when Swift started writing Gulliver's Travels, but some sources suggest as early as 1713 when Swift, Gay, Pope, Arbuthnot and others formed the Scriblerus Club, with the aim of satirising popular literary genres. Swift, runs the theory, was charged with writing the memoirs of the club's imaginary author, Martinus Scriblerus, and also with satirising the "travellers' tales" literary sub-genre. It is known from Swift's correspondence that the composition proper began in 1720 with the mirror-themed parts I and II written first, Part IV next in 1723 and Part III written in 1724; but amendments were made even while Swift was writing Drapier's Letters. By August 1725 the book was complete; and as Gulliver's Travels was a transparently anti-Whig satire, it is likely that Swift had the manuscript copied so that his handwriting could not be used as evidence if a prosecution should arise, as had happened in the case of some of his Irish pamphlets(the Drapier's Letters). In March 1726 Swift travelled to London to have his work published; the manuscript was secretly delivered to the publisher Benjamin Motte, who used five printing houses to speed production and avoid piracy. Motte, recognising a best-seller but fearing prosecution, cut or altered the worst offending passages (such as the descriptions of the court contests in Lilliput and the rebellion of Lindalino), added some material in defence of Queen Anne to book II, and published it. The first edition was released in two volumes on 26 October 1726, priced at 8s. 6d. The book was an instant sensation and sold out its first run in less than a week.
Gulliver's Travels has been adapted several times for film, television and radio. Most film versions avoid the satire completely. Gulliver's Travels (1939): Max Fleischer's animated feature-length classic of Gulliver's adventures in Lilliput. This was the first full-length animated cartoon after Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and was intended mostly for children. The Three Worlds of Gulliver (1960): a loose adaptation starring Kerwin Matthews and featuring stop motion effects by Ray Harryhausen. Case for a Rookie Hangman (1970): A satirical movie by the Czech Pavel Juráček, based upon the third book, depicting indirectly the Communist Czechoslovakia, shelved soon after its release. Gulliver's Travels (1977): Part live-action and part-animated. Stars Richard Harris. Gulliver's Travels (1996): Live-action, 2 part, TV miniseries with special effects starring Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, also featuring a variety of film stars in cameo roles. Of all film versions, this one is the most faithful to the novel, although it still makes significant changes. Crayola Kids Adventures: Tales of Gulliver's Travels (1997): Live-action Direct-to-video film starring children with Adam Wylie as Gulliver. Jajantaram Mamantaram (2003): Live-action Indian children's film, starring Javed Jaffrey. Gulliver's Travels (2010): Modernized, Live-action version of Gulliver's adventures in Lilliput, starring Jack Black, also featuring Billy Connolly, James Corden, Amanda Peet, Chris O'Dowd, Catherine Tate, Jason Segel, Emily Blunt and Olly Alexander.
NOW CHAPTERWISE
Chapter One • Tells of Gulliver’s childhood and young adulthood • Takes a voyage on the Antelope, is shipwrecked • Wakes up on the Island Lilliput • Is a captive of the Lilliputians, people who are six inches tall • Is taken to the capital city and housed in a temple
Chapter Two The Emperor visits Gulliver and makes decisions for the captive’s future Gulliver is shot at by Lilliputians He shows his clemency by scaring his attackers but letting them go unscathed, impressing the Emperor Intellectuals of the island are appointed to teach Gulliver the local language The contents of Gulliver’s pockets are examined and recorded The examiners confiscate some of his possessions including his weapons
Chapter Two Continued The political allegory of England between 1708-1715 begins Gulliver represents the leaders of the Tories, Oxford and Bolingbroke The search of Gulliver’s possessions is symbolic of The Committee of Secrecy’s investigation of Oxford and Bolingbroke The leaders were accused of favoring France in the Treaty of Utrecht which ended the War of Spanish Succession
Chapter Three The Emperor rewards Gulliver for his good behavior Political candidates perform on ropes to gain favor with the ruler Swift likens this rope-dancing performance to England’s Orders of the Garter, Bath and Thistle Although Gulliver says he has never seen such performances, Swift is quoted saying, “And he who will leap over the stick for the King/ Is qualified best for a dog on a string” The court agrees to set him free with a list terms and conditions Gulliver’s enemy, SkyreshBolgolam gets the inclusion of unfavorable terms Bolgolam represents the Earl of Nottingham, who tried to restrict the Tories’ power
Chapter Four • Gulliver visits the city of Mildendo which represents London • Reldresal, the Principal Secretary explains the politics of Lilliput • The opposing parties are the Tramechsans and Slamecksans who represent England’s Tories and Whigs • The Lilliputians are involved in a war with Blefuscurepresenting France in the War of Spanish Succession • They are warring over which end to break eggs which satirizes the conflict of Catholics and Protestants, England and Rome or the English Civil Wars • Gulliver pledges his allegance to the Emperor in fighting the Blefuscuians
Chapter Five • Gulliver swims to Blefuscu • Under attack, he steals their entire fleet of ships • Gulliver is made a Nardac, the highest Lillipution honor • Gulliver protests the court’s plan to conquer the Blefuscuians • The Blefuscuians arrive to negotiate peace and Gulliver promises to visit their country • This visit is frowned upon as Bolingbroke’s visit to France was • The empress’ apartments in the palace catch on fire • Gulliver is summoned for help, putting out the fire by urinating on it • Although he saves the palace, the Emperor does not approve of how he went about it while the Empress vows revenge • This may refer to the Treaty of Utrecht which stopped the warquestionably
Chapter Six The author describes Lilliputian culture. This society values morals over ability when appointing public servants. Gulliver notes that the Lilliputians differ from the English in that they use rewards as well as punishment to keep society in order. A description of the Lilliputian education system is given. The government is described as somewhat Socialistic. Males and females interact in an animalisitic manner.
Chapter Six Continued Gulliver describes his treatment: food and clothing The author is accused of misconduct with a respectable lady This incident relates to the infidelity of Catherine Shorter, wife or Sir Robert Walpole a Whig leader Walpole is represented by Filmnap the Treasurer
Gulliver learns that the government has turned against him. He is accused of high treason. The emperor is persuaded that Gulliver should be blinded instead of killed. This reflects the impeachment of Bolingbroke and Oxford where is was suggested they only be accused of misdemeanors rather than treason. Gulliver flees to Blefuscu where he is welcomed . Like Gulliver, Bolingbroke feared he wouldn’t receive a fair trial and escaped to France. Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight The author discovers a damaged boat off the coast of Blefuscu The locals assist him in acquiring and refurbishing the boat The Emperor of Lilliput calls for Gulliver’s return but is snubbed politely by the Blefuscuian Emperor Gulliver is given permission to leave the island
Chapter Eight Continued After a month’s preparation, Gulliver departs with food and animals for propagation He is picked up by an English vessel, his heart swelling with patriotism at the prospect of returning to his homeland In England, he sees his family and displays his miniature farm animals Finally he sets off for another most excellent adventure
