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    Cover of Gulliver's Travels

    Gulliver's Travels

    Jonathan Swift · 1726

    A parody of traveler’s tales and a satire of human nature, “Gulliver’s Travels” is Jonathan Swift’s most famous work which was first published in 1726. An immensely popular tale ever since its original publication, “Gulliver’s Travels” is the story of its titular character, Lemuel Gulliver, a man who loves to travel. A series of four journeys are detailed in which Gulliver finds himself in a number of amusing and precarious situations. In the first voyage, Gulliver is imprisoned by a race of tiny people, the Lilliputians, when following a shipwreck he is washed upon the shores of their island country. In his second voyage Gulliver finds himself abandoned in Brobdingnag, a land of giants, where he is exhibited for their amusement. In his third voyage, Gulliver once again finds himself marooned; fortunately he is rescued by the flying island of Laputa, a kingdom devoted to the arts of music and mathematics. He subsequently travels to the surrounding lands of Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan. Finally in his last voyage, when he is set adrift by a mutinous crew, he finds himself in the curious Country of the Houyhnhnms. Through the various experiences of Gulliver, Swift brilliantly satirizes the political and cultural environment of his time in addition to creating a lasting and enchanting tale of fantasy. This edition is illustrated by Milo Winter and includes an introduction by George R. Dennis.

    Fiction & Literature
    Open LibraryAmazon
    Stats for nerds
    17recommend
    47mentions
    44people
    2009–2026years
    40% recommend60% neutral

    Mentions per year

    2009201120132015201720192021202320252026

    What Hacker News says

    1. rasulkireevJan 2026
      FINISHED:

      - Traction by Gabriel Weinberg (it's ok)

      - A Skill Called Luck by Jakob Greenfeld (very good)

      - Unf*ck Your Sales by Jakob Greenfeld (very good)

      - Books by Alex West (very good)

      - How to Live by Derek Sivers (very very good)

      - Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown (really enjoyed it)

      - The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (it's okay)

      - The Narrow Road by Felix Dennis (it's okay)

      - Oh Crap! Potty Training by Jamie Glowacki (success)

      - Вишнёвый Сад Чехов Антон Павлович (did not like it at all)

      - Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift (liked it)

      - Hunt, Gather, Parent Michaeleen Doucleff (this book is a game changer, strong recommend for every parent)

      - MAKE by Pieter Levels

      - Main Street Millionaire by Codie Sanchez

      - Start Small, Stay Small by Rob Walling

      - The Sweaty Startup by Nick Huber

      - The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury (did not like it at all)

      - Чем Люди Живы Лев Николаевич Толстой (nice)

      - 80/20 Sales and Marketing by Perry Marshall (pretty good)

      - Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl (eye opening)

      - Growth Levers and How to Find Them by Matt Lerner (meh)

      - Alexander Pushking Stories (very nice. crazy how he makes rhymes yet the whole thing makes sense)

      IN_PROGRESS:

      - War and Piece (I'm shocked at how much I'm liking it)

      - Scaling Fast by Swizec Teller (really good, about to finish)

      - Unreasonable Hospitality (it alright)

      - Mom Test (it's good, but for some reason I keep failing to finish it)

      - Marcus Aurelius Meditations (reading it slowly as inspiration strikes)

      - Seneca Dialogues

      - Ultimate Guide to Link Building by Garrett French

      STARTED, BUT DID NOT FINISH (That's a big add list):

      - Michel de Montaigne "Essays"

      - Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (feels to hard to tackle right now)

      - Seeking Wisdom

      - Product Led Growth

      - Demand Side Sales

      - Odyssey by Homer

      - Full Stack Tao by Alex Kondov

      - Logic for Programmers

      - The Story of Philosophy

      - The Story of Civilization Vol 1

      - The Communist Manifesto Karl Marx

      - Economic Facts and Fallacies Thomas Sowell

      - The Beginning of Infinity David Deutsch

      - Obviously Awesome by April Dunford

      - SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome Mary Beard

      - American Kingpin by Nick Bilton (it's good, just felt irrelevant, will revisit)

      - Indexing Beyond the Basics by Tobias Petry (only read it when necessary)

      - The Mind Illuminated by John Yates (can't keep meditations to stick)

      Note:

      - I keep notes on books I finished on my site, but need to bring it up to date: https://www.rasulkireev.com/book-notes/

      thread
    2. alkyonAug 2025
      > Literature from before 1800, Davis notes, is ‘mostly unread, even by writers’

      I strongly disagree. There are many counterexamples, some authors are still widely read. Besides Shakespeare, it's Defoe, his Robinson Crusoe is one of defining books for me, later I also enjoyed Journal of the Plague Year and Moll Flanders. Swift's Gulliver's Travels is in top ten list all of the books I ever read.

      thread
    3. specialistApr 2025
      Older me thinks cultural literacy is important. Like the origin of idioms, catch phrases, parables, tropes, identity, etc.

      Although I read A LOT as a kid, I skipped most of the classics. (Meaning: anything not sci-fi, fantasy, or non-fiction.)

      Around 30yo, I got Gulliver's Travels as a gift. Wow. I loved it. Provided context for so many common clichés.

      So I started to check other classics off the list (as able). I wish I'd started earlier. Face palm slap.

      Good, bad, or indifferent, being exposed to the origins of ideas expanded my worldview and gave me appreciation for what followed.

      thread
    4. graemepApr 2025
      I agree, and I encouraged my kids to read the classics, but I did not give them a list of stuff they must read. I suggested things I thought they would enjoy.

      > Around 30yo, I got Gulliver's Travels as a gift. Wow. I loved it. Provided context for so many common clichés.

      Another writer whose works are just a bunch of clichés. I was disappointed to find Shakespeare was the same. (that is supposed to be a joke, BTW).

      I do not think it such a disaster to read those at 30. better to read them a bit later and enjoy them, than to read them earlier and not. What you enjoy does change over time.

      I think the most important thing is to get kids to read, then to read anything reasonably good.

      thread
    5. kstenerudOct 2024
      Have Space Suit Will Travel (Heinlein)

      Stranger in a Strange Land (Heinlein)

      Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (one story in the book "Different Seasons" by Stephen King)

      Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck)

      The Martian Chronicles (Bradbury)

      Roadside Picnic (Strugatsky)

      Frankenstein (Shelley)

      Brave New World (Huxley)

      Farenheit 451 (Heinlein)

      Never Cry Wolf (Mowatt)

      A Whale for the Killing (Mowatt)

      The Machine Stops (Forster)

      Heart of Darkness (Conrad)

      Starship Troopers (Heinlein)

      The Jungle Book (Kipling)

      Lost in the Barrens (Mowatt)

      The Republic (Plato)

      Rendezvous with Rama (Clarke)

      Ringworld (Niven)

      The Stainless Steel Rat (Harrison)

      The Hobbit (Tolkien)

      Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Stevenson)

      The Odyssey (Homer)

      The Man who Would be King (Kipling)

      The Pearl (Steinbeck)

      Thus Spake Zarathustra (Nietzsche)

      Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Dick)

      A Scanner Darkly (Dick)

      The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Adams)

      Dracula (Stoker)

      To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)

      The Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas)

      Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare)

      The Wind in the Willows (Grahame)

      A Christmas Carol (Dickens)

      Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass (Carroll)

      Watership Down (Adams)

      Gulliver's Travels (Swift)

      Animal Farm (Orwell)

      thread
    6. jamonserranoMar 2024
      I remember enjoying these as a child without understanding any of the subtext or satire:

      Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels

      Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose

      Bohumil Hrabal: Cutting it Short

      Antal Szerb: The Pendragon Legend

      thread

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