I decided to read this after reading 'The Toymakers', in which 'Gulliver's Travels' gets more than a passing mention.

I used to think that 'Gulliver's Travels' was a children's book, but how wrong i was. Maybe that's the way the establishment wants everyone to think about it, but it really isn't for children. It's an incredible critique/satire of the society at the time, but unfortunately it is just as relevant today as it was back then. It's a shame that society took no notice of what Swift had to say and simply condemned this book to a child's bookshelf as fantasy nonsense.

For example... hypertension, and its complications, is one of the human race's biggest killers globally, and it is simply caused by consuming sodium chloride (salt). Swift knew back when he wrote this book that salt was a luxury of no use to humans and that you soon adjust to not using it and realise that you actually don't need it. Yet here we are today stuffing our faces with this debilitating substance that our bodies simply don't need making ourselves sicker than ever...

I was at first at a great loss for salt, but custom soon reconciled me to the want of it; and I am confident that the frequent use of salt among us is an effect of luxury, and was first introduced only as a provocative to drink, except where it is necessary for preserving flesh in long voyages, or in places remote from great markets; for we observe no animal to be fond of it but man, and as to myself, when I left this country, it was a great while before I could endure the taste of it in anything that I ate.

So if you are one of those people who thought that this was a children's book, then go and read 'The Toymakers' and then read 'Gulliver's Travels', you may just get a different view of it. ( )

This is a classic I was well aware of but had not read. It is an introspective look at humanity that looks at it from a variety of angles. We usually adopt a narrow perspective of looking at the world and society and this book encourages the reader to step back and look from a different perspective. The book is written in a satirical first person point of view, is a bit long-winded in places, but a good read nonetheless. ( )

A classic for bedtime stories. ( )

I read the Illustrated Classics version as a kid and when I was in my mid-teens, I read the full version. To this day, I am still enjoying both versions; which one I read depends on my mood and how I feel.
The author uses great metaphors, like storms, to transition between different islands. Each change in setting teaches many important lessons without the reader really realizing it. How the author does this is a mystery and keeps the reader hooked,, wanting to know what will happen next snd if the characters will ever retturn home. You also wonder how things will change for thr main character if their journey does end and what the long lasting effects will be. Not just on that person, but those around them and where they live.
This is an interesting, intriguing, edge of your seat book that you don't want to miss! ( )

I feel I am doing Swift's novel an injustice by giving it only three stars, as it is for the most part a rather splendid early work of high fantasy and biting political satire. The reason for the somewhat lower rating is due to the way Swift chose to describe certain things about the fantastical lands which Gulliver visited. The satirical aspect of this novel is very evident and at times incredibly funny if you know your history, but certain parts of the novel in which Gulliver is relating facts about Britain to the people he comes into contact with can come across as very dry and boring, with Swift frequently descending into lists of things which can go on for pages and pages. The other aspect which is responsible for the lower rating is the very scientific and exacting manner in which some of the locales and customs are described, with the language occasionally becoming hard to bear and somewhat sleep inducing in these particular cases. I am aware that the aforementioned issues are simply markers which firmly establish Gulliver as a novel of the enlightenment, and my displeasure at these points makes me feel fortunate indeed that the romantics largely put an end to such dry writing. These small grievances do not however detract from 'Gulliver's Travels' being an important and influential work of fiction and political satire, and it is still most certainly worth reading; just be aware that the use of language can sometimes become a tad uninspired. ( )