Gulliver's Travels

Gulliver’s Travels is Jonathan Swift’s satirical narrative of journeys to imaginary societies, first published in 1726. Lemuel Gulliver encounters tiny people in Lilliput, giants in Brobdingnag, and other communities whose customs unsettle familiar assumptions about politics, knowledge, and human importance. His apparently factual reports make extraordinary events sound credible, even as his judgments become increasingly difficult to trust. The work adapts the language and structure of travel writing to a searching examination of pride. Its comedy ranges from physical disproportion to disturbing reversals of perspective, requiring attention to the difference between Gulliver’s conclusions and the satire surrounding them.