Jonathan Swift's masterpiece is the finest satire in the English
language. Shipwrecked traveler Lemuel Gulliver finds himself washed
ashore in Lilliput, a kingdom populated by tiny people. Fascinated by
their exotic visitor, the Lilliputians enlist Gulliver's services in
their bitter civil war. But Gulliver becomes the object of a court
intrigue and has to make a hasty escape. On his next voyage, his ship is
blown off course to Brobdingnag, whose giant inhabitants strike him as
horrific and occasionally revolting. A third journey takes him to
Laputa, a floating island occupied by pedantic scientists and
philosophers. Finally, he encounters a society of rational horses, the
Houyhnhnms, and witnesses the appalling behaviour of their servants the
Yahoos, a group who are in many ways disturbingly similar to Man at his
most bestial. Swift's brilliantly original story is a timeless portrait
of the human condition in all its misery and majesty.
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