Reviews
oh my lord i didn't know boredom could reach these hellish depths
Ik ben niet echt onder de indruk van dit boek en had er meer van verwacht.
I own an ancient copy but I think I love the book more for its manufacture than the story contained within.
half of the book is an absolute bore, the other half mediocre at best. i really don’t care about the irony and originality that shapes the book because we could have read anything else for my 18th century english lit class and they chose this. absolutely not.
** spoiler alert ** Gulliver's Travels is a book about a man that dislikes his family so much that he'd rather spend his time attending a miniature kingdom, being tossed about by giants, talk to completely deluded scientists and attempt to ingratiate himself with super-intelligent horses. Or perhaps it's all the ravings of a madman deserted on an island for too long. *FORENOTE - The edition I read is super old, I have no idea if any improvements have been made or sections fixed/removed.* The first half of the book was interesting and the story well-developed but around the end of the Brobdingnag section (giants) the book starts to repeat a pattern, with each of the journeys being a visit to some strange landmass where either the people are strange or there is something in their land that is. Gulliver is always received by the Royals of those nations and without trouble is given high respect and can do as he pleases, usually exploring the local culture. I particularly enjoyed the stay with the advanced horse race, there are clear parallels between the horse's ways of life and religious Indian/Asian cultures and customs found in Hinduism and Buddhism. Swift portrays the different casts as different breeds with their set roles in society, he spends many pages bringing up all the flaws found in western humanity which Buddhism teaches you to recognise and avoid. He also instills the reason and ration-based thinking in the horses that you would find in a wisened monk, but unlike in the Buddhist teachings they do not remotely indulge in love or closeness past neighbourly-ness (excuse the pun) which is part of the whole 'Middle Path' or 'Noble Eightfold Path'. As a set of short stories this is a fantastic book with many satirical nods and interesting concepts that exaggerate the travels of others in that time, but if you take it as a continuation from one tale to the next then you'll find very little carry-over. None of the past events come up again except in the summary chapter at the end, also the further you reach in the book the quicker and less developed the tales are, I found it best to treat them as little fantasy concepts expanded so as to give the reader something to think about for the day (see the discussion about struldbrugs in pt III).
4.2
I viaggi di Gulliver, libro più famoso di Jonathan Swift racconta, come si evince dal libro, quattro viaggi in quattro paesi diversi del medico chirurgo Lemuel Gulliver. Questo romanzo è scritto sotto forma di diario in cui il narratore racconta ciò che gli accade durante i suoi mirabolanti viaggi ricchi di avventure e sventure. L'autore in questo caso si spaccia per editore a cui viene affidato il compito di pubblicare codesto libro scritto per mano di Gulliver di cui afferma essere parente. Ogni viaggio è condotto a esprimere disprezzo verso la società inglese e man mano che il libro prosegue questo sentimento diventa sempre più evidente. I primi due viaggi si basano su diverse prospettive e sui contrari, infatti, Gulliver a Lilliput si trova a essere un gigante tra i piccolissimi e meschini lillipuziani; mentre a Brobdingnag si trova a "vestire" i panni dei lillipuziani tra i giganteschi abitanti di Brobdingnag. Il dualismo che l'autore crea in questi primi due viaggi è affascinante. Il terzo viaggio è quello che mi è piaciuto di meno in quanto l'ho trovato assai confusionario anche se presenta una critica tagliente nei confronti della Royal Society. L'ultimo viaggio è veramente spettacolare, un mondo utopico governato dai cavalli e in cui l'uomo (anche se io ritengo essere una scimmia antropomorfa in quanto ha diverse fattezze dall'uomo moderno) è solo una bestia selvaggia che obbedisce solo ai vizi di Natura. Swift mette in atto con questo romanzo una satira senza precedenti nei confronti di ogni cosa, comincia con la religione parlando dello scisma della Chiesa Anglicana messo in atto da Enrico VIII e continua nei confronti della politica, della società, della scienza e nei confronti dell'umanità in sé arrivando a disprezzare tutti gli Yahoo (o almeno questo è ciò che l'autore fa provare a Gulliver). Altro fatto interessante di questo romanzo è presentato dal fatto che esso è scritto in chiave parodica per prendersi gioco dei romanzi marinareschi di cui Defoe è "fondatore". Non voglio aggiungere altro perché nonostante alcune parti non siano state di mio gusto bisogna ammettere che questo libro è veramente geniale sotto molti aspetti.
What a funny little book! I thought the book was humorous and a fun quick read. I was a little disappointed that it was so short and so quick. I would have enjoyed more in-depth adventures. I do understand that it is a tongue-in-cheek satire of what was going on in England at the time. It did help to refer to spark notes to get the whole underlying humor.
i have to say it's been a long long journey reading this book, literally. Lemuel Gulliver takes me along on various unfortunate and unbelievable voyages, which he survived somehow. i do have to admit that this book is extremely unique with its' vivid imagination; but somehow i feel something lacking from this book. whether it might be lack of excitement, or lack of intensity, i don't know. or maybe it's just me being not very fond of a book published in 1726. but i have no regrets reading this book, because Jonathan Swift did have an amazing imagination in creating Gulliver's voyages. so here's the book review, consisting 2 out of 4 Gulliver's different voyages :) http://thebookielooker.blogspot.com/2...
yaaaaawn
Classic among classics, it's incredible how current the themes proposed by Jonathan Swift in 1726 are.
This was entertaining enough but not my cup of tea. Read for school and wasn't a pain, so a bonus star for that. 3 out of 5 stars
The first two journeys were hilarious but the last two appeared a bit repetitive. However, the decay of Gulliver's character is quite fascinating.
It is indeed a very unique story plot and I enjoyed it however, I was sometimes for some reason confused along the lines of some chapters. But the ending was nice
2017 PopSugar Reading Challenge #14 A book involving travelç Creo que si sobrevives a la primera parte del libro, vale la pena seguir adelante. Este libro es brillante, tiene ideas muy ingeniosas y representativas, pero puede volverse ridículamente aburrido en ocasiones. Quizá lo repetitivo de algunas situaciones, la constante observación de detalles obvios, la alta carga irónica combinada con largas explicaciones de ciertas circunstancias, se unen para hacer de la lectura algo tedioso en cierto punto. Pesado y odioso, incluso. No obstante, es una lectura que vale la pena si estás dispuesto a llegar hasta el final. Las inverosímiles aventuras de Lemuel Gulliver están llenas de interesantes perspectivas que despiertan la curiosidad.
*sigh* Only if Swift wrote swiftly !
