I think I should have read Gulliver’s Travels by now, but I haven’t. I just never go around to it.
It was published October 28, 1726. A lot of the writing from that time is … different. But, not having read the novel, I don’t know if that’s one of that odd type of writing. So, for those reasons, I haven’t read it.
Okay, that’s not true. I haven’t read it because I’m too lazy to get it and read it.
So, should I? Is it any good? I mean, yeah, it’s a classic, sure. But is it really any good. Should I go out and buy it?
Yes it’s good, and I think you’ll enjoy it. It’s high level snark.
Just check out the Classics Illustrated version. This works for most big books.
I’ve tried the full version multiple times. Can’t get through it. I read the classics a long time ago as a kid, it was great
Wait for the movie version. With the all Female cast for empowerment purposes.
Grrrl Power!
There was a time when I rated it as the best book I had ever read. However, I was nine at the time. I may have to read it again to see if it still holds up.
It’s public domain at this point. (Copyright is excessively long, but not THAT long.) Get a copy from Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/829
I started reading it about 35 years ago and enjoyed what I read. Eventually, however, I didn’t care any longer about what happened next and put it down. In that respect it was similar to Don Quixote, once I’d read half I decided the second half didn’t matter. There’s no test so you can read what you want then stop. Even now, decades later, some of Swift’s descriptions are vivid in my mind. Not many books have that kind of staying power. You owe it to yourself to find out why.
They made us read it in school (probably junior high). That was, no doubt, a good thing (better than not reading it at all), but I don’t think kids have the perspective to appreciate it, Lord of the Flies, 1984, and even Through The Looking Glass.
Not enough POC and oppressed genders in it for today’s educators.
If you enjoyed the tale as a child about a man who gets shipwrecked onto a land of little people you will be disappointed with the real thing. It is not a child’s story at all. It is misanthropic. It is politically pro-communist. It is like today’s dumb jokes r-rated foul language movie comedies.
Should you read it? Oh hell yes. Get the free copy from Gutenberg. Swift’s satire is savage and even though written a few hundred years ago, still very applicable to today.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1080/1080-h/1080-h.htm
Try this wonderful piece first! “A Modest Proposal” Gutenberg
Swift was Snark itself back in the day…