Gulliver's Travels

Title: Gulliver's Travels

Author: Jonathan Swift

Pages: 9 discs

Genre: Classic

Grade: B

Synopsis: The book is a compilation of four travelogues of the surgeon Gulliver. The first voyage finds Gulliver shipwrecked and washed ashore among the Lilliputians. These creatures are in the likeness of humans but are only around 6" tall. Gulliver's second voyage finds him in Brobdingnab, where the people are around 72' tall. The third voyage places him in Laputa, a floating island where the people are totally devoted to music and mathematics, but unable to use these skills for anything practical. Gulliver's final voyage takes him to the country of the Houyhnhnms, where human beings ('Yahoos' to the Houyhnhnms) are crass, stupid animals and the governing beings - and apparently the only ones with any reason are horses. Miraculously, Gulliver is able to return safely from each place that he visits with momentos of his visits.

My Review: While these days this book is most often categorized as a children's book, the book most certainly isn't. It is actually a parody of sorts on travelogue-type books and satire on human nature and the British Government. The stories were a little interesting, funny at times and boring at other times. I enjoyed imagining what it would have been like to read the book in the early 18th century when it was published. When so little was still known about our earth, I imagine that some people still believed that lands such as the ones described by Swift were possibly out there. Unfortunately, we know to much now.