Gulliver's Travels was published in 1726 and without any allusion to the
real author, though many knew that the work must have come from the pen
of Dean Swift. Though the dean was habitually secretive in what he did,
he had some reason for not wishing to say in public that he had written
so bitter a satire on the government and on mankind.
The work was immediately popular, not only in the British Isles but on
the Continent as well. No such form of political satire had ever
appeared, and everyone was excited over its possibilities. Not all parts
of the work were considered equally good; some parts were thought to be
failures, and the Fourth Voyage was as a whole deservedly unpopular. The
Voyages to Lilliput and to Brobdingnag were considered the best, and to
them is to be attributed the greater part of the author's fame. Their
popularity continues with the years.
Lemuel Gulliver is represented as a British sailor who had been educated
as a doctor but whose wandering instincts led him back to the sea. On
his return from his voyages he writes the account of his adventures; and
the manner in which this account is written is so masterly that we
almost believe the things he tells.
In describing the manners, customs, and governments of the several
countries, he shows in his inimitable way the weakness of his king,
prince, nobles, government and mankind in general.
While the scholar and the man of affairs may still be interested in the
political significance of what is said and in a study of the keen
knowledge of human nature shown by the writer, yet it is principally as
a story that the work is now popular. Everybody enjoys reading about the
wonderful people who existed only in the imagination of the great dean
of Saint Patrick's.
In this volume are printed some of the most enjoyable parts of the first
and second voyages. About the only changes from the original text are in
the omission of those passages which contribute nothing to the narrative
or which for other reasons it seems inadvisable to reprint. These
omissions put the real fictitious narrative into so small a compass that
children will be entertained from beginning to end.
The _Voyage to Lilliput_ was directed against the policy of the English
Court during the reign of George I. The real differences between the
parties were trifling; not more, to Swift's idea, than that between
_High-heels_ and _Low-heels_ in the court of Lilliput; and the
controversies between the churches were not greater than those between
the _Big-endians_ and the _Little-endians._ As the Prince of Wales was
thought to favor a union of parties, he was typified in the
heir-apparent of Lilliput who wore one shoe with a high heel and one
with a low heel. This explanation will give an idea of the nature of
Swift's milder satire.
The _Voyage to Brobdingnag_ advocates the principles then held by the
Tory party in England and attacks those of the Whigs.
The _Voyage to Laputa_, from which we give no selections, was not
generally understood and hence was not popular. Its chief purpose was to
ridicule the proceedings of the Royal Society, but Swift was not well
enough acquainted with music and some of the other sciences fostered by
the Society to attack them to advantage.
The _Voyage to the Houyhnhnms_ was a bitter screed against mankind,
and is in many respects disgusting. It showed Swift's venom against the
world and something of the approach of the malady which finally hurried
him into insanity.
The following selections are somewhat condensed from the original story,
chiefly by the omission of passages of no interest to people of to-day.