Swift Enjoyably Cutting
Gulliver’s Travels (Penguin Classics)
Jonathon Swift
As a fan of Swift, I should be ashamed of not having gotten around to this sooner. As a fan of Swift I already knew I’d like it. A funny and rewarding classic, not for the kiddies. I knew bits of the first two books as a kid, mainly from a movie, but this has so much more. The parts left out of the movie are what all readers must think about when pondering Gulliver’s predicaments, and what kids would love, such as Lilliputians bearing away Gulliver’s poo in wheel burrows. A number of sections, particularly those condemning human nature, had me laughing out loud. The books seem to be progressively acerbic. The last book on the Houyhnhnms is a sustained invective against human folly, so I enjoyed it immensely.
