According to legend, when the author and Historical Long Rider Jonathan Swift made an equestrian journey across Ireland, he arrived at a remarkable conclusion. The beloved mare who carried him faithfully was a paragon of reason, understanding and sympathy, unlike his fellow human beings. At the conclusion of the ride, Swift penned his famous book, Gulliver's Travels. It told the tale of Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's captain who sailed to four remarkable kingdoms. While the simple children's version focuses on the little people of Lilliput, it was the talking horses found in the fourth adventure which outraged civilised English society. A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms recounts how Captain Gulliver's crew mutinied and set him ashore on an unknown island. There he encountered a race of savage humanoids who threatened to kill him. The bewildered traveller was rescued by horses, who it turns out could speak and in fact ruled the island. What follows is an astonishing tale that turns man's definition of himself on its head. The naked, warlike and murderous humans are known as Yahoos, a term still used today as a synonym for "ruffian." In order to draw attention to the evils of materialism and elitism, Swift described the Yahoos as savage creatures with selfish habits, who are obsessed with digging pretty stones from the mud. In stark contrast the Houyhnhnms, which in their language means "the perfection of nature," are a race of intelligent horses that enjoy a peaceful society based upon reason. Though he is biologically akin to the Yahoos, Gulliver prefers the company of his benevolent equine hosts. When he learns to converse with the horses, Gulliver attempts to explain human society. His equine hosts are perplexed with the alien concepts of greed, war and injustice. Nor do they have a word for 'lie, ' and must substitute the phrase "to say a thing which is not." When Gulliver reluctantly returns to England, he finds the company of his countrymen, whom he now views as Yahoos, so intolerable that he spends most of his time in the stable near his home. Thus, this equine episode is the keystone of Gulliver's Travels and reflects Swift's disenchantment with popular society. Originally it was believed that A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms was a metaphor used by Swift to highlight England's treatment of slaves as lesser human beings. More recently, it has been described as an early example of animal rights, in that Gulliver's role reversal highlighted how cruelly English horses were treated. First released anonymously in 1726, it sold out in less than a week. Since then, the challenging tale has never been out of print. Nor has there arrived a human who has answered the challenge Swift wrote for his own epitaph. "Go forth, Voyager, and copy, if you can, this vigorous champion of Liberty."

A study of the brilliant satirist and polemicist Jonathan Swift, by one of the foremost scholars of our time.

An extremely complex, yet widely studied text, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travelsranks as one of the most scathing satires of British and European society ever published. Students will therefore welcome the publication of Roger Lund’s sourcebook, which provides a clear way through the wealth of contextual and critical material that surounds the text. This indispensable guide presents: extensive introductory comment on the contexts and many interpretations of the text, from publication to present annotated extracts from key contextual documents, reviews, critical works and the text itself cross-references between documents and sections of the guide, in order to suggest links between texts, contexts and criticism suggestions for further reading. Part of the Routledge Gudies to Literatureseries, this volume is essential reading for all those beginning detailed study of Swift’s controversial novel.

This Hardcover edition includes two books: "A Modest Proposal" and "Gulliver's Travels" ! Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" is a satirical essay written to mock the callous and indignant attitude of Ireland's rich towards the poor. In the essay, Swift argues Ireland's economic problems could be lessened by selling poor Irish children as food to the wealthy. First published in 1729, Swift's essay gained international attention as a satire unlike any other published to-date. "A Modest Proposal" helped bring international attention to rising economic uncertainty in Ireland and the plight of the less fortunate. Gulliver's Travels was published in 1726 and is probably the most famous work by Jonathan Swift. It was an instant hit--selling out within a week--and has never been out of print, as well as having been adapted many times. Lemuel Gulliver, an English surgeon on the Antelope, is shipwrecked and washed up on the island of Lilliput, where the inhabitants are less than six inches tall. This part of the book is a thinly veiled attack on the political classes of the time, as the Lilliputians focus on the minutiae of life, most notably the rift which has developed according to which end of a boiled egg gets opened at breakfast--the big end or the little end. On his second recorded journey he is abandoned on an island of giants where he is paraded as a curiosity at local markets and fairs. On his third journey he is marooned by pirates and is rescued by the inhabitants of a floating island devoted to music, mathematics and astronomy. On his final journey he meets the Houyhnhnms, a race of talking horses who have subdued the Yahoos, creatures who resemble humans. On his return to England, Gulliver has a very different outlook on life and views the human race in a very different way. A True Classic that Belongs on Every Bookshelf!