Gulliver’s Travels (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Jonathan Swift
- First Published: 1726
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social satire
- Time of Work: 1699-1713
- Setting: England and various fictional lands
- Genres: Long fiction, Satire, Adventure
- Subjects: Values, Traveling or travelers, Voyages, Intellectuals, Folkloric or magical people, Mythical animals, Politics, Prisoners, Escapes, Social issues, Religion, Class consciousness, Human race, Eighteenth century, Islands, Kings, queens, or royalty, Rulers, Fantasy, Corruption, Shipwrecks, Adventure, Government, Horses, Satire, Giants, Royal courts or courtiers
- Locales: England, Mythical lands
Characters Discussed
Lemuel Gulliver, a surgeon, sea captain, traveler, and the narrator of these travel accounts, the purpose of which is to satirize the pretentions and follies of humans. Gulliver is an ordinary man, capable of close observation; his deceptively matter-of-fact reportage and a great accumulation of detail make believable and readable a scathing political and social satire. On his first voyage, he is shipwrecked at Lilliput, a country inhabited by people no more than six inches tall, where pretentiousness, individual as well as political, is ridiculed. The...
[The entire page is 558 words long]
Navigate
- Gulliver’s Travels (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
- Gulliver’s Travels (Magill Book Reviews)
- Gulliver’s Travels (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
- Gulliver’s Travels (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
- Gulliver’s Travels (Cyclopedia of Literary Places)
See Also:
Jonathan Swift (Censorship--Ready Reference series)Jonathan Swift (Cyclopedia of World Authors)Jonathan Swift (Long Fiction)Jonathan Swift (Dictionary of World Biography)
- Add Gulliver’s Travels to your favorites