Gulliver’s Travels (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Jonathan Swift
- First Published: 1726
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Fantasy—cultural exploration
- Time of Work: 1699-1715
- Setting: Various island communities
- 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
The Plot
Gulliver’s Travels, as the book is now known, first appeared anonymously. Capitalizing on the lively interest in voyages at the time, Jonathan Swift called it Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World and ascribed it to “Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships.” Swift published the book anonymously partly because of the occasional scatological references but more pressingly because of the thinly veiled political satire of England’s powerful first prime minister, Whig party leader Sir Robert Walpole, whom Swift...
[The entire page is 1233 words long]
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