Gulliver's Travels: A Review

The Book, Gulliver's Travels is an English book by Jonathan Swift which describes the adventures of Mr. Gulliver.  

Gulliver captured by Liliputians | Image Source: Wikipedia

Gulliver was a mathematician, surgeon and sailor. He left his surgeon work and went on voyages. To be candid, the first chapter "A Letter from Captain Gulliver to His Cousin Sympson" was not clear to me. I had to skip it.

He narrated his experience with the Lilliputians, which according to him, is a country of people who are not more than one inch tall.

After his ship was wrecked, Gulliver managed to swim to a seashore in the middle of nowhere. He was very tired, weak and hungry. So, he laid down at the seaside and slept for several hours. He woke up only to find himself tied down by the lilliputians.

In this book, the author described how humanity, patient and perseverance are important in life. He also described the existence of people who are not taller than one inch, their remarkable knowledge of mathematics, dynamics, engineering and their amazing knowledge of economics.

This can be find out in chapter three; I quote: "...he told me that his majesty's mathematicians, having taken the height of my body by the help of a quadrant and finding it to exceed theirs in the proportion of twelve to one, they concluded from the similarity of their bodies, that mine must contain at least 1724 of theirs, and consequently would require as much food as was necessary to support that number of Lilliputians."

The book presents a lot of exciting and interesting adventures.

It is a good read with beautiful description of the characteristics of the Lilliputians. The author also illustrates, with words, the similarities between the Lilliputians and our western world. He talked about their culture, lifestyle, war and life.

After he gained his freedom from Lilliput. He spent a couple of month with his family in England and his mind would not know peace until he travel again to see the outside world. He went on another voyage only to find himself in another "world" where the people are taller and large. It was now his own turn to be taken in hand. Again, he was lucky to escape from the Giants at Brobdingnag but after 2 months, he embarked on another voyage... 

The book was made into a movie in the year 2010.

I give this book a 5 star.