Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift

As I am about to embark upon a voyage through more modern literature, this may be the last classic novel I review in a long while. I approached this final volume with something akin to dread, for due to its antiquated style, previous attempts at reading it in my youth had all ended in shipwreck. Furthermore, I always imagined it would turn out to be a tedious philosophical slog following in the footsteps of the detestable Robinson Crusoe. Now on familiar terms with archaic prose, I was able to appreciate the narrative and discover that all negative presumptions were unwarranted. Gulliver's Travels succeeded not only in completely subverting my anticipations, as indeed was Swift's intention when writing it, but also in being a genuinely entertaining read. Despite its contemporary status as something of a fairy-tale, I would definitely not recommend it to children. Certain elements of Gulliver's Travels are undeniably fantastical, but the genre is first and foremost that of political, religious and social satire; albeit an enjoyable and accessible one.

Jonathan Swift parodies the travel story by relating improbable and fabulous experiences in a straight forward, mock serious style, often reminding the reader of his dedication to truth. It is written in first person from the view point of the fictional Lemuel Gulliver and divided into four voyages to countries of binary opposites. The Lilliputians are tiny in proportion to Gulliver, whereas the inhabitants of Brobdingnag are gigantic; likewise, the people on the floating island of Laputa are irrational, whilst the wild Houyhnhnms are completely rational. The voyage to Lilliput remains the most prominent section in modern culture, with the other parts usually omitted from screen adaptations. The reason for this undoubtedly lies in the more obscure and philosophical nature of these later voyages in contrast to the contrived little and large device which comes before. Focusing merely on Lilliput is problematic however, in that it reduces Swift's severe, multi-faceted scrutiny and critique of the human race to mere spectacle.

My favourite quarter of the book was Gulliver's disturbing and surreal sojourn amongst the Brobdingnagians. In a land of giants where everything poses a threat to his existence, Gulliver is forced to do battle with oversized rats and wasps, tormented by the palace dwarf, kidnapped by a monkey, dunked in excrement and even used as a lady's sex toy. Aside from the cheap laughs, Gulliver's Travels offers plenty of stimulating food for thought concerning our worthlessness as a species. In the words of Brobdingnag's king, 'I cannot but conclude the Bulk of your Natives, to be the most pernicious Race of little odious Vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the Surface of the Earth.' Likewise, the virtuous Houyhnhnms also condemn the human race, comparing them to the filthy and bestial Yahoos of their lands. It was refreshing to read a work where the author's sentiments on mankind perfectly matched my own misanthropist bent, but some readers may find this scathing battering a little too close to home.

One aspect of the novel which particularly surprised me was the high amount of scatological content. Upon arriving at Lilliput, Gulliver wastes no time in vomiting out sea water, defecating in the city's temple and urinating over the royal palace. Subsequent references to the foulness of the human body become increasingly abject and perverse, yet this is not necessarily a criticism. One cannot help admiring Swift's ability to utterly repulse his reader with such vivid depictions of depravity. An image still engrained upon my imagination is that of a giant cancerous breast riddled with sores and gaping holes. The less successful figments of Gulliver's Travels are those that deal  more specifically in satirising events and persons contemporary with its time. These references are mostly lost on a modern audience, with Part III being the main culprit and consequently the weakest section of the book. In spite of occasional lapses into rants against eighteenth century British government, it remains highly readable without an over-reliance on footnotes. Recommended to all lovers of politics and philosophy, fantasy and filth.

Rating: 4/5