4.5 stars
Published 50 years before America became the United States. Divided into four sections. The familiar first section finds Gulliver held captive by six inch tall Lilliputians.
“The tiny Lilliputians surmise that Gulliver's watch may be his god, because it is that which, he admits, he seldom does anything without consulting.”
As he walks the said roads, he shall take the utmost care not to trample upon the bodies of any of our loving subjects, their horses, or carriages, nor take any of our said subjects into his hands, without their own consent.
― Jonathan Swift
Swift ground his political ax throughout Gullivers Travels. Big reversal on Guliver's next trip, A Voyage to Brobdingnag. Grass tall as trees. Gulliver passed like a salt shaker from a farmer to the King. Satire dripping like raindrops off eaves, after a typhoon.
"There was a woman with a cancer in her breast, swelled to a monstrous size, full of holes, in two or three of which I could have easily crept, and covered my whole body. There was a fellow with a wen in his neck, larger than five woolpacks, and another with a couple of wooden legs, each about twenty foot high. But, the most hateful sight of all was the lice crawling on their clothes. I could see distinctly the limbs of these vermin with my naked eyes, much better than those of an European louse through a microscope, and their snouts with which they rooted like swine."
-Jonathan Swift
The next chapter- A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib and Japan, contrasts several cultures, including an island of elites, in the air. Laputa- a floating island where Gulliver meets its inhabitants, a peculiar bunch who have very limited attention spans and are especially interested in music, astrology, and power:
"That the system of living contrived by me was unreasonable and unjust, because it supposed a perpetuity of youth, health, and vigor, which no man could be so foolish to hope, however extravagant he might be in his wishes. That the question therefore was not whether a man would choose to be always in the primes of youth, attended with prosperity and health, but how he would pass a perpetual life under all the usual disadvantages which old age brings along with it. For although few men will avow their desires of being immortal upon such hard conditions, yet in the two kingdoms before-mentioned of Balnibari an Japan, he observed that every man desired to put off death for some time longer, let it approach ever so late, and he rarely heard of any man who died willingly, except he were incited by the extremity of grief or torture. And he appealed to me whether in those countries I had traveled, as well as my own, I had not observed the same general disposition."
-Jonathan Swift
The fourth and last section, A Voyage to the Land of the Houyhnhnms, introduces a race of talking horses. The noble Houyhnhnms are the rulers while the deformed, depraved creatures that resemble human beings are called Yahoos. The horsemen leaders value reason over emotion.
"A First or Chief Minister of State, whom I intended to describe, was a creature wholly exempt from joy and grief, love and hatred, pity and anger; at least made use of no other passions but a violent desire of wealth, power, and titles; that he applies his words to all uses, except to the indication of his mind; that he never tells a truth, but with an intent that you should take it for a lie; nor a lie, but with a design that you should take it for a truth; that those he speaks worst of behind their backs are in the surest way to preferment; and whenever he begins to praise you to others or to yourself, you are from that day forlorn. The worst mark you can receive is a promise, especially when it is confirmed with an oath; after which every wise man retires, and gives over all hopes."
-Jonathan Swift
Swift's satire proves some things never change. 5 star polictical satire. 4 star entertainment=4.5 stars!