![]() First edition of Gulliver's Travels | |
Author | Jonathan Swift |
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Original title | Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships |
Language | English |
Genre | Satire, fantasy |
Publisher | Benjamin Motte |
Publication date | 28 October 1726 |
Publication place | England |
Media type | |
823.5 | |
Text | Gulliver's Travels at Wikisource |
Gulliver's Travels, originally titled Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships is a 1726 prose satire[1][2] by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift, satirising both human nature and the "travellers' tales" literary subgenre. It is Swift's best-known full-length work and one of the most famous classics of English literature. The English poet and dramatist John Gay remarked, "It is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery."[3] The book has been adapted for over a dozen films, movies, plays, and theatrical performances over the centuries.
The book was an immediate success, and Swift claimed that he wrote Gulliver's Travels "to vex the world rather than divert it".