Introduction

Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon, goes to sea four times and four times meets with marvels. First he is cast ashore in Lilliput, whose people are less than six inches tall yet have fought countless wars over whether eggs should be broken at the big end or the small. Next he reaches Brobdingnag, the land of giants, where he himself is the little one, and the king, having heard him boast of English politics, concludes that his countrymen are 'the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth'. Third he visits the flying island of Laputa, whose scientists are working on extracting sunbeams from cucumbers. Last he comes to the land of the Houyhnhnms, rational and noble horses, among whom the man-like Yahoos are filthy and greedy. Back in England, he can no longer bear the human race. On the surface a fantasy loved by children, the book is in truth the most savage satire on human society.