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Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World by Jonathan Swift (travels_into_several_remote_nations_of_the_world.doc)

Jonathan Swift

Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.

In Four Parts.
By Lemuel Gulliver,

First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships.

Title:

        Gulliverovy Cesty by Jonathan Swift

Published:

        Praha: Odeon, 1968.

Translation:

        Aloys Skoumal

About the author

        Jonathan Swift (*1667  †1745) was an Irish cleric, essayist, journalist, political pamphleteer, and poet. He was the foremost prose satirist in the English language. He is famous for works like Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, The Drapier's Letters, The Battle of the Books, and A Tale of a Tub. Swift is probably the foremost prose satirist in the English language, although he is less well known for his poetry. Swift published all of his works under pseudonyms such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B. Drapier - or anonymously.

About the book

        Gulliver's Travels is perhaps Swift's most prolific and well-known work, spanning a literary sixteen years in physical journey and countless more in personal exploration. In it, Swift explores gender differences, politics, class, money, race, science, education, exploration, love, physical strength, physical beauty, and more, and forces stringent satirical commentary on each. In 1726 Swift paid a long-deferred visit to London, taking with him the manuscript of Gulliver's Travels. During his visit he stayed with his old friends, Alexander Pope. John Arbuthnot, and John Gay, who helped him arrange for the publication of his book. First published in November 1726, it was an immediate hit, with a total of three printings that year and another in early 1727. French, German, and Dutch translations appeared in 1727 and pirated copies were printed in Ireland.

        Like all of Swift's works, Gulliver's Travels was originally published without Swift's name on it because he feared government persecution. Swift's sharp observations about the corruption of people and their institutions still ring true today, almost three hundred years after the book was first published.

Main Topic

        Gulliver's Travels was originally intended as an attack on the hypocrisy of the establishment, including the government, the courts, and the clergy, but it was so well written that it immediately became a children's favourite. Swift wrote Gulliver's Travels at a time of political change and scientific invention, and many of the events he describes in the book can easily be linked to contemporary events in Europe. One of the reasons that the stories are deeply amusing is that, by combining real issues with entirely fantastic situations and characters, they suggest that the realities of 18th century England were as fantastic as the situations in which Gulliver finds himself.

        Through basic analysis of history one learns that anybody who has made a substantial difference in society was originally misunderstood and unappreciated.  

Plot summary

        At its simplest level, Gulliver's Travels is the story of Lemuel Gulliver and his voyages around the world. Prefaced by two letters attesting to the truth of the tales, the adventures are told by Gulliver after his return home from his final journey.

        The narrator, also the hero of the story, Gulliver, starts by telling the reader that his father sent him to school when he was young. Gulliver was schooled to become a surgeon there and he also took up navigation and other subjects that would be valuable at sea. After his education, he became a doctor on a ship for a couple of years.

        Lemuel Gulliver speaks to the reader and explains that he will retell of his experiences at sea. He recounts his youth, education, and marriage and about his reasons for writing these tales.

        The book comprises four different travels. In the first, Gulliver narrates how he happened to shipwreck in Lilliput Island, where its inhabitants were only six inch tall and fights wars “Obě mohutná mocnářství vedou….už šestatřicet měsícu houževnatě válku” (pg.32) . In the second voyage, Gulliver and some other mariners reach the shores of Brobdingag, the country of peaceful giants. With such a microscopic view into humanity, Gulliver discovers the grotesque nature of human beings, both physically and spiritually. The king of Brobdingnag, after hearing about Gulliver’s country, thinks that the people there must be the most hateful race of creatures on earth “…z odpovědí, které jsem z tebe pracně vymámil a vyždímal, nemohu leč usoudit, že valná část tvých krajanů je nejškodlivější drobná hnusná havěť, jaká se kdy z dopuštění přírody plazila po povrchu země.” (pg.87)

In the third part, we find Gulliver's most satirical voyage to the Flying Island of Laputa and to its neighbouring countries Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdurbdribb and Japan. “Lap ve stare, dnes již neužívané řeči znamená vysoký, a untuh zase vladař, z čehož prý zkomolením z Lapuntuh vzniklo Laputa.” (pg. 107) Eventually Gulliver narrates his forth and last voyage to the country of Houyhnhnms, the wise horses who enslave a kind of degenerated human species called Yahoos. “Slovo Hvajhnhnim znamená v jejich jazyce koně a původně znamenalo přírodní dokonalost.” (pg.156)

Characters

Lemuel Gulliver - the narrator and protagonist of the story

Lilliputians - the race of miniature people whom Gulliver meets on his first voyage

The Emperor of Lilliput - the ruler of Lilliput, he appears both laughable and sinister

Brobdignags - giants whom Gulliver meets on his second voyage. Brobdingnagians are basically a reasonable and kindly people governed by a sense of justice.

Laputans - absentminded intellectuals who live on the floating island of Laputa, encountered by Gulliver on his third voyage

Yahoos - unkempt humanlike beasts who live in servitude to the Houyhnhnms

Houyhnhms - rational horses who maintain a simple, peaceful society governed by reason and truthfulness—they do not even have a word for “lie” in their language

The Queen - the queen of Brobdingnag who is so delighted by Gulliver’s beauty and charms that she agrees to buy him from the farmer for 1,000 pieces of gold

The King - the king of Brobdingnag, who, in contrast to the emperor of Lilliput, seems to be a true intellectual

The farmer - Gulliver’s first master in Brobdingnag

Glumdalclitch - The farmer’s nine-year-old daughter, she becomes Gulliver’s friend and nursemaid

Gulliver’s Houyhnhnm master - the Houyhnhnm who first discovers Gulliver and takes him into his own home

Lord Munodi - a lord of Lagado, capital of the underdeveloped land beneath Laputa, who hosts Gulliver and gives him a tour of the country on Gulliver’s third voyage

Mary Burton Gulliver - Gulliver’s wife, whose perfunctory mention in the first paragraphs of Gulliver’s Travels demonstrates how unsentimental and unemotional Gulliver is

Richard Sympson - Gulliver’s cousin, self-proclaimed intimate friend, and the editor and publisher of Gulliver’s Travels

Don Pedro de Mendez - the Portuguese captain who takes Gulliver back to Europe after he is forced to leave the land of the Houyhnhnms

Narrator

        There is a a first-person narrator called Lemuel Gulliver. „Odstěhoval jsem se z Old Jury do Fetter Lane a odtamtud od Wappingu a těšil jsem se, že najdu práci u námořníku...“ (pg. 13)

Language

        Because of the structure, the book as a whole has a very sketchy plot; it feels more like weekly episodes than one long narrative. It is sometimes difficult to follow the main storyline because the narration jumps often from one episode to another. Swift uses an archaic type of language and run-along sentences, where the trying for ironic touch-tinge and sometimes the arrogance of the narrator seems to be clear.

Chapters, books

        Gulliver's Travels is divided into four parts or books, each about a different place. Every part is divided into more chapters.

PART I: A Voyage to Lilliput

PART II: A Voyage to Brobdingnag

PART III: A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib and Japan

PART IV: A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms

        At the beginning of the book there is a short part called “The Publisher to the Reader” and the “Letter from Capt. Gulliver, to his Cousin Sympson”.

Bibliography

Rawson, Claude: The Basic Writings of Jonathan Swift. Random House, New York: 2000.

Swift, Jonathan: Gulliverovy Cesty. Praha: Odeon, 1968. Translation: Aloys Skoumal

Thornley, G.C.; Roberts, Gwyneth: An Outline of English Literature.

Essex: Longman Group, 2001.

Internet:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jonathan_Swift&printable=yes

http://www.jaffebros.com/lee/gulliver/

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jswift.htm

http://incompetech.com/authors/swift/

http://www.bookrags.com/notes/gt/OBJ.htm