Gulliver's Travels (A Graphic Novel Audio): Illustrated Classics

Written by Jonathan Swift

Narrated by Saddleback Educational Publishing

In this humorous satire, which makes fun of English politicians in the early 1700s, you'll travel to many strange make-believe worlds. Join Gulliver as he sails from the land of the tiny six-inch people called Lilliputians and the land of the giant people called Brobdingnagians, to the land of the Houyhnhnms- where wise and understanding horses tame herds of wild Yahoos, creatures that are strangely human!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Saddleback Educational Publishing
• Release date: Jan 1, 2006
• ISBN: 9781612474434

Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was an Irish poet and satirical writer. When the spread of Catholicism in Ireland became prevalent, Swift moved to England, where he lived and worked as a writer. Due to the controversial nature of his work, Swift often wrote under pseudonyms. In addition to his poetry and satirical prose, Swift also wrote for political pamphlets and since many of his works provided political commentary this was a fitting career stop for Swift. When he returned to Ireland, he was ordained as a priest in the Anglican church. Despite this, his writings stirred controversy about religion and prevented him from advancing in the clergy.

Reviews for Gulliver's Travels (A Graphic Novel Audio)

[baubie_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I went into this story having no idea what it was about and I found it to be very fun to read. The story is told in a straight forward, easy to understand way and the author's bluntness makes it easy to follow and not get bogged down.Books 1 and 2 felt almost like a children's story, with fantastical creatures. Books 3 and 4 dealt with more advanced themes, and I felt like each book held its own.My favorite part was book 3 when Gulliver was touring through the academy and visiting with the various types of academics. I sometimes had to remind myself that this book was written in the 1700s. Lawyers clearly haven't changed a bit!

[chlebo_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Oh Gulliver. What a strange and interesting boook. Lilliput was by far the best of the four books, but I like Swifts satiric commentary in all four. Swift is a genius, enough said.

[stef7sa-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The last book of the four, about the utopian society of the horses I liked the best by far. In the first two the author is obsessed with the sizes of all things, these being extremely small (Lilliput) or extremely large (land of the giants). The third book is a bit chaotic with all the different countries visited by Gulliver. The last book is a real and complete satirical story with a melancholy undertone.

[mdtwilighter · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is one of the best examples of satire. Swift takes on a trip around the world to show us the problems right at home. Though some have criticized the end of the book, I found it to be the best part. We see the human race totally flipped upside down and it was the most eye-opening section of the book. I picked the book up because I thought it would be about an adventure, but it is so much more than that.

[satsche · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well, to make it short: I was disappointed. Somehow I expected some kind of "great literature". But it's definitively not. The writing style is much too simple, when the story starts to get "deeper" it mostly says something like "I don't want to talk about this anymore, because the reader could be bored". What the...? I'm not enjoying this one. 2,5 stars just because the story itself is interesting - but could be better written.I know it's world literature, but I really don't know why. Maybe this is because of my edition (or translation).

[kaelirenee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Sure,the story of the big man washed up on the shore surrounded by little people is a cute story we've all seen Mickey Mouse do. But reading this book as an adult was an eye-opener. Swift's tongue is firmly planted in his cheek through the whole book and this is a great one to read aloud.

[santhony_35 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The author of Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift, was born in the 17th century and penned this, his most famous work, in the early 18th century. It is a magnificent piece of satire and has stood the test of time, perhaps better than any novel of its kind.Through Gulliver’s travels to Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa and the land of the Houyhnhnms (intelligent horses) and Yahoos (dumb and brutish humanoids), Swift is able to hold up many of the institutions of his day, such as our system of government, laws, religion, armed conflict, medicine and education to ridicule, as Lemuel Gulliver seeks to explain them to his various hosts, to their horror and disbelief.Swift’s razor sharp wit and entertaining method of satire is as effective today as it was when written, when it must have been an absolute sensation. While it can be an effective teaching tool, and many view it as simply a children’s book, much of the work would be far too sophisticated for young children, and I can testify that as a well-read 53 year old, I found it highly entertaining and enlightening.

[kaydence_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Summary provided by Amazon.com:Shipwrecked castaway Lemuel Gulliver's encounters with the petty, diminutive Lilliputians, the crude giants of Brobdingnag, the abstracted scientists of Laputa, the philosophical Houyhnhnms, and the brutish Yahoos give him new, bitter insights into human behavior. Swift's fantastic and subversive book remains supremely relevant in our own age of distortion, hypocrisy, and irony.My response:often intrigued with the small stature of the Lilliputians, and who is not intrigued by giants? However, I don’t think we’ve ever made it to the talking horses. One thing that is definite about Swift is that he has a sense of humor and an impressive imagination.I believe that Swift was angry with social ills. Honestly, I would say that most people, then and now are still just as angered by social ills as he was. How can we even compare his novel where he is describing the Yahoos as greedy savages (in a place where they have no advancement of the society he was in), to political books that are currently released and point out directly how our country is failing? Rush Limbaugh, for example, spouts daily on the radio that he doesn’t believe our leader will do any good for a nation. Our society has basically bankrupted itself based off of greed. What is fairly funny is that there are a few rich people that could basically bail out major companies without any help from the government, and yet they are coming to the government to help them out.The Yahoos are described as beings that are obsessed with treasures, fight amongst one another continuously, become lazy unless forced to work, covet each other with no regards to others around them, and are overrun with greed, avarice, lust, etc. It’s impossible not to see the similarities. I just think we conclude that it is human nature.

[lord_boris-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Written nearly 300 years ago, at it's time it must have been a groundbreaking satire. To be fair it is still current in many ways especially regarding the justiciary, the establishment and western mankind in general. However, I found it very dull to read. He goes away, has an adventure and comes back. He does this four times. Heaven knows he wasn't much of a family man and we don't hear much of what his wife thought of it all. I found it quite boring and this was heading for two stars until the final episode with the Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos. The former representing a superior being which mankind may believe he is and the latter being a mirror to how Swift believes they really are. This part was both insightful and humorous and rescued this book for me.

[jwhenderson_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a fantastical satire that uses the ancient method of a journey (in this case multiple journeys) to foreign lands in the service of social satire and cultural commentary. The motivating force behind Gulliver's Travels is the author's apparent disgust with human folly and pretension; the ideas are embodied in grotesques and fantastic creatures, in the six-inch high Lilliputians, the gigantic Brobdingnagians, the horse-like Houyhnhnms and the disgusting Yahoos. These characters are so memorable that their names have become part of our culture. The journeys provide lessons for Lemuel Gulliver who is an honest if gullible narrator. Whether he learned the right lessons or ones that have value for others is for each reader to decided. However, concluding, he confesses that he could be reconciled to the English Yahoos "if they would be content with those Vices and Follies only which Nature hath entitled them to. I am not in the least provoked at the sight of a Lawyer, a Pick-pocket, a Colonel, a Fool, a Lord, a Gamster, a Politician, a Whoremunger, a Physician, . . . or the like: This is all according to the due Course of Things: but, when I behold a Lump of Deformity, and Diseases both in Body and Mind, smitten with Pride, it immediately breaks all the Measures of my patience."

[quoddy_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is darling and lovely. Great for children, but enough symbolism in it for worth-while analysing for adults.

[ayumig_3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

At first , I thought this book was a fairy tale. But after I read this book, I realize that this book had lessons.for example, this book teaches us that people tell alie ,steal something and fight, just they have always done, and probably will always do.We usually don't notice that fact.So we should think our own lives deeply.

[bookworm12_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Most people have at least heard of Gulliver’s Travels and it’s hard not to have a few preconceived notions pop into your head for a book like that. I knew the general idea before I read it, but I was surprised by the specific observations Gulliver shares about each race he visits. A shipwreck strands Gulliver with the Lilliputs and a series of adventures follow. Originally published as a satire, the book is now read by all ages. He travels all over and meets the strangest people. He makes observations about their ways of life and in doing so often tells more about himself and his prejudices than he means to. Each new group teaches him something about the way he sees the world. The Lilliputs are a tiny people, so small they can fit in his hand. They have to make 100 meals just to feed him. The very next group he discovers are giants and he is now the tiny figure that can fit in their hand. His observations of both of these groups were not always what you would expect. Sometimes he remarks on the texture of their skin. He even makes some hilarious comments about watching one of the giants nurse and being terrified by her enormous breast. The woman who takes care of him in the giants’ land sews him shirts lets him to use items from her dollhouse. There’s a lot of humor worked into the stories. At one point he gets in a fight with the queen’s dwarf and is dropped into a giant bowl of cream and then stuck into a marrow bone. There are houseflies that constantly plague him because they're the size of birds. He can see when the flies lay eggs in the giants’ food because they look so large to him. Gulliver also discovers the Houyhnhnms, a race of horses that are superior to all the other races he describes. The thing I loved about it was that it made you look at your own world a little differently. It makes you notice things that you normally take for granted. The whole book is a fascinating exercise in how our situation and surroundings affect the way we see the world. Swift manages to do this in a humorous way, never taking himself too seriously. It broke my heart a little that Gulliver kept leaving his family to travel and then when he finally returns he never quite gets over leaving the Houyhnhnms.BOTTOM LINE: At times clever, at others dry, this classic gives the reader a lot to think about when they view their own society. It’s a reminder that so much of what we believe is based on what we already know. The more we learn about other cultures, the more we can understand them and appreciate their strengths.

[maxernst11 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Meesterlijk in zijn passages met kritiek op algemeenmenselijke toestanden. Frisse satire, al is het verhaal van de reus in Lilliputtersland intussen wat afgezaagd, dat wordt ruimschoots gecompenseerd vooral door het laatste verhaal.

[rizeandshine · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

PART I. A REVIEW OF THE BOOK.[The author gives some account of the book, Gulliver’s Travels. Her first memories of Gulliver. She reads the first couple of chapters and enjoys the satire immensely. Gets to the third chapter; is surprised at the science fictional, dystopian tone, is thoroughly hit over the head with Swift’s criticism of politics and humanity, and finishes the book knowing that there is no way she has ever before been exposed to the last two voyages Gulliver undertakes.:]I have always thought of Gulliver’s Travels as primarily a story for children. This is probably due to the number of “Gulliver” cartoons and picture books I have seen over the years. However, I’m sure that what I’ve seen only deals with a simple telling of the first two of Gulliver’s voyages described in the book and that those depictions were not nearly as full of sharp, biting criticism and satire as the unabridged version of the book itself, as Gulliver’s Travels is really not a children’s story at all. I also understand why the cartoons do not delve into the third and fourth journeys described in the book as I found them to be quite dark. Lemuel Gulliver, a ship’s surgeon, tells an amusing story of traveling the world in the early 18th century and the strange lands and peoples he comes in contact with. Gulliver’s accounts are given in a matter-of-fact way and are quite detailed while lacking in emotion. Gulliver is quite gullible and humorless himself, which just adds to the satirical effect of the book. During one voyage, Gulliver is shipwrecked and awakes on the island of Lilliput, where the inhabitants are all roughly six inches tall. His time in that kingdom satirizes the ridiculousness of feuds, wars, and royal pomp and show. Likewise, on Gulliver’s second voyage he is again an oddity due to his size as he winds up in the land of the giants in Brobdingnag, where he now stands a relative six inches tall compared to the sixty foot tall inhabitants there. During his time in Brobdingnag, Gulliver explains European systems of law and government to the prince who cannot believe that such a political system could even function. On his next journey, Gulliver’s ship is overtaken by pirates and he is rescued by the people on the floating island of Laputa, peopled by philosophers and scientists who are “floating on the clouds” like the island, as they are so lost in thought they lose all sight of practicality. Gulliver travels between islands in this land and is able to meet and question great historical figures who have gone before. He also comes in contact with Struldbergs, immortal people who become miserable the longer they live. On his last expedition Gulliver washes ashore at Houyhnhnm, a land where wise and gentle but emotionless species resembles horses and wild human-like beasts are referred to as Yahoos. Gulliver is very taken with the Houyhnhnm although he sees himself as a Yahoo, whom he despises. Gulliver returns home against his will and the story ends on a very bleak note. I much prefer the amusing way in which Swift pokes fun at the inane and ridiculous elements of English society in the first two voyages to the odd, depressing images left by the last two excursions and his trip home. Well, that’s just the opinion of this Yahoo. Read the book yourself and see what you think.

[jarnold_az · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is no child's book, but a fantastic display of satire and political statement. I laughed to the point of tears several times after reading how Mr. Gulliver chose to distinguish the palace fire in Lilliput. Highly recommended.

[joybee_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good read, I did not always understand all of the historical satire (luckily I read an annotated version that explained most of it)it was a fun adventure that is ironic and humorous and sometimes absurd.Gulliver leaves home by ship on various voyages, all of which leave him stranded in new, strange places. One is a country of small people and all of their surroundings are accordingly small. The next is a land of giants, and all of the surroundings are equally as large. Thirdly is a floating island in the sky populated by wacky scientists and astronomers. And lastly, is an island where horses are the intelligent race, having their own language, and the human like creatures of this land are savage and disgusting. All through his travels Gulliver learns the language and customs of the new lands' inhabitants making it difficult to merge back into his actual life.I'm glad I read this book.

[missboyer3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Jonathan Swift's satirical novel was first published in 1726, yet it is still valid today. Gulliver's Travels describes the four fantastic voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, a kindly ship's surgeon. Swift portrays him as an observer, a reporter, and a victim of circumstance. His travels take him to Lilliput where he is a giant observing tiny people. In Brobdingnag, the tables are reversed and he is the tiny person in a land of giants where he is exhibited as a curiosity at markets and fairs. The flying island of Laputa is the scene of his next voyage. The people plan and plot as their country lies in ruins. It is a world of illusion and distorted values. The fourth and final voyage takes him to the home of the Houyhnhnms, gentle horses who rule the land. He also encounters Yahoos, filthy bestial creatures who resemble humans.

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When this book was first written, it became famous for its biting satire and disdain for 'modern' politics and politicians. In the near-300 years that have passed since then, the satirical edges have softened, leaving a great adventure story.

[nules_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I liked this book quite a bit. It does read like a journal, which was new to me in a novel, although at the time it probably bothered me a little, although I still thought it interesting.I liked how there were new areas and races, even if it may be political satire. I was glad to read about several that aren't usually featured in the movies.

[alcracka · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Pretty good stuff. Book 3 isn't as great, and book 4 gets a little preachy at times, but fun to read. Makes me wonder about Yahoo's decision to name themselves after it; Yahoos represent a pretty cynical, misanthropic view of humanity.

[la2bkk · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

For good reason, this is a must read classic. The book appeals on a superficial level with the author's exotic travels, and yet has a far deeper message about human nature and the society of the day.Prior reviewers (and Wikipedia) summarize its contents, so I will not do so again. However, my favorite section of the book is contained with chapter 4 regarding the land of Houyhnhnms (horses) and Yahoos (uncivilized humans). The author's sometimes graphic depiction of his homeland's princes, lawyers, doctors and military leaders is absolutely hilarious and thought provoking.

[rockstarninja_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I actually don't like many of the classics, but this is one of my favorites. It can be a little tedious to start, but once you're into it, it's a great story.

[tjsjohanna_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I can't help but wonder what a conversation with Mr. Swift might have been like. He is so overwhelmingly conscious of all the faults of human kind that it is almost depressing to come to the end of "Gulliver's Travels" and feel condemned to be such a Yahoo! Still, it must be admitted that his observations are truthful. One thing I found particularly interesting about the book was the bluntness with which Mr. Swift addresses such things as bodily functions - and the chapters about the Yahoos are quite distasteful if the reader stops to consider that Gulliver makes a boat using the skin and fat of humans, as well as articles of clothing and sails. Somehow, by assigning another name, and continually referring to Yahoos as brutes, Mr. Swift leads the reader to skim right past these details.

[hemlokgang · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

No wonder this novel is considered a classic which has been enjoyed "in the nursery" and in the library! Jonathan Swift wrote a story in the 1700s which is absolutely timeless. On one level this is a delightful fantasy romp to imagined lands with amazing inhabitants. However, do not be deceived. This is a philosophical treatise written with tremendous wit and a profound message about the author's desire for truth, indeed his bottomless pit of want for truth. The author levels his satiric wit at the following topics and fires away: religion, travel tales, politics, sex, relationships, colonialism, capitalism, prejudice, social superficiality, prejudice, stereotypes and more. Anyone who has traveled to a culture which is vastly different from their own and reveled in the experience will likely appreciate this book, and those who have not but harbor strong opinions about those folks from another culture......well, it should be required reading! Go ahead, read it and laugh out loud, smile, wince, cringe, and love it!

[the7ken7petersen · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The last time that I read this book, I must have been about nine years old. I would be fascinated to turn up that copy because it must have been heavily edited. This book is full of biting criticism of the failings of the human race and much too grown up for the average child.A further point of interest is that whilst most people will know of Gulliver, they will talk of his trip to Lilliput and, just possibly to a land of giants: very few people speak of the other two lands visited - a city in the sky and a land where horse-like creatures rule. It is, however, to these two that I would imagine Swift would attribute the kernel of his tale. The horse people are very close to being the first si-fi book because it is clear that Swift is creating a race totally at variance with human beings.Considering its age, the book has some remarkably prescient forecasts of modern living. I was struck by Laputa where Swift talks of language being cut and mauled in much the way that 'Text speak' does. I was also surprised by his decision to laud the Houyhnhnms to the extent whereby Gulliver is unable to settle back amongst his own kind: even today, I find myself bridling at such an attitude.If your child has some bastardised version of this tale upon his or her bookshelf, then rip it away and wait until they reach maturity: it is a crime that this book has been reduced to kiddie fodder.

[armyangel1986 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Swift's ideas about human nature and government are timeless. Gulliver's Travels is a must read!

[jpsnow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Apparently, one must know their history very well to understand satire. This was an entertaining work -- creative, subtle, and poignant, though slow in parts (somewhat due to the length of time required to "read" the proper nouns properly). The horse kingdom was my favorite of the four, due to what it said about the advantages and disadvantages of a society based purely on reason.

[vicarofdibley · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

satire on the political word atthe time can be applyed today

[kendrarenee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Such a witty, clever, fun critique of society. Like a true traveler, he pushes the limits of what one is naturally inclined to believe is possible or normal. I would read this book again and again.