{"product_id":"gullivers-travels-by-jonathan-swift","title":"'Gulliver's Travels' by Jonathan Swift","description":"\u003ch4 data-start=\"41\" data-end=\"578\"\u003eJonathan Swift’s \u003cem data-start=\"58\" data-end=\"78\"\u003eGulliver’s Travels\u003c\/em\u003e is one of those classics people half-remember as a children’s adventure about tiny people and giants, which is very funny, because the book itself is basically a sustained act of political disgust wearing a travel costume.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"41\" data-end=\"578\"\u003eLemuel Gulliver moves through strange lands — Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, the Houyhnhnms — and each voyage becomes another way for Swift to take human vanity, empire, science, bureaucracy, war, reason, pride, and civilisation itself out the back and hit them with a shovel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"580\" data-end=\"1095\"\u003eIt is still sharp because it does not simply mock “other worlds”; it keeps turning the joke back on Europe, England, institutions, intellectual fashion, and the miserable little self-importance of human beings. A foundational satire, but also a genuinely weird book: bodily, cruel, funny, fantastical, politically vicious, and much stranger than its reputation suggests. Good for readers of classics, satire, political fiction, absurd travel narratives, and anyone who likes their Enlightenment with a dose of bile.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"1097\" data-end=\"1468\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVintage Signet Classic paperback edition. Fair second-hand condition, with significant age toning, edgewear, rubbing, creasing, and some cover marking. Marginalia throughout, but still a fine reading copy.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"bower studio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45685344436307,"sku":null,"price":8.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0689\/0268\/2707\/files\/thebowerbooker_50.png?v=1781077564","url":"https:\/\/bowerbooks.com\/products\/gullivers-travels-by-jonathan-swift","provider":"bower books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}