Gulliver's Travels

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, published in 1726, is a satire entailing the description of the author's time among the inhabitants of four strange lands he encountered through misfortune on four separate sea journeys over a sixteen year period. His time with the tiny people of Lilliput is well known from the movies, but his last two visits were heretofore completely unknown to me. The prose of three centuries past was handled quite well by the reader of the audiobook I heard.

The book was interesting as much for demonstrating the English mindset of the time as for the description of the lands and people he met. Gulliver was able quickly to gain an audience and develop a relationship with the monarch of each of these lands. This was due to his being a person of quality rather than one of the servant class. However, In one case he became the queen's slave, a condition which he readily accepted although he was treated more as a pet than a slave. Gulliver declined to claim each of these lands in the name of Her Majesty, even though that was his duty.