Gulliver's Travels was published in 1726, which immediately shocked the British society and the world literary world at that time. A week after publication, all the books were snapped up. In London, everyone is reading this book and talking about it everywhere, regardless of men, women and children, courts, official residences, bars and shops. Since its publication, it has been translated into dozens of languages and has become a standing book for literary lovers all over the world. The stories of lilliputian and adult countries in the book are well known to women and children. Voltaire, Byron, Gorky and Lu Xun all spoke highly of Swift's works, and readers all over the world spoke highly of Gulliver's Travels. After more than 200 years, Gulliver's Travels has not been forgotten by the world, but has attracted more attention from people all over the world. Its footprints spread all over the world, emitting eternal glory in the ranks of the world's progressive literature.
Reading focus
This book is one of the representative works of creating satirical style in the history of English literature. It not only has profound ideological content, but also has a relatively perfect artistic form. The author skillfully uses grotesque plots, absurd environment and exaggerated techniques to reflect the social contradictions in the early18th century, and exposes and criticizes the corruption and evil of the British ruling class.
Brief introduction of the author
Jonathan? Swift (1667- 1745),18th century British political commentator and satirist, was born in a poor family in Ireland. He lost his father in his early years and finished college with the help of his uncle. After graduation, I worked as a private secretary, village priest, newspaper editor and church director. From 17 10 to 17 13, he lived in London and participated in party struggles, which was highly valued by the leaders of conservative party branches. After the Tories stepped down, Swift returned to Ireland and served as the dean of St Patrick's Church in Dublin for life.
Swift's early works, represented by the story of wooden barrels, exposed political corruption. Since 17 10, he has published many political papers, such as Letters from Businessmen and A Moderate Proposal, which mainly criticized the British colonial rule, expressed sympathy for the Irish people and praised the spirit of the struggle for freedom and democracy. Gulliver's Travels, a masterpiece, mercilessly attacked the ills of English society and the ugliness of the church. Swift's works are mainly satirical and exaggerated, with simple and plain writing, sharp image contrast and particularly profound theme. Swift is a representative of the radical school of the Enlightenment, and his satirical literature has a great influence on the development of European realistic literature.
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Writing background
Gulliver's Travels originated from a party between Swift and his friends. Swift was very excited when he talked about all kinds of greedy and shameless behaviors in political circles at that time. Laughing and cursing, he began to write the first volume of Gulliver's Travels. After numerous additions, deletions and revisions, the book was finally published anonymously as 1726, which immediately caused great controversy in British society. For more than 200 years, it has been translated into dozens of languages and spread widely all over the world.
Content essence
Most readers may be interested in Jonathan? Swift's name is unfamiliar, but the story of lilliputian country and big country is almost a household name. Gulliver's Travels seems to be a children's book in the eyes of ordinary people, but it is not. The magical imagination, exaggerated means and allegorical brushwork in the book are the common characteristics of ordinary children's books, but Gulliver's Travels is famous in the history of world literature for its outstanding satirical art. This book mainly describes that the surgeon Gulliver sailed to the South Pacific with the antelope in 1699. Unfortunately, Gulliver survived and drifted to Lilliput. Since then, a series of adventures have begun. Through Gulliver's adventures in Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Flying Island and Hui Hui, the novel reflects some contradictions in English society in the first half of the18th century, and exposes and criticizes the corruption and evil of the British ruling class and the crazy plunder and cruel exploitation of the British bourgeoisie in the primitive accumulation period of capitalism.
Swift's satirical art is fully reflected in Gulliver's Travels. His satirical techniques are very rich, one of which is irony. For example, the author is very angry and despises that human beings use the power of gunpowder to wage war, plunder wealth and kill their own kind, but he uses a series of satires such as "ignorance of politics" to describe the king of Great Britain who sneers at gunpowder. The second is to describe all kinds of grotesque things with exaggerated techniques similar to comics, such as Yahoo, Lepi and others, as well as immortals. Thirdly, he described the life and struggle of Lilliput with a serious attitude and meticulous and realistic details, which successfully reflected the reality of Britain at that time. Fourthly, the author is good at telling trivial and boring things in a serious style, and the narrative about the history of Lilliput is an excellent example. Swift's satirical art is highly generalized. He is good at revealing the ugly phenomena and contradictions of society through specific plots, and often points out some of its essence. At the same time, in her book, Swift alludes to the various contradictions existing in British society at that time to the political struggles of various countries, and readers can naturally associate the darkness of British politics and cruel foreign plunder in the process of easy reading.
Status influence
Gulliver's Travels is the first English literary masterpiece introduced to China. 1872, Tan Ying Xiao Lu was translated and published in Shenbao, which was widely welcomed by readers and even influenced the creation of later works such as Jing Hua Yuan and Lao Can Travel Notes.
Gulliver's Travels not only has profound ideological content, but also has a relatively perfect artistic form. Swift described the reality of Britain at that time with his unique techniques and ingenious plot settings. He created a colorful and fairy-tale fantasy world according to the reality of Britain at that time. Swift's fantasy and reality are in harmony and unity. Gulliver's experiences in lilliputian country, adult country, flying to the island country and returning to the Republic of China are different, but they are all arranged reasonably and without flaws. Every time he goes to a fantasy country, he is treated differently and lifelike, which makes his works have artistic realism, thus increasing the artistic appeal of his works.
Gulliver's Travels is loved by people all over the world. Orwell has read this book no less than six times in his life. He said, "If I were to make a list of six books, I would keep them even if all the other books were destroyed, and I would definitely include Gulliver's Travels." This book also has a profound influence on the development of English literature, so Gorky called the author "one of the great literary creators".
Selected Chinese
Blindness can increase your courage, because you can't see any danger.
■ I never want to be a tool of others and make a free and brave nation a slave.
■ A person who returns good for evil should be the public enemy of mankind. He may treat human beings more viciously than benefactors, because the world has not shown him mercy, and such a person simply does not deserve to live in this world.
Famous tour guide
Gulliver's Travels has been creatively developed on the basis of inheriting the tradition of medieval folk literature, thus becoming Kipling's The Book of the Mang Forest, France's Penguin Island and George W? Orwell's Animal Farm and many other famous works set a brilliant example from all aspects.
—— Famous scholar Wu Houkai
The satirical brushwork in Gulliver's Travels covers a wide range, involving politics, philosophy, justice, culture, education, religion, morality and other fields in Britain at that time from different angles. Swift borrows illusory magic stories with profound implications, aiming at satirizing the current politics at that time, denouncing the shortcomings of the times, exposing darkness and denying reality.
-Young writer Jin Yao
If we compare Swift's works, especially Gulliver's Travels, with Horace and Pope's satirical works, we will see that Swift's profound ideological content and outstanding artistic techniques have developed the achievements of his predecessors, far from being comparable to other British satirists before him or at the same time. Gulliver's Travels criticized and satirized some social phenomena, and even today, it has not lost its practical significance.
—— Famous scholar Yang
Commentator
Gulliver is resolute, brave and kind. During the trip, he cares about others regardless of personal gains and losses. The author endowed the characters with various virtues, so Gulliver, who appeared in front of readers, was humble and eager to learn, tried to understand new things with new eyes, frankly admitted his shortcomings and mistakes, and never gave up on himself. Even if he is looked around as a plaything, he can still maintain his dignity and talk to the king of a big country in an equal manner. He had the courage to help Lilliputian resist foreign invasion, but flatly refused to help Lilliputian king invade and expand. During his travels, he saw the dark side of social reality and thought that British society was not civilized. This character image embodies the author's thoughts.
Reading guide
Travel Notes of Swift and Gulliver
Among Swift's masterpieces, Gulliver's Travels is the most widely circulated and loved by readers all over the world. The book passed through Riemel? From Captain Gulliver's mouth, he described his strange experience of traveling around four countries. Behind these experiences, the dark reality of British society is exposed everywhere, which contains the author's ideal.
Gulliver initially thought that Lilliput was nothing like Britain, but actually Lilliput was a portrayal of Britain. Through that seemingly absurd logic, we can see that the king is only a nail taller than his subjects, but he arrogantly pretends to be the ruler of the universe and decides the fate of the people with his impermanent emotions; You don't need both ability and political integrity to be an official. As long as you jump high, you can get high positions and high salaries.
The difference between the two parties in Lilliput is marked by the height of high heels, implying the politics of the British Tories (the predecessor of the Conservative Party) and Whigs (later developed into the Liberal Party). When eating eggs, whether to break them from the big head or the small head refers to the absurd dispute between Catholicism and Protestantism (also known as Puritanism, that is, Calvinism) about church rituals. Just because of this dispute, it led to the civil war in Lilliput, and even spread to neighboring countries. Gulliver had to flee Lilliput because of the police system and false accusations.
People in big countries surpass those "little people" physically and intellectually; The kingdom of adults is an idealized and educated monarchy. The king is smart and upright. He always cares about his subjects. Law is also the guarantee of freedom and welfare.
At the request of the King of Great Britain, Gulliver introduced the British society and system to him, and his praise was full of flaws under the king's questioning. The king denounced Britain's corruption, war of aggression and legal injustice, pointing out that the reason lies in the meanness and selfishness of the people.
Scientists who fly to the island are divorced from the people and reality, and engage in irrelevant "scientific research", especially taking cruel measures against domestic residents: if they resist a little, they will fly the island over the sky to block the sun, or land on their land and crush the residents into powder. What is revealed here is the British colonial rule over Ireland.
Gulliver also went to a magician's country, where he traced the politics of ancient Rome and compared the British system. At this point, his thought has changed from supporting the monarchy to supporting * * * and. However, he only praised the patriarchal society in the "natural state". If this view is still a "romantic retrogression", Gulliver's description of the country of wisdom points out the corrosion of civilized society to human beings and shows that only those who live in a natural state are pure and noble. This view was later carried forward by Rousseau of France and became the beginning of romantic literature.
Swift lived in an era in which experimental science initiated by Bacon and classical mechanics laid by Newton were in the ascendant. Although the lilliputian country and the adult country he described are fictional, the height of their residents is112 and12 times that of normal humans respectively. All the buildings and appliances there have the accuracy of mathematical proportion, and the structure of the book is symmetrical and obvious, which meets the requirements of rational thinking.
Swift is a writer who grew up under the influence of classicism. His writing skills are profound and his expression techniques are novel. Although there is a layer of translation, there are still many places worth learning and learning from our young friends. (Hu)
Travel Notes from Yahoo to Gulliver
If Gulliver's Travels is not included in the required reading list, many young friends may still be unfamiliar with the name. But you should know Yahoo. The name of the most famous website in the world comes from Gulliver's Travels. Gulliver came to the countryside of Hui Hui, where horses are elegant and virtuous, but people are savage and vulgar animals. "Yahoo" is the name of Hui Hui people.
I still remember the shock when I read Gulliver's Travels as a teenager, especially Gulliver's Last Trip to China, and I was very scared. The state that people and horses are completely upside down makes me feel very embarrassed about myself as a person. After reading a book, I admire the author Swift to death. His imagination is really great. Lilliputian country, adult country, flying island, all kinds of wonderful worlds are fascinating. For a long time, I was addicted to the dreamland he created. Sometimes I imagine the arrogance of the lilliputian country, and sometimes I worry that Wan Yi accidentally strayed into the giant country, or went to Huizhi country to be played and despised. What should I do?
Now that I am an adult, I will no longer be troubled by this illusory imagination, and I understand Swift's intention to write this book. "Gulliver's Travels looks like a fantastic and humorous children's book on the surface, but it is actually a realistic work that deeply exposed the politics, laws and customs of British society at that time." However, the confusion about human nature caused by reading this book in my youth has not changed so far. Gulliver's Travels made my complete confidence in human nature disappear. Are you really that proud as a person? Gulliver is regarded as a toy in the country of adults, and his proud advanced weapon technology about his motherland is despised by giants; In the land of wisdom, human beings have become "Yahoo", not even livestock, fighting for boring things; Compared with all kinds of human corruption, these four-legged creations are excellent and kind. However, I don't think this loss of confidence in human nature is a pity. When I grow up, I deeply feel how important introspection is for a person and for mankind. Because of the lack of that kind of complacency, I can often seriously reflect on my dark side and not become an absurd, barbaric and ridiculous animal like Yahoo. Swift wants to satirize 17 and 18 century British. However, today, his satire is also fulfilled on human beings who have not made progress. Those who have fought one battle after another for unnecessary disputes, those dirty corrupt officials, and those dog officials who dominate the city are mostly like Yahoo.
I am thinking that if I only read Gulliver's Travels as an adult, I may not be as immersed and involved as I was when I was a teenager, I may not be so shocked, and my understanding of the dark side of human nature may not be so thrilling. So I am glad that I read this great novel when I was a teenager. A deep understanding of human nature is much more important than acquiring knowledge. A person's growth is a process of continuous improvement. If there is no reflection on the dark side of human nature, then this person is likely to become selfish, savage and greedy and become "Yahoo".
Swift is the most intense misanthrope in British history. He is sad that he was born in this world. He dressed in black every birthday, fasted for one day and then went to a mental hospital. I have always had deep respect for this person who mourns the end for the inherent dark side of human nature. (Anonymous)
think
Swift's satirical art is fully reflected in Gulliver's Travels, and his satirical techniques are very rich. What do you think of the author's writing techniques when reading this book?
Extended reading
The wind blows through the willows.
city of fantasy
Alice in Wonderland (especially recommended)