Here is Gulliver's Travels in less than 50 words...
First he visits an island full of tiny people, then he visits an island of giants, then a floating island in the sky, and finally an island ruled by horses.
But seriously, folks! 😄 I will go into more detail about it later on, but just taking the time to address the fact that I did not enjoy this novel 😔...
The year is 1699, and our protagonist, Gulliver, is about to embark upon a sea voyage. Their ship encounters a storm and is destroyed, leaving Gulliver stranded on an unknown island. He falls asleep, yet when he awakens he finds himself tied to the ground, and surrounded by tiny people! 😱
"I perceived it to be a human creature not six inches high, with a bow and an arrow in his hands and a quiver at his back."
Once the people discover that Gulliver is not a threat, they quickly realize that he will devour their entire livelihood. Gulliver begs for his life and the king agrees that he should live, so long as Gulliver helps their army defeat their neighboring nation. Gulliver agrees, they are victorious, and he returns home to England.
His second journey transpires in 1702. After nearly a year of sailing his crew discovers new land,
"when I observed a huge creature walking after them in the sea, as fast as he could."
Gulliver is found in a field by a giant farmer, who picks him up and takes him home. He uses Gulliver's miniature to attract paying customers, one of which happens to be the queen of the nation. From that day forth, Gulliver lives with royalty.
One day while down by the coast, a giant bird snatches up Gulliver while he is in his tiny traveling box, and flies him away from the nation. A ship ends up discovering him, and Gulliver goes home once again.
In 1706, Gulliver departs for the sea once more. Their crew is invaded by pirates, who allow him to live. He takes a canoe and discovers
"a vast opaque body between me and the sun, moving forwards towards the island."
He ascends to the floating island and finds a people of silence, their minds filled with math, astrology, and otherwise useless inventions (ex. building a house from the roof down 🥴). They also practice necromancy! and Gulliver is able to speak to all kinds of idols from the past (ex. Alexander the Great). They even have a race of immortals! 😱
Anyway, Gulliver makes it back home, and eventually departs for his final voyage in 1710. He arrives on an island that is inhabited by a race of ape-men, called Yahoos, and their masters, a race of horses called Houyhnhnm. Gulliver spends his entire visit explaining to the Houyhnhnm that their roles with Yahoos are reversed in England, as well as trying to domesticate the Yahoos yet finding them unteachable.
The Houyhnhnms plan on executing the Yahoos due to their inability to be domesticated and continuous chaotic behavior. Since Gulliver is seen as a Yahoo by the Houyhnhnms, he manages to escape in time back to England. However, having returned to his family after his experience with the Yahoos, Gulliver finds his family detestable.
"I began last week to permit my wife to sit at dinner with me, at the farthest end of the long table ... Yet the smell of a Yahoo continuing very offensive"
So yeah! that was about the gist of it! 😅 I understand it is a book written for its time, but it is extremely tedious and drawn out... A lot of time is spent explaining how big, small, tall everything is, in all sorts of different units and measurements. Every time Gulliver arrives at a new destination, he must learn their language and culture, have clothes and furniture made -- every single time! 😩 That's like, 4 separate occasions! 😩😩
And again, I understand it was a different time, and the novel is meant to focus on the political times -- royalty, warfare, the reasons for which we fought and the means we took to fight them -- but the moral is ultimately unsatisfying. I think because, in part, at this point the theme is very overplayed.
"'I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.'"
We all get it; man can be a terrible creature who has committed the greatest atrocities the world has ever seen -- sometimes for the most superfluous reasons! 🥴
But.... what, were the Houyhnhnms so heavenly divine that Gulliver could no longer stand the way of humans? Because the Houyhnhnms also can't suffer from diseases, and don't have the same reservoir of emotion that humans do (they don't even mourn their dead 🙄), like, we are not the same lol.
Shouldn't the takeaway be that we are no longer like the Yahoos? that we have managed to evolve from our primitive ways, from great personal discipline? Isn't it a miracle that we have managed to coexist with one another (somewhat) harmoniously, in spite of adversity?