📖 Gulliver's Travels

Jonathan Swift's entry into the world, on 30 November 1667 at Dublin, was not an easy one. Seven months before the author's birth, his father died, leaving an English wife lacking in income. As a boy, Swift was taken under the wing of a wealthy uncle, who paid for his education. He attended Trinity College in Dublin and Oxford, and was later ordained as an Anglican priest. Swift remained in England, becoming active in politics, and developed a reputation as a great satirist. His first major work, A Tale of a Tub (1704), an irreverent take on religious excess, was followed by The Battle of the Books (1704) and a 1711 pamphlet attacking the Whig government. Swift's political activities had an adverse effect on his livelihood, and in 1713, he returned to Ireland. There he produced his finest writing, including Gulliver's Travels. Presented as the work of Lemuel Gulliver, an adventurer, this unique blending of satire and parody was originally published under the title Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World (1726). The novel was followed by A Modest Proposal (1729), in which it is famously argued that the poor might do well in selling their children as food for the rich. Swift's final decade was marred by poor health; he produced little and died on 19 October 1745. Herbert Cole (1867-1930) was an English portraitist and book illustrator. Cole's illustrations for Gulliver's Travels first appeared in a 1900 edition published by J. M. Dent.