Gulliver’s strange adventures in some of the most unusual lands ever imagined have made this one of the rare classics with an enduring and wide-ranging appeal to all ages. Gulliver’s bad luck at sea not only gets him shipwrecked and castaway, but repeatedly throws him into strange societies of even stranger people. Readers are likely aware of Gulliver’s experiences in Lilliput, where he meets a kingdom of six-inch-tall people with a set of prejudices that are as rigid as they are ridiculous. They may be less familiar with Gulliver’s time among the giants of Brobdingnag, the science-obsessed residents of the flying island of Laputa or the horse-like and thoughtful Houyhnhnms, all of which are much less well known despite being every bit as inventive and thought-provoking. Swift’s straightforward narrative style adds both realism and a kind of deadpan humor to his outrageous flights of the imagination. The fantastical nature of Gulliver’s adventures have led the book, especially the
