Lemuel Gulliver was born in England and pursued a career as a surgeon, but due to his love for voyages and adventures, he set sail multiple times, and on his first voyage, he encountered a storm that wrecked his ship, leaving him miraculously stranded in the land of Lilliput, where he was discovered bound by tiny people only 15 cm tall; however, he eventually gained their trust and interacted with the emperor and the people of Lilliput while observing their political and social systems, learning that Lilliput and its neighboring nation, Blefuscu, had been engaged in a prolonged war over the trivial matter of how to crack eggs; at the emperor's request, Gulliver captured Blefuscu’s fleet, securing victory for Lilliput, but as he gradually lost the emperor’s favor and was accused of treason, he fled to Blefuscu, where he found a large boat by chance, repaired it, and set sail back to England; later, embarking on another voyage, he encountered a storm and arrived at Brobdingnag, the land of giants, where he found himself a tiny being among enormous people, was captured by a farmer, and was exhibited as a spectacle before being sold to the queen’s court, where he gained the queen’s favor and observed the morals and social structures of the giants; when he described England’s politics and society, the king mocked and criticized them, which led Gulliver into deep contemplation; one day, he was accidentally carried away by a giant bird and dropped into the sea, where he was rescued by an English ship; on yet another journey, he reached Laputa, a floating island where people were obsessed with music and mathematics, living detached from reality, and the ruling king controlled the land below by moving the floating island at will; after leaving Laputa, he traveled through Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan before returning to England, but he soon set off on a fourth voyage and, after drifting at sea, arrived in the land of the Houyhnhnms, where rational and intelligent horses ruled over degenerate human-like creatures called Yahoos; the Houyhnhnms recognized Gulliver as a rational being different from the Yahoos and conversed with him about their way of life, deeply impressing him with their noble ethics and rationality, making him long to stay with them, but in the end, he was expelled for being no different from the Yahoos and was forced to return to human society; upon his return to England, Gulliver became disillusioned with humanity, despised even his wife and family, and lived in seclusion while yearning for the way of life of the Houyhnhnms, choosing to interact only with horses.
Jonathan Swift, whose name stands unchallenged at the head of the list of English satirists, was born on Irish soil, for it was in Dublin on November 30, 1667, that he opened his eyes upon a career in which fortune and misfortune alternated in swift succession for seventy-eight years. Before his birth his father died, and his youth was embittered by the grudging provision made by an uncle for his education. Though a keen lover of history and poetry, he held in high disdain the ordinary study routine and the various regulations which govern institutions, obtaining his degree from Trinity College in Ireland’s capital city only by grace of special indulgence.
Restless and resentful and unhappy, when the Revolution of 1688 drove him forth from the Emerald Isle, he sought employment in England, and while secretary to Sir William Temple, a statesman of no ordinary culture and ability, qualified himself for the literary work which has made his name famous for two centuries. Then wearying of dependence, he returned to Ireland and resolved to enter the Church.
As prelate and later as politician his name never rang with the praise which early rewarded the efforts of his pen, for as a master of “humor, irony, and invective he has no superior.” His love affairs were disastrous and reflect only discredit upon his manhood, but to the strength of his passion for Esther Johnson, or “Stella,” whom it is contended that he secretly married but never acknowledged, and for Vanessa—Miss Vanhomrigh—are due the great works that immortalized them.
The Tale of the Tub first betrayed his transcendent genius and irresistible wit, but the grave humor of all his other productions which were not really serious in character, paled before the keen satire and ludicrous exaggeration of Gulliver’s Travels. Its covert ridicule of rulers, courts, statesmen, and political organizations was so severe and cut so ruthlessly and cruelly deep, that only its diabolical cleverness prevented its suppression and instead lent it an unprecedented popularity. It is so true, so simple in expression, its searching[2] irony so based on the frailties of human nature; it is so comic, and yet its tone so whimsically solemn, that it provides prodigious enjoyment for thousands who never catch a glimpse of—much less grasp—its inner meaning.
But the veiled significance is unmistakably there, for the voyage to Lilliput is merely a revelation of the policy of the English court during the reign of George I; the trip to Brobdingnag affords opportunity for picturing an ideal ruler and government; the journey to Laputa holds up to contumely the proceedings of the British Royal Society, while the visit to the Houyhnhnms is a rabid satire against humanity.
And after achievements which deservedly won the plaudits of the master brains among his contemporaries, and continue to reflect on him lasting glory, this gifted man four years before his death on October 19, 1745, sank into a condition of dementia. But though the powers of his marvelous, eccentric mind weakened and finally failed, “his works do follow him,” for he contributed to the world’s literature one of the most delightful children’s books ever written, and his name echoes through history as the clerical exposer of human frailties in a manner to call forth only innocent mirth.