Gulliver's Travels [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION An embittered, middle-aged man sat down to write a book that would scourge the vices and follies of mankind. That book, wi& its sting mellowed during the passage of over two hundred years, has become-of all things-a children's classic. Gulliver's Travels was the splenetic outburst of a passionate mind, whose genius gave immortality to so transient a thing as satire; but that immortality had a permanent basis-a child-like delight in marvels, a freshness of inventíon, a limpid style and a selective perception that created images of giants, dwarfi and fabled races with a vivid, pulsating life of their own, The names of its characters have been added to our everyday speech and Gulliver is now an integrál part of our national folk-lore. The author, Jonathan Swift, was born in Dublin, in 1667, and after a wild and turbulent youth he became secretary to Sir William Temple, whose wife, Dorothy Osborne, has left us somé of the most charming letters ever published, Swift studied to enter the church and in 1694 he was ordained. He returned to Sir William Temple's household, however, and remained with him until his death five years later. It was during these years that he met the girl he was to make famous-"Stella," as he called her, little Esther Johnson, To Stella he wrote his famous "Journal " in which he revealed all the tenderness and gentleness that lay concealed behind his usual mask of ferocity. For Swift suffered from frustrated ambition, and this, combined with his natural sensitive nature, was to cause him unspeakable torment all his life and make him adopt a defensive armour of quarrelsomeness and lack of manners. In addition, he was passionate in his hatred of oppression and infamy, and his contacts with the corrupt politics of his time did not sweeten his natúréin 1699 Sir William Temple died and Swift returned to Ireland, where he was given the prebend of St. Patrick's, Dublin, and the living of Laracor. The political and religious stream of pamphlets, satires, epistles and lampoons had already begun to flow ("The Tale of a Tub" and "The Battle of the Books" appeared in 1704), and during his many visits to London he was