Gulliver’s Travels

Jonathan Swift, first published 1726

An Englishman travels to fictional islands where he meets tiny people, giants, magicians and talking horses.

Length: 39 chapters
Reading time: About 7 hr 9 min
Words: 102,007

Start reading Contents

Introduction2 min
Preface6 min
Part 1: A Voyage to Lilliput
Chapter 117 min
Chapter 216 min
Chapter 312 min
Chapter 48 min
Chapter 510 min
Chapter 616 min
Chapter 712 min
Chapter 810 min
Part 2: A Voyage to Brobdingnag
Chapter 121 min
Chapter 29 min
Chapter 316 min
Chapter 48 min
Chapter 516 min
Chapter 613 min
Chapter 710 min
Chapter 820 min
Part 3: A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan
Chapter 19 min
Chapter 213 min
Chapter 38 min
Chapter 49 min
Chapter 511 min
Chapter 68 min
Chapter 76 min
Chapter 89 min
Chapter 96 min
Chapter 1013 min
Chapter 115 min
Part 4: A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms
Chapter 111 min
Chapter 29 min
Chapter 39 min
Chapter 48 min
Chapter 510 min
Chapter 610 min
Chapter 711 min
Chapter 89 min
Chapter 98 min
Chapter 1012 min
Chapter 1113 min
Chapter 1210 min
Endnotes1 min

About the book

Gulliver’s Travels was published in 1726 and is probably the most famous work by Jonathan Swift. It was an instant hit—selling out within a week—and has never been out of print, as well as having been adapted many times.

Lemuel Gulliver, an English surgeon on the Antelope, is shipwrecked and washed up on the island of Lilliput, where the inhabitants are less than six inches tall. This part of the book is a thinly veiled attack on the political classes of the time, as the Lilliputians focus on the minutiae of life, most notably the rift which has developed according to which end of a boiled egg gets opened at breakfast—the big end or the little end.

On his second recorded journey he is abandoned on an island of giants where he is paraded as a curiosity at local markets and fairs. On his third journey he is marooned by pirates and is rescued by the inhabitants of a floating island devoted to music, mathematics and astronomy. On his final journey he meets the Houyhnhnms, a race of talking horses who have subdued the Yahoos, creatures who resemble humans.

On his return to England, Gulliver has a very different outlook on life and views the human race in a very different way.

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Irish writers Satire

This edition

Text from Standard Ebooks, who proofread and typeset it and dedicate their edition to the public domain. Jonathan Swift died more than 70 years ago, so the work is out of copyright in the UK. Includes the original introduction, preface.