格列佛游记的英文介绍

格列佛游记（英文原版，Gullivers Travels）"的介绍

"When bending my eyes downward as much as I could, I perceived a human not six inches high!"

When Lemuel Gulliver sets off from London on a sea voyage, little does he know the many incredible and unbelievable misadventures awaiting him. Shipwrecked at sea and nearly drowned, he washes ashore upon an exotic island called Lilliput-where the people are only six inches tall! Next he visits a land of incredible giants called Brobdingnagians. They are more than sixty feet tall! He travels to Laputa, a city that floats in the sky, and to Glubbdubdrib, the Island of Sorcerers. His final voyage brings him into contact with the Yahoos-a brutish race of subhumans-and an intelligent and virtuous race of horse, the Houyhnhnms.

First published in 1726, Gulliver's Travels remains one of the most exciting fantasy adventures ever written.

"格列佛游记（英文原版，Gullivers Travels）"的作者简介

(1667-1745), ed. at Trinity College, Dublin, entered household of Sir W. Temple at Moor Park 1692, and became his secretray, became known to William III., and met E. Johnson (Stella), left T. in 1694 and returned to Ireland, took orders and wrote Tale of a Tub and Battle of Books (published 1704), returned to Sir W. T. 1698, and on his death in 1699 published his works, returned to Ireland and obtained some small preferments, visits London and became one of the circle of Addison, etc., deserts the Whigs and joins the Tories 1710, attacking the former in various papers and pamphlets, Dean of St. 1713, he began hi s Journal to Stella, Drapier’s Letters appeared 1724, visits England, and joins with Pope and Arbuthnot in Miscellanies 1726, published Gulliver’s Travels 1727.

"格列佛游记（英文原版，Gullivers Travels）"的书评

Spotlight Reviews

Reviewer: C. Gilbert "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

I haven't read this book since I read it as a child, and it was amazing how much of it had stuck with me, and how vividly. There were sections (particularly in Brobdingnag) where I could almost recite word-for-word what was going to happen next.

Happily, like Alice in Wonderland, this is a book that ages very well. There was still the element of being just a plain old good travel story with strong images (particularly in the Lilliput and Brobdingnag sections) but there was also a

wicked sense of satire that continues to be relevant and funny now more than three hundred years after the book was originally written.

The latter two sections of the book-- Laputa and the land of the Houyhnhnms-- are perhaps a little less vivid for being more pointed in their satirical content (interestingly I have no memory of these sections from my childhood reading) but that in no way detracts from the value of the book.

A must-read.

Reviewer: Brian P. McDonnell (Holbrook, MA USA)

Gulliver's Travels are broken up into four parts. The first two parts are the most famous, where Gulliver visits a land in which he is a giant and another in which it is filled with giants. Although they are very good, I found them somewhat boring. This is probably due tot he fact that I had heard these stories in so many variations already, they no longer had that originality to them. The next two parts however I found to be excellent. Several authors have expounded upon these stories or have continued them in one form of another of them. It is good to finally find the source of such great insight. For example the world in the clouds is quite humorous, and Douglas Adams makes a similar use of this satire in one of his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe series. The island of wizard's where you can call up any of the dead to have them tell their part in history can be seen in "To Your Scattered Bodies Go" by Philip Jose Farmer (a Hugo award winner.) The final part about humans being nothing but Yahoos, and inferior to Horses is brilliant. A reversal of roles with other animals to give us a new perspective of ourselves is imitated in other such classics as "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells, "The Island of Dr. Monreau" also by H.G. Wells, "Planet of the Apes", "Animal Farm" by George Orwell, plus several Star Trek and Twilight Zone episodes.

One of the most interesting questions about Gullivers Travels is whether the Houyhnhnms represent an ideal of rationality or whether on the other hand they are the butt of Swift's satire. In other words, in Book IV, is Swift poking fun at the talking horses or does he intend for us to take them seriously as the proper way to act? If we look closely at the way that the Houyhnhnms act, we can see that in fact Swift does not take them seriously: he uses them to show the dangers of pride.

First we have to see that Swift does not even take Gullver seriously. For instance, his name sounds much like gullible, which suggests that he will believe anything. Also, when he first sees the Yahoos and they throw excrement on him, he responds by doing the same in return until they run away. He says, "I must needs discover some more rational being," even though as a human he is already the most rational being there is. This is why

Swift refers to Erasmus Darwins discovery of the origin of the species and the voyage of the Beagle-to show how Gulliver knows that people are at the top of the food chain. But if Lemule Gulliver is satirized, so are the Houyhnhnms, whose voices sound like the call of castrati. They walk on two legs instead of four, and seem to be much like people. As Gulliver says, "It was with the utmost astonishment that I witnessed these creatures playing the flute and dancing a Vienese waltz. To my mind, they seemed like the greatest humans ever seen in court, even more dextrous than the Lord Edmund Burke" . As this quote demonstrates, Gulliver is terribly impressed, but his admiration for the Houyhnhnms is short-lived because they are so prideful. For instance, the leader of the Houyhnhnms claims that he has read all the works of Charles Dickens, and that he can singlehandedly recite the names of all the Kings and Queens of England up to George II. Swift subtly shows that this Houyhnhnms pride is misplaced when, in the middle of the intellectual competition, he forgets the name of Queen Elizabeths husband.

Swifts satire of the Houyhnhnms comes out in other ways as well. One of the most memorable scenes is when the dapple grey mare attempts to woo the horse that Guenivre has brought with him to the island. First she acts flirtatiously, parading around the bewildered horse. But when this does not have the desired effect, she gets another idea: "As I watched in amazement from my perch in the top of a tree, the sorrel nag dashed off and returned with a yahoo on her back who was yet more monstrous than Mr. Pope being fitted by a clothier. She dropped this creature before my nag as if offering up a sacrifice. My horse sniffed the creature and turned away." It might seem that we should take this scene seriously as a failed attempt at courtship, and that consequently we should see the grey mare as an unrequited lover. But it makes more sense if we see that Swift is being satiric here: it is the female Houyhnhnm who makes the move, which would not have happened in eighteenth-century England. The Houyhnhm is being prideful, and it is that pride that makes him unable to impress Gullivers horse. Gulliver imagines the horse saying, Sblood, the notion of creating the bare backed beast with an animal who had held Mr. Pope on her back makes me queezy .

A final indication that the Houyhnmns are not meant to be taken seriously occurs when the leader of the Houynhms visits Lilliput, where he visits the French Royal Society. He goes into a room in which a scientist is trying to turn wine into water (itself a prideful act that refers to the marriage at Gallilee). The scientist has been working hard at the experiment for many years without success, when the Houyhnmn arrives and immediately knows that to do: "The creature no sooner stepped through the doorway than he struck upon a plan. Slurping up all the wine in sight, he quickly made water in a bucket that sat near the door" .