Lemuel Gulliver
Lemuel Gulliver () is the fictional protagonist and narrator of Gulliver's Travels, a novel written by Jonathan Swift, first published in 1726.
In Gulliver's Travels
According to Swift's novel, Gulliver was born in Nottinghamshire c. 1661, where his father had a small estate; the Gulliver family is said to have originated in Oxfordshire, however. He supposedly studied for three years (c. 1675-1678) at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, leaving to become an apprentice to an eminent London surgeon; after four years (c. 1678-1682), he left to study at the University of Leiden, a prominent Dutch university and medical school. He also educated himself in navigation and mathematics, leaving the University around 1685.
Prior to the voyages whose adventures are recounted in the novel, he is described as having traveled less remarkably to the Levant (c. 1685-1688) and later to the East Indies and West Indies (c. 1690-1696). Between his travels he married Miss Mary Burton (c. 1688), daughter of a London hosier. In his education and travels he acquired some knowledge of "High and Low Dutch, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and Lingua Franca"; he later states that he understood some Greek, and that he "understood (Portuguese) very well".
