Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Gulliver's Travels
    Gulliver's Travels
    Gulliver's Travels
    Audiobook (abridged)3 hours

    Gulliver's Travels

    Written by Jonathan Swift

    Narrated by Neville Jason

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    Gulliver’s Travels is renowned as a playful and comic children’s classic. The book itself, rather than the bowdlerized versions that have been derived from it, is a savage, rude and brilliant satire, timeless in its appeal and unerringly accurate. The images of Gulliver among the miniature Lilliputians and the giants of Brobdingnag, the crazy scientists, and the rational horses create a series of novel delights and challenging insights.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNaxos Audiobooks
    Release dateJun 23, 1996
    ISBN9789629545673
    Author

    Jonathan Swift

    Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) was an Irish author and satirist. After receiving a doctor of divinity degree from Trinity College, Dublin, Swift went on to publish numerous books, essays, pamphlets, and poems, many of which express his political allegiance to the Tories. In addition to being a literary and political writer, Swift was dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin.

    More audiobooks from Jonathan Swift

    Related to Gulliver's Travels

    Related audiobooks

    Classics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • UNLIMITED

      The best-ever ROMANCES

      Jan 7, 2021

      The best-ever ROMANCES
      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Holden Caulfield And The Culture Of Sexual Assault

      Feb 12, 2018

      Since it came out in 1951, The Catcher in the Rye has meant different things to different readers. For some, Holden Caulfield was the rebellious voice of a generation; for many today, he’s a whiny rich kid; for a pair of recent biographers, he’s the

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      In Summary

      Jul 1, 2021

      There’s some good writing here. This short extract has covered a lot of ground and established that Edwina is a recently widowed woman thanks to the sinking of the Titanic. Her interior voice is skilfully rendered and there are some subtle touches su

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Mexican Gothic

      Jun 17, 2020

      RELEASED 30 JUNE 299 pages | Hardback/ebook Author Silvia Moreno-Garcia Publisher Del Rey There are shades of Daphne du Maurier in this twisty little gothic novel, which pits a young woman against the horrors of a crumbling ancestral home. Our heroin

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Paul Heiney

      Aug 30, 2019

      Paul Heiney
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Bard In The Woods

      Nov 30, 2020

      Bard In The Woods
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Readers' Letters

      Jul 26, 2023

      SIR: I have just celebrated my 80th birthday and been much acclaimed by my family and friends. Even the government has got in on the act, as it has increased my state pension by 25p a week. Unfortunately, my village shop has hardly anything to offer

      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Press Ganged!

      May 1, 2020

      Press Ganged!
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Crazy Times at Sea

      Feb 3, 2017

      A long time ago in an office far, far away, I received a typewritten manuscript that told a harrowing tale of a transatlantic voyage gone horribly wrong. The author and his girlfriend had answered a magazine advertisement for crew (yes, it was that l

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Press-ganged!

      Jun 13, 2019

      Press-ganged!
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Knocked Down At Kerguélen

      Sep 12, 2024

      Knocked Down At Kerguélen
      8 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      First Passage

      Jun 3, 2021

      First Passage
      16 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Questing Times

      Aug 30, 2021

      Questing Times
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Readers’ Letters

      Jun 28, 2023

      Readers’ Letters
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Navigating Uncharted Waters

      Jan 1, 2024

      Navigating Uncharted Waters
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Island

      Jun 4, 2018

      The Island
      8 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      NATURAL High

      May 25, 2020

      NATURAL High
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Following The Wake Of History

      Apr 11, 2024

      Following The Wake Of History
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Readers' Letters

      Feb 8, 2023

      Readers' Letters
      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A White Horses Essay

      Jul 9, 2018

      A White Horses Essay
      15 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Breathing Deep

      Dec 14, 2017

      Breathing Deep
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      I, Spy

      Aug 7, 2018

      Many things happened to me for the first time on a night in April 1944. I rode in a Black Maria; I jumped from a bomber with a tangled parachute; and I began my mission in wartime France as a British secret agent. We drove in the Black Maria from Int

      17 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Tarred Yarns And Shanties

      Dec 9, 2022

      Tarred Yarns And Shanties
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Sailing Alone Is The Safest Choice

      Dec 8, 2023

      Much like land, container ships and icebergs, communication is best avoided at sea, which is why, to avoid the misunderstandings that so often arise from people attempting to communicate with me, I mostly sail alone. And so far, I’ve never hit an ice

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Notes From A Nothing

      Feb 14, 2020

      Notes From A Nothing
      13 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Fishing Life

      Oct 3, 2023

      A Fishing Life
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Ashore at Dunkirk

      Mar 30, 2023

      Ashore at Dunkirk
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Gulliver's Travels

    4/5

    102 ratings64 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      : Disturbing and times depressing book of insights into the frailties of the human character. Especially the last voyage to the Houyhnhnms and their counterparts the Yahoos. Yahoos are human creatures without any civilized qualities and the portrait is so accurate that at times I lost my faith in all human activity. Thinking that everything that we do has as root in our natural beings. Observing life the way people talk about each other when their not in the room, the envy, the laziness, the pride and at times open malice that I see, and oftentimes in myself. I wonder why a God would condescend to send his son to save us.
    • 5/5
      Written in 1727, a critique of our industrial policy in 2014: In these colleges the professors contrive new... tools for all trades and manufactures; whereby, as they undertake, one man shall do the work of ten; a palace may be built in a week, of materials so durable as to last for ever without repairing. .... The only inconvenience is, that none of these projects are yet brought to perfection; and in the mean time, the whole country lies miserably waste, the houses in ruins, and the people without food or clothes. By all which, instead of being discouraged, they are fifty times more violently bent upon prosecuting their schemes, driven equally on by hope and despair.
    • 4/5
      The last book of the four, about the utopian society of the horses I liked the best by far. In the first two the author is obsessed with the sizes of all things, these being extremely small (Lilliput) or extremely large (land of the giants). The third book is a bit chaotic with all the different countries visited by Gulliver. The last book is a real and complete satirical story with a melancholy undertone.
    • 4/5
      This is one book that must be read at least twice. The first time to discover the purpose, and the second time to laugh all the way through.
    • 5/5
      Remarkable.
    • 5/5
      I must say that this is the first book that I KNOW I'm going to re-read at the turn of the year. I love social satire and this was right up my alley...although the critique of the human condition was very sad indeed. Especially when noticing that things haven't changed as much as they should have with concern to human behavior over the millenia. The story was humorous, informative, entertaining and philosophical all at once, and at all times. It was also much more vile and nasty than any of the childrens cartoons or movies based on the story we may have seen while growing up. The themes of social strength, human ego, the limits of human understanding, and the individual versus society were explored at length and at every angle possible (almost). A great read; but make sure you read the un-edited, unabridged version....that's the way Swift wanted it. You won't be able to look at the world, or your own beliefs through the same lens again.
    • 3/5
      That was interesting. Just finished. I would say it was written for someone at with a middle school level of reading. Fun easy read. I think I was missing some important info regarding the countries being made fun of to really 'get it'. Swift enjoyed a little too much, the making up of strange names and words to emphasize the differences in the other lands and cultures the charactor 'visited'. One of the points that could be taken from it, are peoples problems and worries are all relative to their perspective.
    • 3/5
      Written nearly 300 years ago, at it's time it must have been a groundbreaking satire. To be fair it is still current in many ways especially regarding the justiciary, the establishment and western mankind in general. However, I found it very dull to read. He goes away, has an adventure and comes back. He does this four times. Heaven knows he wasn't much of a family man and we don't hear much of what his wife thought of it all. I found it quite boring and this was heading for two stars until the final episode with the Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos. The former representing a superior being which mankind may believe he is and the latter being a mirror to how Swift believes they really are. This part was both insightful and humorous and rescued this book for me.
    • 1/5
      would not wish upon my worst enemy

      also made me feel really uncomfortable about horses
    • 4/5
      A very well-known tale this one. Especially his first travel to Lilliput. The fantasy of the tale is fantastic. But that could be told in a hundred pages. But this is not really a work of fiction, it was written as a political satire, so Swift writes a great deal about human nature and how bad it is performing. Which is far less eye-pleasing.
    • 5/5
      The writing is beautiful, the riffs on law, politics and general intellectual attitudes are hilarious, and the structure was great. The third part's a bit tough to get in to, but otherwise, first class. Easy to read, too.
    • 4/5
      Meesterlijk in zijn passages met kritiek op algemeenmenselijke toestanden. Frisse satire, al is het verhaal van de reus in Lilliputtersland intussen wat afgezaagd, dat wordt ruimschoots gecompenseerd vooral door het laatste verhaal.
    • 2/5
      Read this in college. Obviously, extremely over-discussed. Not really my kind of read.
    • 3/5
      A Brobdingnagian work of satire.
    • 3/5
      I thought this was an okay book. I understand what Swift was trying to accomplish with his 4 different worlds--the lessons he was trying to teach--but I wasn't that engaged with the stories. There were some interesting bits of writing, but overall, just one of those classics I felt I needed to read to be a well-rounded person. Yes, I am much rounder now but it has nothing to do with this book.
    • 4/5
      I read the Illustrated Classics version as a kid and when I was in my mid-teens, I read the full version. To this day, I am still enjoying both versions; which one I read depends on my mood and how I feel.The author uses great metaphors, like storms, to transition between different islands. Each change in setting teaches many important lessons without the reader really realizing it. How the author does this is a mystery and keeps the reader hooked,, wanting to know what will happen next snd if the characters will ever retturn home. You also wonder how things will change for thr main character if their journey does end and what the long lasting effects will be. Not just on that person, but those around them and where they live.This is an interesting, intriguing, edge of your seat book that you don't want to miss!
    • 3/5
      A fictional novel about a man called Gulliver that gives up on his profession as a surgeon and travels the seas. Among his adventure Gulliver runs into some trouble as well as stumbling upon many shocking lands. Gulliver comes across tiny people, giants, naive scientists, and some talking horses. A fairly funny and entertaining read that is a good story and worth reading.
    • 3/5
      Well, to make it short: I was disappointed. Somehow I expected some kind of "great literature". But it's definitively not. The writing style is much too simple, when the story starts to get "deeper" it mostly says something like "I don't want to talk about this anymore, because the reader could be bored". What the...? I'm not enjoying this one. 2,5 stars just because the story itself is interesting - but could be better written.I know it's world literature, but I really don't know why. Maybe this is because of my edition (or translation).
    • 2/5
      This initially had some good moments - it was interesting thinking about the differences in scale between Gulliver, the Lilliputians and the Brobdingnagians - but it grew more and more tedious and the misogyny more and more apparent. The points about human shortcomings and political corruption and so on were made, and then made again, and then made a third time. Glad it's over.
    • 4/5
      This book is one of the best examples of satire. Swift takes on a trip around the world to show us the problems right at home. Though some have criticized the end of the book, I found it to be the best part. We see the human race totally flipped upside down and it was the most eye-opening section of the book. I picked the book up because I thought it would be about an adventure, but it is so much more than that.
    • 4/5
      Written about 300 years ago this story has aged very well and Gulliver's adventures are event today very entertaining. Gulliver's Travels was meant to mock the hordes of books about adventurous travels released at the time which often exaggerated the dangers faced and the belitteled the intellect of the natives encountered. And so Gulliver meets giants, tiny people, horses which rule over men and people living on a floating island. In addition to the entertainment value these episodes hold it is also very interesting to see how critical Jonathan Swift was of English society and values. This criticism is never voiced by the main character directly, but surface through the discussions Gulliver has with the people he meets.The Audiobook version published by Alcazar AudioWorks features a terrific Narrator which makes the story a joy to listen to.
    • 3/5
      At first , I thought this book was a fairy tale. But after I read this book, I realize that this book had lessons.for example, this book teaches us that people tell alie ,steal something and fight, just they have always done, and probably will always do.We usually don't notice that fact.So we should think our own lives deeply.
    • 4/5
      Sure,the story of the big man washed up on the shore surrounded by little people is a cute story we've all seen Mickey Mouse do. But reading this book as an adult was an eye-opener. Swift's tongue is firmly planted in his cheek through the whole book and this is a great one to read aloud.
    • 3/5
      For those of you who be all, like, "What? You never read Gulliver's Travels?", the answer is yes, and that's exactly why I've embarked on reading the 1,001 Books I Need to Read Before I die. It will help me catch up on much of what was not mandatory on my poor educational track. Besides, I get to experience so much with fresh eyes, that I actually feel I prefer it, in a way. I found the book thoroughly interesting, and it appealed to my peripatetic nature and my natural curiosity for differences and similarities between cultures. As for what exactly Swift was satirizing, I have no idea. I don't know the politics of his time and region. The book was good enough without pondering all that.
    • 4/5
      This book is darling and lovely. Great for children, but enough symbolism in it for worth-while analysing for adults.
    • 1/5
      Aargh. Really tedious. The tale of being in Lilliput was fairly humorous, but the rest were just tedious to the point of beating a dead horse (or a Honyhnhnm, as the case may be).The Lilliput saga worked as a story, but none of the others did and I didn't think any of it worked as allegory either. Instead of learning from the civilizations he encountered, he became an unhappy shell of a person who couldn't even stand being in the same room with his wife and children. If there was no hope for the human race, why didn't he just off himself and put the reader out of his/her misery?!
    • 4/5
      This is no child's book, but a fantastic display of satire and political statement. I laughed to the point of tears several times after reading how Mr. Gulliver chose to distinguish the palace fire in Lilliput. Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      Oh Gulliver. What a strange and interesting boook. Lilliput was by far the best of the four books, but I like Swifts satiric commentary in all four. Swift is a genius, enough said.
    • 4/5
      I went into this story having no idea what it was about and I found it to be very fun to read. The story is told in a straight forward, easy to understand way and the author's bluntness makes it easy to follow and not get bogged down.Books 1 and 2 felt almost like a children's story, with fantastical creatures. Books 3 and 4 dealt with more advanced themes, and I felt like each book held its own.My favorite part was book 3 when Gulliver was touring through the academy and visiting with the various types of academics. I sometimes had to remind myself that this book was written in the 1700s. Lawyers clearly haven't changed a bit!
    • 4/5
      A good read, I did not always understand all of the historical satire (luckily I read an annotated version that explained most of it)it was a fun adventure that is ironic and humorous and sometimes absurd.Gulliver leaves home by ship on various voyages, all of which leave him stranded in new, strange places. One is a country of small people and all of their surroundings are accordingly small. The next is a land of giants, and all of the surroundings are equally as large. Thirdly is a floating island in the sky populated by wacky scientists and astronomers. And lastly, is an island where horses are the intelligent race, having their own language, and the human like creatures of this land are savage and disgusting. All through his travels Gulliver learns the language and customs of the new lands' inhabitants making it difficult to merge back into his actual life.I'm glad I read this book.