English Literature books summary

English Literature books summary

below suffer from poverty and hunger. On the ground a scientific academy is

similarly concerned with the most impractical projects; the value of

academia is challenged by their ineptitude.

Finally, Gulliver travels to a country populated by intelligent

horses, the Houyhnhnms, and the brutish, human-like Yahoos who serve them.

During his stay, he is treated like a Yahoo and comes to think of his own

European society as being not that different from theirs. He wants to stay

with the Houyhnhnms, but he is eventually banished from their company for

resembling a Yahoo. Knowing that the ways of his people are awed and

irrational, he finds it very difficult to return home to England.

Part I, Chapter 1

Summary

The novel begins with Lemuel Gulliver recounting the story of his

life, beginning with his family history. He was born to a family in

Nottinghamshire, the third of five sons. Although he studied at Cambridge

as a teenager, his family was too poor to keep him there, so he was sent to

London to be a surgeon's apprentice. There, he learned mathematics and

navigation with the hope of travelling. When his apprenticeship ended, he

studied physics at Leyden.

He then became a surgeon aboard a ship called The Swallow for three

years. Afterwards, he settled in London, working as a doctor, and married a

woman named Mary Burton. His business began to fail when his patron died,

so he decided to go to sea again and travelled for six years. Although he

had planned to return home, he decided to accept one last job on a ship

called The Antelope.

Here the background information ends and Gulliver's story really

begins. In the East Indies, The Antelope encounters a violent storm in

which twelve crewmen die. Six of the crew members, including Gulliver,

board a small rowboat to escape. Soon the rowboat capsizes, and Gulliver

loses track of his companions; they are never seen again. Gulliver,

however, swims safely to shore.

He lies down on the grass to rest and soon falls asleep. When he wakes

up he finds that his arms, legs, and long hair have been tied to the ground

with ropes bound across the rest of his body. Tied as he is, he can only

look up, and the bright sun prevents him from seeing anything. He feels

something move across his leg and over his chest. He looks down at it and

sees, to his surprise, a six-inch-tall human carrying a bow and arrow. At

least forty more little people climb onto his body. He is surprised and

shouts loudly, frightening the little people away. They return, however,

and one of the little men cries out "Hekinah Degul."

Gulliver struggles to get loose and finally succeeds in breaking the

strings binding his left arm. He loosens the ropes tying his hair so he can

turn to the left. In response, the little people _re a volley of arrows

into his hand and violently attack his body and face. He decides that the

safest thing to do is to lie still until nightfall. The noise increases, as

the little people build a stage next to Gulliver about a foot o_ the

ground. One of them climbs onto it and makes a speech in a language that

Gulliver does not understand.

Gulliver indicates that he is hungry, and the little people bring him

baskets of meat. He devours it all, and then shows that he is thirsty, so

they bring him two large barrels of wine. Gulliver is tempted to pick up

forty or fifty of them and throw them against the ground, but he decides

that he has made them a promise of goodwill and is grateful for their

hospitality. He is also struck at their bravery, since they climb onto his

body despite his great size.

An official climbs onto Gulliver's body and tells him that he is to be

carried to the Capital City. Gulliver wants to walk, but they tell him that

that will not be permitted. Instead, they bring their largest machine; a

frame of wood raised three inches o_ the ground and carried by twenty-two

wheels.

Nine hundred men pull this cart about half a mile to the city. His left leg

is padlocked to a building, giving him only enough freedom to walk around

the building in a semicircle and lie down inside the temple.

Part I, Chapters 2-3

Summary

Chained to the building, Gulliver is finally able to stand up and view

the entire countryside, which he discovers is beautiful and rustic. The

tallest trees are seven feet tall, and the whole area looks to him like a

theatre set.

Gulliver describes his process of relieving himself, which initially

involved walking inside the building to the edge of his chain. After the

first time, he makes sure to relieve himself in open air; the sewage is

carried away in wheelbarrows by servants. He is careful to describe this

process in order to ensure that his cleanliness is known, since critics

have called it into question.

The Emperor visits from his Tower, on horseback. He orders his

servants to give Gulliver food and drink. The Emperor is dressed plainly

and carries a sword to defend himself. He and Gulliver converse, though

they cannot understand each other. Gulliver tries to speak every language

he knows, but nothing works. After two hours, Gulliver is left with a group

of soldiers guarding him. Some of them try to shoot arrows at him, and as a

punishment the Brigadier ties up six of them and places them in Gulliver's

hand. Gulliver puts five of them into his pocket and takes the fifth into

his hand. They think he is to be eaten, but Gulliver cuts loose his ropes

and sets him free. He does the same with the other five, which pleases the

Court.

After two weeks, a bed is made for Gulliver. It consists of 600 small

beds sewn together. News of his arrival also spreads throughout the

kingdom, and curious people from the villages come to see him. Meanwhile,

the government attempts to decide what is to be done with Gulliver.

Frequent Councils bring up various concerns: for instance, that he will

break loose or that he will eat enough to cause a famine. It is suggested

that they starve him or shoot him in the face to kill him, but that would

leave them with a giant corpse and a large health risk.

Officers that had witnessed Gulliver's lenient treatment of the six

offending soldiers report to the Council, and the Emperor and his Court

decide to respond with kindness. They arrange to deliver large amounts of

food to Gulliver every morning, and to supply him with servants to wait on

him, tailors to make him clothing, and teachers to instruct him in their

language.

Every morning Gulliver asks the Emperor to set him free, but he

refuses, saying that Gulliver must be patient. The Emperor also orders him

to be searched to ensure that he does not have any weapons. Gulliver agrees

to this, and the little people take an inventory of all his possessions; in

the process, all of his weapons are taken away.

Gulliver hopes to be set free, as he is getting along well with the

Lilliputians and earning their trust. The Emperor decides to entertain him

with shows, including a performance by Rope-Dancers.

Rope-Dancers are Lilliputians who are seeking employment in the

government; for the performance, which doubles as a sort of competitive

entrance examination, the candidates dance on "ropes" slender threads

suspended two feet above the ground. When a vacancy occurs, candidates

petition the Emperor entertain him with a dance; whoever jumps the highest

earns the office. The current ministers continue this practice as well, in

order to show that they have not lost their skill.

As another diversion for Gulliver, the Emperor lays three silken

threads of different colors on a table. He then holds out a stick, and

candidates are asked to leap over it or creep under it. Whoever shows the

most dexterity wins one of the ribbons.

Gulliver builds a platform from sticks and his handkerchief and

invites horsemen to exercise upon it. The Emperor greatly enjoys watching

this new entertainment, but it is cut short when a horse steps through the

handkerchief and Gulliver decides that it is too dangerous for them to keep

riding on the cloth.

Some Lilliputians discover Gulliver's hat, which had washed ashore

after him, and he asks them to bring it back. Soon after, the Emperor asks

Gulliver to pose like a Colossus, so that his troops might march under him.

Gulliver's petitions for freedom are finally answered. Gulliver must

swear to obey the articles put forth. Included in these articles are the

stipulations that he must assist the Lilliputians in times of war, survey

the land around them, help with construction, and deliver urgent messages.

Gulliver agrees and his chains are removed.

Part I, Chapters 4-5

Summary

The first thing Gulliver does after regaining his freedom is to ask to

see the city, which is called Mildendo. The residents are told to stay

indoors, and they all sit on their roofs and in their garret windows to see

him. He describes the town as being five hundred feet square, with a wall

surrounding it. The town can hold five hundred thousand people. The

Emperor's Palace is at the center, where the two large streets meet. The

Emperor wants Gulliver to see the magnificence of his palace, so Gulliver

cuts down trees to make himself a stool, which he carries around with him

so that he can sit down and see things from a shorter distance than a

standing position allows.

About two weeks after Gulliver obtains his liberty, a government

official, Reldresal, comes to see him. Gulliver offers to lie down to make

conversation easier, but Reldresal prefers to be held in Gulliver's hand.

He tells Gulliver that the kingdom is threatened by two forces, one rebel

group and one foreign empire. The rebel group exists because the kingdom is

divided into two factions, called Tramecksan and Slamecksan; the people in

the two factions are distinguished by the heights of their heels.

Reldresal tells Gulliver that the current Emperor has chosen to employ

primarily the low-heeled Slamecksan in his administration. He adds that the

Emperor himself has lower heels than all of his officials, but that his

heir has one heel higher than the other, which makes him walk unevenly. At

the same time, the Lilliputians fear an invasion from the Island of

Blefuscu, which Reldresal calls the "Other Great Empire of the Universe"

(25). He adds that the philosophers of Lilliput do not believe Gulliver's

claim that there are other countries in the world inhabited by other people

of his size, preferring to think that Gulliver dropped from the moon or a

star.

Reldresal describes the history of the two nations, starting out by

saying that it makes no mention of any other empire ever existing. The

conflict between them, he tells Gulliver, began years ago, when the

Emperor's father, then in command of the country, commanded all

Lilliputians to break their eggs on the small end first. He made this

decision after breaking an egg in the old way, large end first, and cutting

his finger. The people resented the law, and six rebellions were started in

protest. The monarchs of Blefuscu fuelled these rebellions, and when they

were over the rebels fled to that country to seek refuge. Eleven thousand

people chose death rather than submitting to the law. Many books were

written on the controversy, but books written by the Big-Endians were

banned. The government of Blefuscu accused the Lilliputians of disobeying

their religious doctrine, the Brundrecal, by breaking their eggs at the

small end. The Lilliputians argued that the doctrine reads "That all true

believers shall break their eggs at the convenient end," which could be

interpreted as the small end.

The exiles gained support in Blefuscu to launch a war against Lilliput

and were aided by rebel forces inside Lilliput. A war has been raging ever

since between the two nations, and Gulliver is asked to help defend

Lilliput against its enemies. Gulliver does not feel that it is appropriate

to intervene, but he nonetheless offers his services to the Emperor.

Gulliver then visits Blefuscu and devises a plan. He asks for cables

and bars of iron, out of which he makes hooks with cables attached. He then

walks to Blefuscu and catches their ships at port. The people are so

frightened that they leap out of their ships and swim to shore. Gulliver

attaches a hook to each ship and ties them together. While he does this the

soldiers _re arrows at him, but he keeps working. In order to protect his

eyes, he puts on the spectacles he keeps in his coat pocket. He tries to

pull the ships away, but they are anchored too tightly, so he cuts them

away with his pocketknife and pulls the ships back to Lilliput with them.

In Lilliput, Gulliver is greeted as a hero. The Emperor asks him to go

back to retrieve the other ships, intending to destroy Blefescu's military

strength and make it a province in his empire. Gulliver dissuades him from

this, saying that he does not want to encourage slavery or injustice. This

causes great disagreement in the government, with some officials turning

staunchly against Gulliver and calling for his destruction.

Three weeks later a delegation arrives from Blefuscu, and the war ends with

their surrender. They are privately told of Gulliver's kindness towards

them, and they ask him to visit their kingdom. He wishes to do so, and the

Emperor reluctantly allows it.

As a Nardac, or person of high rank, Gulliver no longer has to perform

all the duties laid down in his contract. He does, however, have the

opportunity to help the Lilliputians when the Emperor's wife's room catches

_re. He forgets his coat and cannot put the flames out with his clothing,

so instead he thinks of a new plan: he urinates on the palace, putting out

the _re entirely. He worries afterwards that, since the act of public

urination is a crime in Lilliput, he will be prosecuted, but the Emperor

tells him he will be pardoned. He is told, however, that the Emperor's wife

can no longer tolerate living in her rescued quarters.

Part I, Chapters 6-8

Summary

In these chapters, Gulliver describes the customs and character of

Lilliput in more detail, beginning by explaining that everything in

Lilliput is sized in proportion to the Lilliputians: their animals, trees,

and plants are all proportional to their own height. Their eyesight is also

adapted to their scale; Gulliver cannot see as clearly close-up as they

can, while they cannot see as far.

The Lilliputians are well-educated, but their writing system is odd to

Gulliver, who jokes that they write not left to right like the Europeans or

top to bottom like the Chinese, but from one corner of the page to the

other, "like the ladies in England."

The dead are buried with their heads pointing directly downwards,

because the Lilliputians believe that eventually the dead will rise again

and that the earth, which they think is at, will turn upside-down. Gulliver

adds that the more well-educated Lilliputians no longer believe in this

custom.

Gulliver describes some of the other laws of Lilliput, such as a

tradition by which anyone who falsely accuses someone else of a crime is

put to death.

Deceit is considered worse than theft, because honest people are more

vulnerable to liars than to thieves. The law provides not only for

punishment but also for rewards of special titles and privileges for good

behavior.

Children are raised not by individual parents but by the kingdom as a

whole. They are sent to live in schools at a very young age; the schools

are chosen according to the station of their parents, whom they see only

twice a year. Only the laborers' children stay home, since their job is to

farm. There are no beggars at all, since the poor are well looked-after.

Gulliver goes on to describe the "intrigue" that precipitates his

departure from Lilliput. While he is preparing to make his trip to

Blefuscu, a court official pays him a visit. He tells Gulliver that he has

been charged with treason by enemies in the government. He shows Gulliver

the document calling for his execution: Gulliver is charged with public

urination, refusing to obey the Emperor's orders to seize the remaining

Blefuscu ships, aiding enemy ambassadors, and travelling to Blefuscu.

Gulliver is told that Reldresal has asked for his sentence to be

reduced, calling not for execution but for putting his eyes out. This has

been agreed upon, along with a plan to starve him to death slowly. The

official tells Gulliver that the operation to blind him will take place in

three days.

Fearing this resolution, Gulliver crosses the channel and arrives in

Blefuscu. Three days later, he sees a boat of "normal" size that is, big

enough to carry Gulliver overturned in the water. He asks the emperor of

Blefuscu to help him _x it. At the same time, the emperor of Lilliput sends

an envoy with the articles commanding him to give up his eyesight. The

emperor of Blefuscu sends them back with the message that Gulliver will be

leaving both their kingdoms soon. After about a month the boat is ready and

Gulliver sets sail. He arrives safely back in England, and makes a good

profit showing miniature farm animals that he had carried away from

Blefuscu in his pockets.

Part II, Chapters 1-2

Summary

Two months after returning to England, Gulliver is restless again. He

sets sail on a ship called the Downs, travelling to the Cape of Good Hope

and Madagascar before encountering a monsoon that draws the ship o_ course.

They continue to sail, eventually arriving at an unknown land mass. They

find no inhabitants, and the landscape is barren and rocky. Gulliver is

walking back to the boat when he sees that it has already left without him.

He tries to chase after it, but then he sees that they are being followed

by a giant. Gulliver runs away; when he stops, he is on a steep hill from

which he can see the countryside. He is shocked to see that the grass is

about twenty feet high.

He walks down what looks like the high road, but turns out to be a

footpath through a field of barley. He walks for a long time, but cannot

see anything beyond the stalks of corn, which are forty feet high. He tries

to climb a set of steps into the next field, but he cannot mount them

because they are too high. As he is trying to climb up the stairs he sees

another one of the island's giant inhabitants. He hides from the giant, but

it calls for more people to come, and they begin to harvest the crop with

scythes.

Gulliver lies down and bemoans his state, thinking about how

insignificant he must be to these giant creatures.

One of the servants comes close to Gulliver with both his foot and his

scythe, so Gulliver screams as loudly as he can. The giant finally notices

him, and picks him up between his fingers to get a closer look. Gulliver

tries to speak to him in plaintive tones, bringing his hands together, and

the giant seems pleased. Gulliver makes it clear that the giant's fingers

are hurting him, and the giant places him in his pocket and begins to walk

towards his master.

His master, the farmer of these fields, takes Gulliver from his

servant and observes him more closely. He asks the other servants if they

have ever seen anything like Gulliver, and places him onto the ground. They

sit around him in a circle. Gulliver kneels down and begins to speak as

loudly as he can, taking o_ his hat and bowing to the farmer. He presents a

purse full of gold to the farmer, which he takes into his palm. He cannot

seem to figure out what it is, even after Gulliver empties the coins into

his hand.

The farmer takes him back to his wife, who is frightened of him. The

servant brings in dinner and they all sit down to eat, Gulliver sitting on

the table not far from the farmer's plate. They give him tiny bits of their

food, and he pulls out his knife and fork to eat, which delights the

giants. The farmer' son picks him up and scares him, but the farmer takes

Gulliver from his hands and strikes his son. Gulliver makes a sign that the

boy should be forgiven, and kisses his hand. After dinner, the farmer's

wife lets Gulliver nap in her own bed. When he wakes up he finds two rats

attacking him, and he defends himself with his weapon.

The farmer's nine-year-old daughter, whom Gulliver calls

Glumdalclitch, or nursemaid, has a doll's cradle, which becomes Gulliver's

permanent bed. This is placed inside a drawer to keep him away from the

rats. The girl becomes Gulliver's caretaker and guardian, sewing clothes

for him and teaching him the giants' language.

The farmer begins to talk about Gulliver in town, and a friend of the

farmer's comes to see him. He looks at Gulliver through his glasses, and

Gulliver begins to laugh at the sight of his eyes through the glass. The

man becomes angry, and advises the farmer to take Gulliver into the market

to display him. He agrees, and Gulliver is taken in a carriage, which he

finds very uncomfortable, to the town. There he is placed on a table and

the little girl sits down on a stool beside him, with thirty people at a

time walking through as he performs "tricks."

Gulliver is exhausted by the journey to the marketplace, but finds

upon returning to the farmer's house that he is to be shown there as well.

People come from miles around and are charged great sums to view him.

Thinking that Gulliver can make him a great fortune, the farmer takes him

and his daughter on a voyage to the largest cities.

They arrive in the largest city, Lorbrulgrud, and the farmer rents a

room with a table for displaying Gulliver. By now he can understand their

language and speak it fairly well. He is shown ten times a day and pleases

the visitors greatly.

Part II, Chapters 3-5

Summary

The strain of travelling and performing "tricks" takes its toll on

Gulliver, and he begins to grow very thin. The farmer notices this and

resolves to make as much money as possible before Gulliver dies. Meanwhile,

an order comes from the court, commanding the farmer to bring Gulliver to

the Queen for her entertainment.

The Queen is delighted with Gulliver's behavior and buys him from the

farmer for a thousand gold pieces. Gulliver requests that Glumdalclitch be

allowed to live in the palace as well. Gulliver explains his suffering to

the Queen, and she is impressed by his intelligence. She takes him to the

King, who at first thinks he is a mechanical creation. He sends for great

scholars to observe Gulliver, and they decide that he is unfit for

survival, since there is no way he could feed himself. Gulliver tries to

explain that he comes from a country in which everything is in proportion

to himself, but they do not seem to believe him.

Glumdalclitch is given an apartment in the palace and a governess to teach

her, and special quarters are built for Gulliver out of a box. They also

have clothes made for him from fine silk, but Gulliver finds them very

cumbersome. The Queen grows very used to his company, finding him very

entertaining at dinner, especially when he cuts and eats his meat. He finds

her way of eating repulsive, since her size allows her to swallow huge

amounts of food in a single gulp.

The King converses with Gulliver on issues of politics, and laughs at

his descriptions of the goings-on in Europe. He finds it amusing that

people of such small stature should think themselves so important, and

Gulliver is at first offended. He then comes to realize that he too has

begun to think of his world as ridiculous, since it is so small and yet

sees itself as so important.

The Queen's dwarf is not happy with Gulliver, since he is used to

being the smallest person in the palace and a source of diversion for the

royal court. He drops Gulliver into a bowl of cream, but Gulliver is able

to swim to safety and the dwarf is punished. At another point the dwarf

sticks Gulliver into a marrowbone, where he is forced to remain until

someone pulls him out.

Gulliver then describes the country for the reader, noting first that

since the land stretches out about six thousand miles there must be a

severe error in European maps. The kingdom is bound on one side by

mountains and on the other three sides by the sea. The water is very rough,

so there is no trade with other nations. The rivers are well stocked with

giant-sized fish, but the fish in the sea are of the same size as those in

the rest of the world and therefore not worth catching.

Gulliver is carried around the city in a special travelling-box, and

people always crowd around to see him. He asks to see the largest temple in

the country and is not overwhelmed by its size, since at a height of three

thousand feet it is proportionally smaller than the largest steeple in

England.

Gulliver is happy in Brobdingnag except for the many mishaps that

befall him because of his diminutive size. In one unpleasant incident, the

dwarf, unhappy at Gulliver for teasing him, shakes an apple tree over his

head and one of the apples strikes Gulliver in the back and knocks him

over. Another time, he is left outside during a hailstorm and is so bruised

and battered that he cannot leave the house for ten days.

Gulliver and his nursemaid are often invited to the apartments of the

ladies of the court, and there he is treated as a plaything of little

significance. They enjoy stripping his clothes and placing him in their

bosoms, and he is appalled by their strong smell, noting that he was told

by a Lilliputian that he smelled quite repulsive to them. The women also

strip their own clothes in front of him, and he finds their skin very ugly

and uneven.

The Queen constructs a way for Gulliver to sail, ordering a special boat to

be built for him. This is placed in a cistern, and Gulliver rows in it for

his own enjoyment and for the amusement of the Queen and her court. Yet

another danger arises in the form of a monkey, which takes Gulliver up a

ladder, holding him like a baby and force-feeding him. He is rescued from

the monkey, and Glumdalclitch pries the food from his mouth with a needle,

after which he vomits. He is so weak and bruised that he stays in bed for

two weeks. The monkey is killed and orders are sent out that no other

monkeys be kept in the palace.

Part II, Chapters 6-8

Summary

Gulliver makes himself a comb from the stumps of hair left after the

King has been shaved. He also collects hairs from the King and uses them to

weave the backs of two small chairs, which he gives to the Queen as

curiosities.

Gulliver is brought to a musical performance, but it is so loud that

he can hardly make it out. Gulliver decides to play the spinet for the

royal family, but must contrive a novel way to do it, since the instrument

is so big. He uses large sticks and must run over the keyboard with them,

but he can still strike only sixteen keys.

Thinking that the King has unjustly come to regard his home country as

insignificant and laughable, Gulliver tries to tell him more about Britain,

describing the government and culture there. The King asks many questions,

and is particularly struck by the violence of the history Gulliver

describes.

He then takes Gulliver into his hand and, explaining that he finds the

world that Gulliver describes to be ridiculous, contemptuous and strange,

tells him that he concludes that "the bulk of your natives [are] the most

pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl

upon the surface of the earth."

Gulliver is disturbed by the King's proclamation. He tries to tell him

about gunpowder, describing it as a great invention, and offering it to the

King as a gesture of friendship. The King is appalled by the proposal, and

Gulliver is taken aback, thinking that the King has refused a great

opportunity. He says that the King is unnecessarily scrupulous and narrow-

minded for not being more open to the inventions of Gulliver's world.

Gulliver finds the people of Brobdingnag in general to be ignorant and

poorly educated. Their laws are not allowed to exceed in words the number

of letters in their alphabet, and no arguments may be written about them.

They know the art of printing but do not have many books, and their

writing is simple and straightforward. One text describes the

insignificance and weakness of humans, and argues that at one point they

must have been much larger.

Gulliver wants to recover his freedom. The King orders any small ship

to be brought to the city, hoping that they might find a woman with which

Gulliver can propagate. Gulliver fears that any offspring thus produced

would be kept in cages or given to the nobility as pets. He has been in the

country for two years and wants to be among his owned kind again.

Gulliver is taken to the south coast, and both Glumdalclitch and

Gulliver fall ill. Gulliver says that he wants fresh air, and a page

carries him out to the shore in his travelling-box. He asks to be left to

sleep in his hammock, and the boy wanders o_. An eagle grabs hold of his

box and flies off with him, and then suddenly Gulliver feels himself

falling and lands in the water.

He worries that he will drown or starve to death, but then feels the

box being pulled. He hears a voice telling him that his box is tied to a

ship, and that a carpenter will come to drill a hole in the top. Gulliver

says that they can simply use a finger to pry it open, and hears laughter.

He realizes that he is speaking to people of his own height and climbs a

ladder out of his box and onto their ship.

Gulliver begins to recover on the ship, and he tries to tell the

sailors the story of his recent journey. He shows them things he saved from

Brobdingnag, like his comb and a tooth pulled from a footman. He has

trouble adjusting to their small size, and finds himself shouting all the

time. When he reaches home it takes him some time to grow accustomed to his

old life, and his wife asks him never to go to sea again.

Part III, Chapters 1-3

Summary

Gulliver has only been home in England ten days when a visitor comes

to his house, asking him to sail aboard his ship in two months' time.

Gulliver agrees and prepares to set out for the East Indies. On the voyage,

the ship is attacked by pirates. Gulliver hears a Dutch voice among them

and speaks to the pirate in Dutch, begging to be set free since he and the

pirate are both Christians. A Japanese pirate tells them they will not die,

and Gulliver tells the Dutchman that he is surprised to find more mercy in

a heathen than in a Christian. The pirate grows angry and punishes him by

sending him out to sea in a small boat with only four days' worth of food.

Gulliver finds some islands and goes ashore on one of them. He sets up

camp but then notices something strange: the sun is mysteriously obscured

for some time. He then sees a land mass dropping down and notices that it

is crawling with people. He is baffed by this oating island, and he shouts

up to its inhabitants. They lower the island and send down a chain, by

which he is able to crawl up.

He is immediately surrounded by people and notices their oddities.

Their heads are all tilted to one side or the other, with one eye turned

inward and the other looking up. Their clothes are adorned with images of

celestial bodies and musical instruments. Some of the people are servants,

and they carry a Goddamn knows what made of a stick with a pouch tied to

the end. Their job is to aid conversation by striking the ear of the

listener and the mouth of the speaker at the appropriate times; otherwise,

the minds of their masters would wander o_.

Gulliver is conveyed to the King, who sits behind a table loaded with

mathematical instruments. They wait an hour before there is some

opportunity to arouse him from his thoughts, at which point he is struck

with the apper. The King says something, and Gulliver's ear is struck with

the apper as well, even though he tries to explain that he doesn't require

it. It becomes clear that he and the King cannot speak any of the same

languages, so Gulliver is taken to an apartment and served dinner.

A teacher is sent to instruct Gulliver in the language of the island,

and he is able to learn several sentences. He discovers that the name of

the island is Laputa, which in their language means " oating island." A

tailor is also sent to improve his clothes, and while he is waiting for

these the King orders the island to be moved. It is taken to a point above

the capital city of the kingdom, Lagado, passing villages along the way and

collecting petitions from the King's subjects by means of ropes sent down

to the lands below.

The language of the Laputans depends greatly on mathematics and music,

and they despise practical geometry, thinking it vulgarso much so that they

make sure that there are no right angles in their buildings. They are very

good with charts and figures but very clumsy in practical matters. They

dread changes in the celestial bodies.

The island is exactly circular and consists of ten thousand acres of

land. At the center there is a cave for astronomers, containing all their

instruments and a loadstone six yards long. It moves the island with its

magnetic force, since it has two charges that can be reversed by means of

an attached control.

The mineral that acts upon the magnet is only large enough to allow it

to move over the country directly beneath it. When the King wants to punish

a particular region of the country, he can keep the island above it,

depriving the lands below of sun and rain. This failed to work in one town,

where the rebellious inhabitants had stored provisions of food in advance.

They planned to force the island to come so low that it would be trapped

forever and to kill the King and his officials in order to take over the

government.

Instead, the King ordered the island to stop descending and gave in to

the town's demands. The King is not allowed to leave the oating island, nor

is his family.

Part III, Chapters 4-10

Summary

Gulliver feels neglected on Laputa, since the inhabitants seem

interested in only mathematics and music and are far superior to him in

their knowledge.

He is bored by their conversation and wants to leave. There is one

lord of the court whom Gulliver finds to be intelligent and curious, but

who is known to the other inhabitants of Laputa as the stupidest of all

because he has no ear for music. Gulliver asks this lord to petition the

King to let him leave the island. The petition succeeds, and he is let down

on the mountains above Lagado. He visits another lord there and is invited

to stay at his home.

Gulliver and his host visit a nearby town, which Gulliver finds to be

populated by poorly dressed inhabitants living in shabby houses. The soil

is badly cultivated and the people appear miserable. They then travel to

the lord's country house, first passing many barren fields but then

arriving in a lush green area that the lord says belongs to his estate. He

says that he is criticized heavily by the other lords for the

"mismanagement" of his land.

The lord explains that forty years ago some people went to Laputa and

returned with new ideas about mathematics and art. They decided to

establish an academy in Lagado to develop new theories on agriculture and

construction and to initiate projects to improve the lives of the city's

inhabitants. However, the theories have never produced any results and the

new techniques have left the country in ruin. He encourages Gulliver to

visit the academy, which Gulliver is glad to do since he had once been

intrigued by projects of this sort himself.

Gulliver visits the academy, where he meets a man engaged in a project

to extract the sunbeams from cucumbers. He also meets a scientist trying to

separate out the different parts of excrement, hoping to produce food from

it. Another is attempting to turn ice into gunpowder and is writing a

treatise about the malleability of _re, hoping to have it published. An

architect is designing a way to build houses starting from the roof, and a

blind master is teaching his blind apprentices to mix colors for painters

according to smell and touch. An agronomist is designing a method of

plowing fields with hogs by first burying food in the ground and then

letting the hogs loose to dig them out. A doctor in another room tries to

cure patients by blowing air through them; Gulliver leaves him trying to

revive a dog that he has killed by "curing" him in this way.

On the other side of the academy there are people engaged in

speculative learning. One professor has a class full of boys working from a

machine that produces random sets of words; using this, the teacher claims,

anyone can write a book on philosophy or politics. A linguist in another

room is attempting to remove all the elements of language except nouns;

this would make language more concise and prolong lives, since every word

spoken is detrimental to the human body. Since nouns are only things,

furthermore, it would be even easier to carry things and never speak at

all.

Gulliver then visits professors who are studying issues of government.

One claims that women should be taxed according to their beauty and skill

at dressing, another that conspiracies against the government could be

discovered by studying the excrement of subjects. Gulliver grows tired of

the academy and begins to yearn for a return to England. He tries to travel

to Luggnagg, but finds no ship available. Since he has to wait a month, he

is advised to take a trip to the island of GLUBBDUBDRIB the island of

magicians.

Gulliver visits the governor of GLUBBDUBDRIB, and finds that he is

attended by servants who appear and disappear like spirits. The governor

tells Gulliver that he has the power to call up whomever he would like to

speak to; Gulliver chooses Alexander the Great, who assures him that he

died not from poison but from excessive drinking. He then sees Hannibal,

Caesar, Pompey and Brutus. Gulliver sets apart one day to speak with the

most venerated people in history, starting with Homer and Aristotle. He

asks Descartes and Gassendi to describe their systems to Aristotle, who

freely acknowledges his own mistakes.

Gulliver returns to Luggnagg, where he is confined despite his desire

to return to England. He is ordered to appear at the King's court and is

given lodging and an allowance. The Luggnuggians tell him about certain

immortal people, children born with a red spot on their foreheads and

called Struldbruggs. Gulliver devises a whole system of what he would do if

he were immortal, starting with the acquisition of riches and knowledge. He

is told that after the age of thirty, most Struldbruggs grew sad and

dejected; by eighty, they were incapable of affection and envious of those

who could die. If two of the Struldbruggs married, the marriage was

dissolved when one reached eighty, because "those who are condemned without

any fault of their own to a perpetual continuance in the world should not

have their misery doubled by the load of a wife." He meets some of these

people and finds them to be unhappy and unpleasant, and he regrets ever

wishing for their state.

Gulliver is then finally able to depart from Luggnagg, refusing

employment there, and he arrives safely in Japan. From there he gains

passage on a Dutch ship by pretending to be from Holland and sets sail from

Amsterdam to England, where he finds his family in good health.

Summary

Gulliver stays home for five months, but then leaves his pregnant wife

to set sail again, this time as the captain of a ship called the Adventure.

Many of his sailors die of illness, so he recruits more along the way. His

crew mutinies under the influence of these new sailors, and they become

pirates. Gulliver is left on an unknown shore, after being confined to his

cabin for several days.

He sees animals in the distance, and describes them as long-haired,

with beards like goats and sharp claws which they use to climb trees.

Gulliver decides that they are very ugly and sets forth to find settlers,

but encounters one of the animals on his way.

He takes out his sword and hits the animal with the side of it. The

animal roars loudly, and a herd of others like it attack Gulliver by

attempting to defecate on him. He hides, but then sees them hurrying away.

He emerges from his hiding place to see that the beasts have been scared

away by a horse.

The horse observes him carefully, and then neighs in a complicated

cadence. Another horse joins the first and the two seem to be involved in a

discussion. Gulliver tries to leave but one of the horses calls him back.

The horses appear to be so intelligent that Gulliver concludes that

they are magicians who have transformed themselves into horses. He

addresses them directly, and asks to be taken to a house or village. The

horses use the words Yahoo and Houyhnhnm, which Gulliver tries to

pronounce.

Gulliver is led to a house, and he takes out gifts, expecting to meet

people. He finds instead that there are more horses in the house, sitting

down and engaged in various activities. He thinks that the house belongs to

a person of great importance, and wonders why they should have horses for

servants. A horse looks Gulliver over and says the word "Yahoo." Gulliver

is led out to the courtyard, where a few of the ugly creatures are tied up.

One creature and Gulliver are lined up and compared, and he finds that the

creature does look quite human. The horses test him by offering him various

foods: hay, which he refuses, and flesh, which he finds repulsive but which

the Yahoo devours. The horses determine that he likes milk and give him

large amounts of it to drink.

Another horse comes to dine, and they all take great pleasure in teaching

Gulliver to pronounce words in their language. They cannot determine what

he might like to eat, until Gulliver suggests that he could make bread from

their oats. He is given a place to sleep with straw for the time being.

Gulliver endeavours to learn the horses' language, and they are

impressed by his intellect and curiosity. After three months he can answer

most of their questions and tries to explain that he comes from across the

sea, but the horses, or "Houyhnhnms," do not believe it to be possible.

They think he is some kind of a Yahoo, though superior to the rest of his

species. He asks them to stop using that word to refer to him, and they

consent.

Gulliver tries to explain that the Yahoos are the governing creatures

where he comes from, and the Houyhnhnms ask how their horses are employed.

Gulliver explains that they are used for travelling, racing, and drawing

chariots, and the Houyhnhnms express disbelief that anything as weak as a

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