For the Ignatius Study Guide for Gulliver's Travels, click here.
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift is one of the greatest satirical works ever written. Through the misadventures of Lemuel Gulliver, his hopelessly “modern” protagonist, Swift exposes many of the follies of the English Enlightenment, from its worship of science to its neglect of traditional philosophy and theology. Swift's satire on the threats posed by the Enlightenment and the embryonic spirit of secular fundamentalism makes Gulliver's Travels priceless reading for today's defenders of tradition.
This new critical edition, edited by Dutton Kearney of Aquinas College, contains detailed notes to the text and a selection of tradition-oriented essays by some of the finest contemporary Swift scholars.
A look at the essays
In "Gulliver's Travels and the Grotesque" Carol Nevin (Sue) Abromaitis explores the moral deformities that Swift depicts in every world and character — and especially in the reader.Robert Scott Dupree suggests the third voyage is often underappreciated, and guides us through its significance.
In "A Modern Battles the Ancients", Mitchell Kalpakgianpicks apart the main strands of thought as engaged by Gulliver in his travels, delineating the ironies of Gulliver's own judgments for and against each. Dutton Kearney revisits these themes from the philosophical-political perspective (and earlier situates the reader with the introductory essay).
Finally, Douglas Lane Patey investigates the problem of narrative unity in the book, proposing a Swiftian alternative, and Peter J. Stanlis takes a serious look at the whole cloth of Swift's philosophy in relation to Travels.
