I don't remember the editions.

A wonderful collection of fantasy worlds and adventures on the surface with deeply satirical observations about human nature below. There is a reason people are reading this after all this time. I also enjoyed "A Modest Proposal", but warn anyone who reads that about the satirical bent to all his works - he doesn't mean what he says on its face value, so read between the lines.

It took me a while to remember this book, but it was magnificent. Swift was so darn clever and snarky. I love snarky political commentary that is aimed not just at poking holes in our pretensions but challenging us to be better. Swift was one of the earliest and still ranks as one of the best.

some chapters are only well!

I found this book pretty fascinating because I wonder how one day you'll be a normal size and the next day you wake up and you're a giant. I would not even want to be a giant because I am already tall and I would not like to be seen as a person who steps on people. This book strangely reminds me of big feet.

I really had to read this about three times to get the whole political underscore and social commentary. When you're 8 years old, it just seems like a fun fairytale, but reading it multiple times in high school and college, it struck different chords each time. It's actually a pretty smart critique on life dressed up in an interesting bunch of journeys to different lands.

A Modest Proposal, was hilarious, in my opinion. Reading it once as-is and then again keeping in mind the satirical nature of the piece was pretty amusing. Who says old English literature has to be boring?

Just couldn't get into it

I really like the Voyage to Lilliput, but after that Swift's sense of humor grows old. This is the second time I have taught this and I enjoyed teaching it more the second time around. Unfortunately, like most teachers, I have run out of time and didn't get to cover the novel in depth the way I would have liked. I do think the students appreciated the satire, although I'm not sure they entirely understood all of the references, I did make a good effort to explain them. I will be teaching it again, next year and hope that every year I teach it, both the students and I get more and more out of it.

I knew Jonathan Swift is famous for his satire. I remember reading an essay of his suggesting that the people of England eat their children to decrease the population. Gulliver's Travels was even stranger. We've all heard about Lilliput, but there were other countries equally odd that he visits in this book. This novel was as tedious as tedious can be. That's why it took me forever to finish it. I love classics, but this isn't one I would even recommend let alone keep. I will say his stay with the intelligent horses and his commentary were spot on. Humans can be foolish and behave irrationally, but there is still a lot of good in everyone. I did like his comments on the excesses of government which even in this century we see a lot of.

Honestly, how could you not love the ridiculousness of Jonathan Swift?

Two masterpieces that had me believing I could become a satirist in no time. Many newspapers had to endure my letters of which none were printed. (But I can't put the blame on Swift for making it look so easy.)

There's a reason these works are in every English Lit. anthology I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot!