Gulliver Utazása Lilliputban by Jonathan Swift / Hungarian edition of Gulliver's voyage to Lilliput / Translated by Karinthy Frigyes / Illustrated by Gyulai Liviusz / Móra könyvkiadó 1954 / Hardcvoer

HARDCOVER 1954

PAGES: 120

PUBLISHER: Móra könyvkiadó

LANGUAGE: HUNGARIAN / MAGYAR

Hungarian Description:

Majd kétszázötven évvel ezelőtt, 1727-ben jelent meg először a Gulliver utazásai, Jonathan Swiftnek, a nagy angol írónak kora társadalmát gúnyoló regénye. Azóta nemzedékek olvasták, szórakoztak rajta, és tanultak belőle. Időközben az ifjúságnak is kedvenc olvasmánya lett a törpék országában kalandozó seborvos históriája, s a nagyszerű mese máig sem vesztett frissességéből. Tanulságai felnőttek és gyermekek számára egyaránt maradandóak, a szolgalelkűség, az oktalan tekintélytisztelet iránti gúnyját a ma embere is megérti, az igazságot és az igaz értékeket tisztelő ifjúság pedig különösen méltányolja. Az örök életű művet Karinthy Frigyes kitűnő fordításában ismerik meg a magyar gyerekek. A könyvet Gyulai Liviusz művészi rajzai díszítik.

English Description:

Gulliver's Travels, or Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships is a 1726 prose satireby the Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift, satirising both human nature and the "travellers' tales" literary subgenre. It is Swift's best known full-length work, and a classic of English literature. Swift claimed that he wrote Gulliver's Travels "to vex the world rather than divert it".

The book was an immediate success. The English dramatist John Gay remarked "It is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery."^[3] In 2015, Robert McCrum released his selection list of 100 best novels of all time in which Gulliver's Travels is listed as "a satirical masterpiece".

Part I: A Voyage to Lilliput

The travel begins with a short preamble in which Lemuel Gulliver gives a brief outline of his life and history before his voyages.

4 May 1699 – 13 April 1702

During his first voyage, Gulliver is washed ashore after a shipwreck and finds himself a prisoner of a race of tiny people, less than 6 inches (15 cm) tall, who are inhabitants of the island country of Lilliput. After giving assurances of his good behaviour, he is given a residence in Lilliput and becomes a favourite of the Lilliput Royal Court. He is also given permission by the King of Lilliput to go around the city on condition that he must not hurt their subjects.

At first, the Lilliputians are hospitable to Gulliver, but they are also wary of the threat that his size poses to them. The Lilliputians reveal themselves to be a people who put great emphasis on trivial matters. For example, which end of an egg a person cracks becomes the basis of a deep political rift within that nation. They are a people who revel in displays of authority and performances of power. Gulliver assists the Lilliputians to subdue their neighbours the Blefuscudians by stealing their fleet. However, he refuses to reduce the island nation of Blefuscu to a province of Lilliput, displeasing the King and the royal court.

Gulliver is charged with treason for, among other crimes, urinating in the capital though he was putting out a fire. He is convicted and sentenced to be blinded. With the assistance of a kind friend, "a considerable person at court", he escapes to Blefuscu. Here, he spots and retrieves an abandoned boat and sails out to be rescued by a passing ship, which safely takes him back home.

About the Author:

Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for Whigs then for Tories), and poet, famous for works like Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, The Drapier's Letters, The Battle of the Books, and A Tale of a Tub. Swift is probably the foremost prose satirist in the English language, and is less well known for his poetry.