Secret Life of Books4 Jun 2024

Gulliver's Travels Part 2

As we learned in episode one, Gulliver’s Travels is the gloriously unhinged invention of the dirty-minded genius Jonathan Swift, who was also the greatest defender of Ireland under English rule. Swift was a man of contradictions - to put it mildly - a clergyman and patriot who wrote some of the most explicit and shocking poems and essays of all time.

In our second episode in this series Sophie and Jonty explain how Swift’s imaginings in Gulliver reflect the real-life love affairs and unrequited passions he had with two women — both called Esther — who were his life-long companions and rivals. We’ll hear how Jonathan Swift invented one of the most popular women’s names in history, so he wouldn’t get confused about the two women in his life. And you’ll learn why Gulliver’s Travels was way ahead of its time as a satire defending Irish suffering under English rule.

Suggested reading: Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, (Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jonathan Swift, ed. David Wommersley, 2012); Victoria Glendinning, Jonathan Swift: A Portrait (Henry Holt, 1999); John Stubbs, Jonathan Swift: The Reluctant Rebel (Penguin, 2016); Daniel Cook and Nicholas Seager, eds., Cambridge Companion to Gulliver’s Travels, (Cambridge University Press, 2023).

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Designer: Peita Jackson
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