Gulliver’s Travels by ELI Publishing

Jonathan Swift Gulliver’s Travels

The Pleasure of Reading

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The Greenwich Meridian is the imaginary line that is exactly at 0° longitude: every place on Earth is measured from this line, known as the Prime Meridian. Here, east and west meet.

Just as the Greenwich Meridian is the meeting place between space and time, the eliGreenwich series is the meeting place of all those readers who immerse themselves in different times and spaces in these pages, discovering characters, stories, and real or imaginary worlds. It is a journey that crosses civilizations, seas, and known or unexplored lands, on its ideal route from the North Pole to the South Pole. A journey that is an adventure: the adventure of reading, of losing yourself in the pages of a book.

Welcome to Gulliver‘s Travels

Information about the author, the story and the historical period.

Brief descriptions of the main characters.

Pre-reading activities.

A final test to check what you remember.

The text with cultural details, brief summaries and glossary.

A wide variety of activities covering Cambridge Exam Certificates, State exams, 21st Century Skills and 2030 Agenda topics.

A transcript of one of the most important scenes from the story to act out together in class.

eliGreenwich

Jonathan Swift

Gulliver‘s Travels

Retold by

Catrin Morris

Illustrated by Giacomo Agnello Modica

Legenda

PRELIMINARY

INVALSI

Esame di Stato

Costituzione e Cittadinanza

21st Century Skills Agenda 2030

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Sign of the Four

Glossario Drama

E. Gaskell, K. Chopin, K. Mansfield, V. Woolf, E. Wharton Portraits of Women

Robert Louis Stevenson The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Geoffrey Chaucer The Canterbury Tales

Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice

Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland

Oscar Wilde The Canterville Ghost

H.G. Wells, G. Orwell, E.A. Poe, S.O. Jewett, V. Woolf One Planet, One Goal

Mary Shelley Frankenstein

George Orwell Animal Farm

K. Mansfield, J. Joyce, O. Wilde, R. Tagore, M. Twain Tales of Friendship

Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre

Oscar Wilde The Picture of Dorian Gray

H.G. Wells The Time Machine

C. Dickens, E. Wharton, E.M. Forster, W. Sibert Cather, J. London Life is a Journey

Frances Hodgson Burnett The Secret Garden

William Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet

Louisa May Alcott Little Women

Jonathan Swift Gullilver‘s Travels

Series Editors Paola Accattoli, Grazia Ancillani

Art Director Daniele Garbuglia

Graphic Design Emilia Coari

Production Manager Francesco Capitano

Printed in Italy by Tecnostampa - Pigini Group Printing Division, Loreto-Trevi 25.83.154.0

ENG021.01

ISBN 978-88-536-4661-3 www.gruppoeli.it

Early life and family

When king Charles II became king of England after the period of Oliver Cromwell’s Republic.

Jonathan Swift: Life and Work

Quick facts

Name: Jonathan Swift

Born: in Dublin, Ireland on November 30th, 1667

Died: in Dublin, Ireland on October 19th, 1745

Education: Kilkenny College and Trinity College, Dublin

Key works:

Gulliver‘s Travels (1726), A Modest Proposal (1729)

Invention is the talent of youth, as judgment is of age.

Swift’s father, also named Jonathan Swift, was an English clergyman*, who went to live in Ireland after the Stuart Restoration and became steward* of the King’s Inns, Dublin. He married Abigail Erick, the daughter of an English clergyman, but he died suddenly leaving his wife with a young daughter, and expecting the birth of their son. While Abigail returned to live with family in England, Jonathan and his sister, Jane, went to live with their uncles. Jonathan went to Kilkenny Grammar School, where he enjoyed studying language and literature*. He later got a degree from Trinity College in Dublin.

This is a type of British school for clever children.

clergyman a church leader steward a person who manages the land of a rich person literature important books, poetry and plays

Career

When life became difficult in Ireland because of political changes, Swift left for England. He worked as a secretary to Sir William Temple, a retired diplomat*, writing his life story. This was an important period in Swift's life. He learnt about English politics and literature. He also returned to Ireland at this time and became a priest in the Protestant Church. He worked in several churches in Ireland, before becoming Dean* of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin. During this time he was writing poetry and other literature about lots of subject that were important to people, in a satirical* way.

Protestants and Catholics are two different groups, who believe in the teachings of God and Jesus Christ that fought for a long time in Ireland.

Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.

diplomat an official who works for their county abroad dean an important priest in a church or cathedral satirical saying or writing satire, funny things to show how bad or silly people are

Personal life and death

Swift’s relationships with women were never easy. They included a 17-year relationship with Esther Vanhomrigh, who was his student and 22 years younger than him. This relationship ended when Swift met Esther Johnson while working for Sir William. She became the ‘Stella’ he wrote to

A series of letters Swift wrote from 1710–13 about personal things, politics and social events.

Observation is an old man's memory.

in his published* Journal to Stella. People talked a lot about Swift’s love life, but he never married. Swift suffered from Meniere's disease, which gave him vertigo* and made it hard for him to hear. He was not very well in his mind or body towards the end of his life. After he died, he was buried in St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin.

published you print copies of a book and sell them vertigo when you feel sick and as if the room is going round and round

People wrote thin books called pamphlets in periods of political trouble, like the French Revolution, as a way of sharing political opinions with lots of people, especially when printing became possible.

Works

Swift wrote a lot about politics and the Church. He wrote Tale of a Tub (1704), defending the position of Protestants; and Battle of the Books, defending the ancient times against modern times.

In The Mechanical Operation of the Spirit (1704), Swift continues his satire against the Church and against science.

Men are happy to be laughed at for their humour, but not for their folly.

He also defends Ireland in A Modest Proposal (1729), attacking England’s behaviour towards it. Swift became a national hero in Ireland because of this an other works. In his most famous novel, Gulliver‘s Travels (1726), Swift writes a satire about all of human life. In it, the Houyhnhnms, horses, are intelligent and the Yahoos, humans, are not.