Gulliver's Travels

Description

Gulliver's Travels is one of the few works of English literature which is also a landmark in world literature. Jonathan Swift's account of Lemuel Gulliver's adventures in the fantastical societies of 'remote nations' was an instant best-seller on publication in 1726 and has remained in the public imagination ever since, as both a satiric fantasy and an analysis of the human condition. This scholarly edition offers an authoritative text, based on the widest possible historical collation of the many editions published in Swift's lifetime; a detailed introduction and textual apparatus; and appendices and illustrations presenting important ancillary material with new clarity. Extensive notes and commentary open out the many layers of meaning and allusion in the text, identify new sources and parallels and offer wide-ranging historical background information. An important addition to the Cambridge Swift Edition, this volume will be indispensable for scholars and students of eighteenth-century literature and ideas.

David Womersley is Thomas Warton Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford and Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Historical Society.

'David Womersley's massive, magnificent edition of Gulliver's Travels is cause for celebration ... No edition of Gulliver's Travels approaches this one in scope and authority.' David Oakleaf, The Review of English Studies 'David Womersley's new edition of Gulliver's Travels is a scholarly feat - and feast ... splendid ... readers have never been better positioned to experience the manifold pleasures and surprises of this journey.' Notes and Queries '... [this] scholarly edition of Gulliver's Travels is a treasure.' Karen Swallow Prior, Books and Culture (booksandculture.com) 'This weighty tome fulfils with aplomb the considerable demands required of a new standard edition of Swift's masterpiece, and will be essential reading for scholars of the eighteenth century.' Greg Lynall, Modern Language Review 'This is a vast contribution to the Cambridge Swift Project ... [It] will stand for many years as the premier edition of the work ...' Jonathan Lamb, SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900