Les Voyages de Gulliver

Jonathan Swift

• Publisher: Perlego
• Year: 2006
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9700000017640
• Subtopic: European Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

Les Voyages de Gulliver / Gulliver's Travels: French-English bilingual edition Les Voyages de Gulliver ou Les Voyages extraordinaires de Gulliver (en anglais Gulliver's Travels) est un roman satirique écrit par Jonathan Swift en 1721. Une version censurée et modifiée par son éditeur paraît pour la première fois en 1726; ce n'est qu'en 1735 qu'il paraîtra en version complète. Il apparaît pour la première fois en français sous le titre Voyages du capitaine Lemuel Gulliver en divers pays éloignés en janvier 1727, à La Haye. Les Voyages de Gulliver marquent un sommet de la satire sociale et politique au travers d'éléments mêlant, sur le mode du pamphlet ou de la description narrative, de la philosophie, de la logique, du fantastique et de la science-fiction. Le roman a été écrit par Swift après le krach de 1720. Il avait acheté des actions de la Compagnie des mers du Sud pour 1 000 livres. La spéculation avait fait passer la valeur d'une action de 128 livres à 1 050 livres, avant de s'effondrer ruinant bon nombre de commerçants britanniques. Cet accroissement puis cette miniaturisation de la richesse en un temps très court a dû donner à Swift l'idée des changements de taille relative de son personnage principal qui serait une métaphore de ce krach en donnant à Swift l'occasion de se moquer des travers de la société de son temps.__________________________________________________Shipwrecked and cast adrift, Lemuel Gulliver wakes to find himself on Lilliput, an island inhabited by little people, whose height makes their quarrels over fashion and fame seem ridiculous. His subsequent encounters - with the crude giants of Brobdingnag, the philosophical Houyhnhnms and brutish Yahoos - give Gulliver new, bitter insights into human behaviour. Swift's savage satire views mankind in a distorted hall of mirrors as a diminished, magnified and finally bestial species, presenting us with an uncompromising reflection of ourselves. Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, poet and cleric who became Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin. He is remembered for works such as Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella 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. Swift originally published all of his works under pseudonyms--such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M.B. Drapier--or anonymously. He is also known for being a master of two styles of satire: the Horatian and Juvenalian styles.__________________________________________________From School Library Journal: Gr 7 Up-Jonathan Swift's satirical novel was first published in 1726, yet it is still valid today. Gulliver's Travels describes the four fantastic voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, a kindly ship's surgeon. Swift portrays him as an observer, a reporter, and a victim of circumstance. His travels take him to Lilliput where he is a giant observing tiny people. In Brobdingnag, the tables are reversed and he is the tiny person in a land of giants where he is exhibited as a curiosity at markets and fairs. The flying island of Laputa is the scene of his next voyage. The people plan and plot as their country lies in ruins. It is a world of illusion and distorted values. The fourth and final voyage takes him to the home of the Houyhnhnms, gentle horses who rule the land. He also encounters Yahoos, filthy bestial creatures who resemble humans. The story is read by British actor Martin Shaw with impeccable diction and clarity and great inflection. If broken into short listening segments, the tapes are an excellent tool for presenting an abridged version of Gulliver's Travels.-Jean Deck, Lambuth University, Jackson, TN (Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.)