Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift · first published 1726
39% recommend61% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Satirical adventure that still reads as modern and current, with sharp observations on human nature and politics. Enjoyed by kids for the adventure and by adults for the satire, and it explains many common clichés.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
A parody of traveler’s tales and a satire of human nature, “Gulliver’s Travels” is Jonathan Swift’s most famous work which was first published in 1726. An immensely popular tale ever since its original publication, “Gulliver’s Travels” is the story of its titular character, Lemuel Gulliver, a man who loves to travel. A series of four journeys are detailed in which Gulliver finds himself in a number of amusing and precarious situations. In the first voyage, Gulliver is imprisoned by a race of tiny people, the Lilliputians, when following a shipwreck he is washed upon the shores of their island
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…Bertrand Russell "The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy" - Douglas Adams "Animal Farm" - George Orwell "1984" - George Orwell "Lord of The Flies" - William Golding "Brave New World" - Aldous Huxley "Gulliver's Travels" - Jonathan Swift "The Selfish Gene" - Richard Dawkins
on “Ask HN: What are some good books?” ↗From Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, the lands of Lilliput and Gargantua. In one, every resident is tiny, Lilliputian, and in the other: huge, ...Gargantuan Notably, the book reads in a very modern way, it's a bit shocking…
on “FTX tapped into customer accounts to fund risky bets, setting up its downfall” ↗…simply choosing your trolling topics carefully (without name-calling). But that hardly means you should dismiss your friends. > nowadays it's just too easy to dismiss it as "trolling", I suggest Gulliver's Travels, if you haven't read it. It's still very current. As for esr, he's saying much more than that. He's claiming that, after you have read Derbyshire's article, you're supposed to answer "no" to those 5…
on “Don't Get Offended” ↗You should read Gulliver's Travels.
on “Why 'Passive Income' Is A Dangerous Fantasy (2011)” ↗…Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin -- https://librivox.org/the-origin-of-species-by-charles-darwin... The Art of War by Sun Tzu -- https://archive.org/details/art_of_war_librivox Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift -- https://archive.org/details/gulliver_ld_librivox Podcasts: Ruby Rouges (ruby programming talks/programming in general)-- http://rubyrogues.com/ StarTalk with Neil Degrasse Tyson…
on “2x 40 min of train everyday. Best way to spend them?” ↗…Machiavelli's The Prince is still damned good, and a landmark in talking about politics as it is, not as how people would like it to be. Shakespeare surely needs some attention by English speakers. Swift's Gulliver's Travels were amusing when I read them in their original, and obviously very influential. So, yeah, check out some of the classics.
on “Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?” ↗Jonathan Swift wrote masterfully about that in Gulliver's Travels (1726), which is one of best SF works ever written, in my opinion. He describes a nation in which some people are born immortal (called the struldbrug): As soon as they have completed the term of eighty…
on “Ask HN: Which scifi authors to interview about immortality?” ↗…1984 - Animal Farm - The Little Prince - Siddhartha - Narcissus and Goldmund - Crime and Punishment - Frankenstein - Dracula - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - The Lord of the Rings - Gulliver's Travels - Discworld "series" - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance These come to my mind immediately. I'll edit and add more later if something else comes to mind.
on “Ask HN: What Are You Fiction Book Recommendations?” ↗The Bourgeois Gentleman Complaint tablet to Ea-nasir :-) Emma Essays Gulliver's Travels HMS Pinafore In Praise of Folly Journey to the West[1] Mullah Nasruddin stories[2] Nicomachean Ethics Panchatantra Uncle Remus War & Peace[3] [1] haven't read this one…
on “Ask HN: Good books written before ~1900?” ↗Human nature never changes, for an entertaining take on our current situation see part 3 of Gulliver's Travels published in 1726 https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/jonathan-swift/gullivers-t...
on “Facebook said my article was false – now the fact-checkers admit they were wrong” ↗I remember enjoying these as a child without understanding any of the subtext or satire: Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose Bohumil Hrabal: Cutting it Short Antal Szerb: The Pendragon Legend
on “The Good Soldier Švejk (2018)” ↗…(Dumas) Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare) The Wind in the Willows (Grahame) A Christmas Carol (Dickens) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass (Carroll) Watership Down (Adams) Gulliver's Travels (Swift) Animal Farm (Orwell)
on “Ask HN: What book had a big impact on you as a child or teenager?” ↗…itself could work depending on the person, regardless of if that person finds anything said offensive or not, simply because if I spend all my time trolling them, then I'm not worth their time. I read Gulliver's Travels around the same time as "A Modest Proposal", I agree it's still relevant and insightful. I also think you're right about esr's post having a problem by not defining "racist", and leaving the reader to…
on “Don't Get Offended” ↗…Immutable Laws of Marketing (it's okay) - The Narrow Road by Felix Dennis (it's okay) - Oh Crap! Potty Training by Jamie Glowacki (success) - Вишнёвый Сад Чехов Антон Павлович (did not like it at all) - Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift (liked it) - Hunt, Gather, Parent Michaeleen Doucleff (this book is a game changer, strong recommend for every parent) - MAKE by Pieter Levels - Main Street Millionaire by Codie Sanchez…
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗…available on the Kindle store. There are thousands of old books that are out of copyright and are completely free to download. You can find stuff like the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, papers by einstein, Gulliver's Travels, Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, Dracula, and lots of other really great reads.
on “Ask HN: Got a Kindle. What now? What books should I read?” ↗