Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

4.8

Part I

Gulliver was born in the large family of a farmer. At school the boy learned well, so his father sent him to the university. When the young man left the university, he worked with a doctor and learned the doctor’s profession.

Gulliver wanted to travel and found work on a ship as the ship’s doctor. One day, after many days of fine weather, there was a terrible storm. The ship broke to pieces and the people were drowned. But Gulliver could swim very well, and he was not drowned. After a long time he saw land and swam to it. He got out of the water and slept on the shore for many hours. He was very tired.

When Gulliver woke up, he found that he was in a country where very, very small people lived. The name of the country was Lilliput. The little people were afraid of the big man and wanted to kill him. But when they saw that Gulliver was kind and did not want to kill them, they let him live with them. Gulliver lived there for two years. After many adventures he got back to England.

Part II

The second of Gulliver’s travels began very well. The weather was fine. But after some weeks, a strong wind began to blow and they fought it for twenty days. When the wind stopped, the captain of the ship did not know where they were. At last they saw land; it was an island. The captain of the ship sent some men in a small boat to get drinking water. Gulliver got into the boat too. He wanted to see the island.

When the sailors came to land, they went into the forest. Gulliver went into another part of the forest. When he came back to the shore, he did not find the boat there. The sailors were already in the boat and on their way back to the ship. Gulliver wanted to cry out to them, but suddenly he saw a very, very big man —a giant. The giant was in the water. He wanted to catch the boat, but the boat went quickly back to the ship, so the giant turned and walked back to the shore. Gulliver saw that there were other giants on the shore and he understood that he was in the country of the giants.

A farmer found Gulliver in a field and carried him to his house. The farmer’s family were kind to Gulliver. At dinner they put him on the table and gave him some meat and bread. After dinner the farmer’s wife put him on a large bed and he slept there for some hours.

Part III

Soon the farmer began to show Gulliver to the people in the town for money. Then he made a box, put Gulliver into it and went from town to town. He showed Gulliver in eighteen towns and then came to a very large town. It was the capital of the country. He went to the king’s palace and sold Gulliver to the queen.

Now Gulliver lived in the palace in a nice box which hung at the window when the weather was fine. A worker made a little bed, two chairs, a table and a little wardrobe for him. There were windows in the box and a door. People in the palace were kind to Gulliver and he learned to understand them. He often talked to the king and queen. Gulliver told them all about his country, England. One day when Gulliver was at his table, a great big monkey saw him through the open door of the box. It jumped through the window into the room where the box stood. Gulliver got up from his chair and stood behind the wardrobe. The monkey went up to the box and looked into it. It saw Gulliver behind the wardrobe and caught him. The monkey looked at him and wanted to play with the little man. It thought Gulliver was a young monkey. At that time a girl came to the door of the room. The monkey heard her, took Gulliver in its hand, and jumped out of the window on to the roof of the palace.

Then it jumped on to the roof of another house. But then the people in the palace yard saw the monkey with Gulliver in its hand. They brought ladders and began to go up on to the roof. The monkey saw them, put Gulliver down on the roof and ran away. Gulliver was happy when one of the men came, picked him up and carried him down.