Audiobooks by Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift's classic satire, in a brand new dramatisation starring Arthur Darvill (Rory from BBC Television's Doctor Who) Gulliver is shipwrecked on the Island of Lilliput where the natives are tiny people living in a miniature society. With his unique overview of this realm, Gulliver discovers a world of petty politics and small minds. Coerced into a war between two nations who disagree on the best way to eat boiled eggs, Gulliver finds himself betrayed by friends and battered by enemies - escape is his only option if he wants to survive! Gulliver's adventures in Lilliput are hilarious, disturbing and profound. This is a story of dishonest politicians, mindless ceremony and wars based on unconvincing arguments. A satire as potent now as it ever was!

Jonathan Swift (Author), Arthur Darvill (Narrator)

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Gulliver's Travels

Penguin Classics presents Jonathan Swift's inventive classic, Gulliver's Travels, adapted for audio and now available as a digital download as part of the Penguin English Library series. Read by Hugh Laurie, star of the hit TV series House. 'Fifteen hundred of the Emperor's largest horses, each about four inches and an half high, were employed to draw me towards the Metropolis, which, as I said, was half a Mile distant' A savage and hilarious satire, Gulliver's Travels sees Lemuel Gulliver shipwrecked and adrift, subject to bizarre and unnerving encounters with, among others, quarrelling Lilliputians, philosophising horses and the brutish Yahoo tribe, that change his view of humanity - and himself - for ever. Swift's classic of 1726 portrays mankind in a distorted hall of mirrors as a diminished, magnified and finally bestial species, presenting us with a comical yet uncompromising reflection of ourselves. The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War. Part of a series of vintage recordings taken from the Penguin Archives. Affordable, collectable, quality productions - perfect for on-the-go listening.

Jonathan Swift (Author), Hugh Laurie (Narrator)

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Gulliver's Travels

Part I : A Voyage to Lilliput and Blefuscu - Gulliver enjoys traveling, although it is this love of travel that is his downfall. His adventure sets off in Lilliput, when after a shipwreck, he wakes up, finding himself a prisoner of a race of people one - twelfth the size of normal human beings. However, his adventure among the small people does not last long, when he has to escape the city as he is charged with treason. Part II: A Voyage to Brobdingnag - This time around Gulliver finds himself in the land of the giants, and he is one - twelfth their size. The people of Brobdingnag, find Gulliver amusing, as he is really small as compared to them, and exhibit Gulliver for money. However, Gulliver soon finds himself in the middle of the sea again, when a giant eagle seizes him and drops him right into the sea where he is picked up by some sailors. Part III: A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan - After Gulliver's ship is attacked by pirates, he is marooned close to a desolate rocky island, near India. Fortunately he is rescued by the flying island of Laputa, a kingdom devoted to the arts of music and mathematics but unable to use them for practical ends. Gulliver is then taken to Balnibarbi to await a Dutch trader who can take him on to Japan. While waiting for passage, Gulliver takes a short side-trip to the island of Glubbdubdrib, where he visits a magician's dwelling and discusses history with the ghosts of historical figures. When Gulliver finally returns home, he is determined to stay there for the rest of his days. Part IV: A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms - Despite his earlier intention of remaining at home, Gulliver returns to the sea as the captain of a merchantman. However, as expected he lands himself into trouble, and he comes first upon a race of (apparently) hideous deformed and savage humanoid creatures called Yahoos, who are ruled by a race of horses called Houyhnhms. Gulliver comes to both admire and emulate the Houyhnhnms and their lifestyle. However, an Assembly of the Houyhnhnms rules that Gulliver essentially, a Yahoo with some semblance of reason, is a danger to their civilization, and expels him. He is then rescued by a Portuguese ship, and returned to England for good.

Jonathan Swift (Author), Rashid Raza (Narrator)

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Gulliver's Travels [With eBook]

Jonathan Swift (Author), David Case (Narrator)

Audiobook

Gulliver's Travels

Set and written in 1726, This is a marvelously imaginative tale of the four voyages of Lemuel Gulliver. He finds himself shipwrecked and the prisoner of captors ranging in size from 6 inches tall to 60 feet tall and of various other persuasions. But this is just the beginning of a story written, strangely enough to satirize the foolishness and vices of modern men as they were perceived at the time. No one, young or old, can ever forget the Lilliputians and the Yahoos that starred in these wonderful and riveting stories of long ago. AUTHOR Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was an Irish novelist, satirist, poet and political essayist. From a very literary family, his uncle married the daughter of a godson of William Shakespeare, Swift was very well educated, receiving an MA from Oxford University and a Doctorate in Divinity from Trinity College in Dublin. An ordained priest in the Established Church of Ireland, Swift began writing satire, inspired by his misery in his profession. Politically active, Swift incurred the enmity of enough British nobles, that his career as a minister was over. Swift began writing novels, while also writing political phamphlets promoting Irish causes. Swift's best know work, Gulliver's Travels is filled with satiric references to his current events, and was an immediate hit, written anomously, it had to be smuggled into Ireland. The Queen was not amused. COMMENTARY Reviews for Alcazar AudioWorks' production of Gulliver's Travels Terrific Narration, Very interesting story Written about 300 years ago this story has aged very well and Gulliver's adventures are event today very entertaining. Gulliver's Travels was meant to mock the hordes of books about adventurous travels released at the time which often exaggerated the dangers faced and the belitteled the intellect of the natives encountered. And so Gulliver meets giants, tiny people, horses which rule over men and people living on a floating island. In addition to the entertainment value these episodes hold it is also very interesting to see how critical Jonathan Swift was of English society and values. This criticism is never voiced by the main character directly, but surface through the discussions Gulliver has with the people he meets. The Audiobook version published by Alcazar AudioWorks features a terrific Narrator which makes the story a joy to listen to. Listener Review - Audible.com This book is written with wonderful prose and read by a very talented narrator. When I first started the book it was a wonder to sit back and just listen. The story is very imaginative as well. This must be a very early example of the fantasy genre. Listener Review - Audible.com This is one of those books that people love to talk about but never actually read. At most they read the cliff notes version but let me tell you, you're really missing out on a jewel if you do. The unabridged version is the only way to go and this one does an excellent job. It leaves you with conversational pieces, insight into humanity and culture that you would not have had otherwise. Not to mention that just sticking with the abridged or cliff notes you get the ""official"" interpretation but you lose the opportunity to think for your self on the dilemmas presented. The story basically follows the adventures of one guy who ends up shipwrecked on 3 different islands and with each island is presented with a unique situation. One where he ends up a giant, one where he ends up a miniature and one...well...you'll just have to find that one out for yourself. Listener Review - Audible.com I had to do a school project about Gulliver's Travels, so naturally audible was my go-to destination. At a low price and high quality, this version was a life-saver! The narrator did a wonderful job bringing Swift's witty social commentary to life, and is (in my opinion anyway) one of the best readers of this book. If you thought you knew Gulliver, get ready for delightful new discoveries, from the flying island of Laputa, to the island of the Houyhnhnms. With remarks just as pointed today as they were when this book was first written over 300 years ago. If you're ready to travel with Gulliver, this is the version you want! Listener Review - Audible.com "

Jonathan Swift (Author), David Thorn (Narrator)

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The Adventure Collection

This set includes five tales of extraordinary heroism, marvelous intrigue, and exceptional courage that have inspired and amazed people for generations. Gulliver’s Travels is Jonathan Swift’s comic tale of an Englishman who journeys to four fantastical and exotic lands filled with unforgettable characters, from the pint-size Lilliputians to the giant Brobdingnagians. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood takes us to Sherwood Forest, where the brigand and his band of “merry men” rob from the rich to give to the poor — to the consternation of the Sheriff of Nottingham. The Jungle Book transports readers into a wondrous world where danger lurks behind every drooping vine and the law of the jungle is the key to survival. Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island follows young Jim Hawkins as he learns the ways of the buccaneer from a group of seafaring miscreants, including the nefarious peg leg, Long John Silver. White Fang by Jack London recreates the forbidding world of the Yukon Gold Rush, where a wild dog must endure violence, hardship, and bitter cold on his journey from savagery to civilization.

Howard Pyle, Jack London, Jonathan Swift, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling (Author), Buck Schirner, Michael Page, Simon Vance (Narrator)

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Gulliver s Travels

When Lemuel Gulliver wakes up on an island after a shipwreck, tied on his hands and feet and with arrows pointed at him, you would think all hope is lost. But his captors are the size of a finger, their rope is as thin as thread, and their tiny arrows barely break the surface of his skin. This is not even as absurd as it gets on Gulliver‘s travels at sea, but, hilariously, he has no emotional response to any of it. Jonathan Swift‘s `Gulliver‘s Travels‘ (1726) is political satire at its best. Published shortly after Daniel Defoe‘s `Robinson Crusoe‘, it offers a very different view on humankind than Defoe‘s optimistic account, poking fun and in doing so opening the door for wider discussions.

Jonathan Swift (Author), Lizzie Driver (Narrator)

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Gulliver's Travels

This enduring classic tells of the fantastic voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, an English ship's surgeon who becomes a castaway in strange and faraway lands. Shipwrecked upon the shores of Lilliput, he encounters the six-inch-high Lilliputians, whose petty wars, civil strife, and vanities are human follies so reduced in scale as to be rendered ridiculous. From there he travels on to Brobdingnag, where he finds himself surrounded by crude giants who cannot appreciate his abstract intellect and prefer to display him as a curiosity. Further voyages take Gulliver to the floating island of Laputa, a land of intellectuals who are ignorant of practical life, and to the Island of Sorcerers, who share with him the lies of history. Finally, he visits the land of the Houyhnhnms, a race of wise and gentle horses served by degenerate human-like creatures. Gulliver's travels are entertaining adventures that also offer him new, bitter insights into human behavior. Both an amusing fantasy and a devastating satire of society, Gulliver's Travels is as witty and relevant in our own age of hypocrisy and irony as it was in Swift's eighteenth century.

Jonathan Swift (Author), Pamela Garelick (Narrator)

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Gulliver's Travels

Gulliver's Travels is renowned as a playful and comic children's classic. The book itself, rather than the bowdlerized versions that have been derived from it, is a savage, rude and brilliant satire, timeless in its appeal and unerringly accurate. The images of Gulliver among the miniature Lilliputians and the giants of Brobdingnag, the crazy scientists, and the rational horses create a series of novel delights and challenging insights.

Jonathan Swift (Author), Neville Jason, Nicolas Soames (Narrator)

Audiobook

Gulliver's Travels

Lemuel Gulliver, a slightly staid ship's doctor, relates the tales of his astonishing travels. He encounters the tiny, warring Lilliputians; the giant, sceptical Brobdingnagians; the ludicrously intellectual Laputans; and the idealistic - if rather stolid - Houyhnhnms and their bestial servants, the Yahoos. An immediate best-seller when it was first published in 1726, Gulliver's Travels has remained a favourite ever since. It was an attack on the politics and society of Swift's day, but it is also a polemical, inventive, surreal, vitriolic and wonderfully imaginative masterpiece, whose powerful satire continues to strike home.

Jonathan Swift (Author), Jasper Britton (Narrator)

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Gulliver's Travels

Jonathan Swift (Author), Philip Jackson (Narrator)

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Gulliver's Travels

In this humorous satire, which makes fun of English politicians in the early 1700s, you'll travel to many strange make-believe worlds. Join Gulliver as he sails from the land of the tiny six-inch people called Lilliputians and the land of the giant people called Brobdingnagians, to the land of the Houyhnhnms- where wise and understanding horses tame herds of wild Yahoos, creatures that are strangely human!

Jonathan Swift (Author), Saddleback Educational Publishing (Narrator)

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