Enlightenment · Europe · Culture

1726

Gulliver's Travels Published

October 28, 1726

Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's in Dublin, released a satire disguised as a sea-yarn: tiny warring kingdoms, giants who found us contemptible, flying islands of useless savants, and horses more rational than men. Readers laughed first and shivered afterwards. It became, against its author's bitter expectations, a children's classic.