Gulliver's Travels, published by Jonathan Swift in 1726, is one of the great satirical novels of the English Language, as well as being one of the earliest example speculative fiction, or perhaps even science fiction.
The novel follows Lemuel Gulliver, an unassuming but succesful man, who, in the course of being a ship's surgeon, by chance visits four different fantastical lands: Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa and the land of the Houyhnhnms. These lands give Swift a chance to show some of his great imagination and inventiveness, as well as to engage in a great amount of satire, both topical (which, being three hundred years old, is hard to understand without footnotes) and general, mostly dealing with his views on human nature.
This book is one of the few classics that is still used at every level of culture. Even people who have never read the book are familiar with the image of Gulliver washed up on the beach, tied down by the Lilliputians. On the other hand, modern scholars are still grapling with issues presented by the text. The text, unlike many of the era, is written in a clear, concise and fast moving style.
The book is one of the largest reasons why people think of Swift as a misanthrope. and indeed if certain parts of it are taken at face value, such as the depiction of the Yahoos in Book IV, it would seem that Swift does indeed dislike humanity. Swift uses the device of visiting different societies to great effect. Not only does he describe what other societies could be like, but through Gulliver, he describes European society to the inhabitants of the lands he visits, in a manner that does not sound complimentary.
However, there is more than one way to interpret Swift's writings. Part of the reading also must take place in the light of his religious and philosophic beliefs, something that neither Gulliver, nor Swift, is too specific about. Swift was a priest, but within the text very little, if anything, is said about the Christian religion. Christianity believes that humanity is naturally corrupt, but that this can be overcome through charity. Both Classical tradition and the Enlightenment believed that people could be perfected through reason. If Swift was clearly in favor of one of these positions, it would make the aim of his satire clearer. It could be that Swift, unlike Gulliver, is critical of the Houyhnhnms, who do not feel passion and do not mourn their dead, as much as he is mocking the Yahoos.
Whatever the final point of Swift's work, the book can still be read as a piece of history, or as a straight adventure story.