Generations of schoolchildren raised on the first Book of
             "Gulliver's Travels" have loved it as a delightful visit to a
             fantasy kingdom full of creatures they can relate to_little
             creatures, like themselves. Few casual readers look deeply enough
             to recognize the satire just below the surface. But Jonathan Swift
             was one of the great satirists of his or any other age, and
             "Gulliver's Travels" is surely the apex of his art.
             "Gulliver's Travels" tells the story of Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's
             surgeon who has a number of rather extraordinary adventures,
             comprising four sections or "Books." In Book I, his ship is blown
             off course and Gulliver is shipwrecked. He wakes up flat on his
             back on the shore, and discovers that he cannot move; he has been
             bound to the earth by thousands of tiny crisscrossing threads. He
             soon discovers that his captors are tiny men about six inches
             high, natives of the land of Lilliput. He is released from his
             prone position only to be confined in a ruined temple by ninety-
             one tiny but unbreakable chains. In spite of his predicament,
             Gulliver is at first impressed by the intelligence and
             organizational abilities of the Lilliputians.
             In this section, Swift introduces us to the essential conflict of
             Book I: the naive, ordinary, but compassionate "Everyman" at the
             mercy of an army of people with "small minds". Because they are
             technologically adept, Gulliver does not yet see how small-minded
             In Chapter II, the Emperor of Lilliput arrives to take a look at
             the "giant", and Gulliver is equally impressed by the Emperor and
             his courtiers. They are handsome and richly dressed, and the
             Emperor attempts to speak to Gulliver civilly (although they are
             unable to understand one another). The Emperor decrees that every
             morning Gulliver is to be delivered "six beeves, forty sheep, and
             other victuals," along with as much bread and wine as he needs,
             his basic needs are to be ...