Best known as the author of
Gulliver’s Travels , Jonathan Swift is one of literature’s great satirists. Born and educated in Ireland, Swift became a politician and clergyman in England, where he wrote essays, pamphlets, poems, and fiction that addressed the political issues and social conditions of his time. In
Gulliver’s Travels , he introduced the allegorical settings of Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the island of the Houyhnhnms, as well as the term ‘yahoos’ in a playful, but dark, satirical reflection of humankind. This addition to
Bloom’s Classic Critical Views
includes a chronology, an index, and an introductory essay by Yale University professor Harold Bloom.