Jonathan Swift's Book, "Gulliver's Travels", Turned 300 Years Old Last Month
canopic jug writes:
The Smithsonian is reporting that Jonathan Swift's satire, Gulliver's Travels, turned 300 years old last month:
Since it was first published in October 1726, the novel purporting to tell the fantastical travel tales of Captain Lemuel Gulliver has never left print. An exhibition of rare editions and adaptations in Dublin celebrates Swift's most famous work
Also covered at RTE.Being a satire on human nature and politics, it is still most unfortunately relevant. There was a symposium in London on the book back in September.
These provocations are front and center in "Gulliver at 300," an exhibition at Trinity College Dublin, Swift's alma matter. The show, which is also viewable online, brings together more than 100 versions of the story, from early editions and subsequent spin-offs to the many artworks it inspired.
"We have hundreds of editions and popularizations of Gulliver's Travels in the collection ... from the 1726 edition, right up to the 21st century," Stephanie Breen, the exhibition's co-curator, tells RTE's Aaron McElroy. "We showcase the work of the printers, engravers and illustrators who have responded to Gulliver's Travels over the last 300 years."
Highlights include the only known surviving copy of an abridgement to the novel, titled The Travels of Lemuel Gulliver,printed in Dublin in 1761; several 18th-century publications, not written by Swift, that sought to expand the world of Gulliver (what might be considered fan fiction today); a comic adaptation; as well as pop-up books, ephemeral booklets and other valuable deluxe editions.
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