Personal Library -- Gulliver's Travels

Author: (British) Swift Yang Jun et al
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-09-01
Features: The ancients said, "Travel ten thousand miles and read ten thousand books." For modern people, traveling ten thousand miles is easy, but reading ten thousand books is difficult. The wheels of technology are sweeping across the world at an astonishing speed. The modern people, busy in front of computers and all kinds of machines all day, have turned the Earth into a village with wires, optical cables, tracks, or air routes. With a click of the mouse, we can paste ourselves anywhere in the world. However, in the face of vast civilizations, lacking the foundation of reading ten thousand books, we not only frequently encounter the awkwardness of "meeting face to face but not recognizing each other," but we also accumulate the strangeness that comes from the depths of our hearts. For this, we long for a deeper understanding, a desire for a connection of the soul; we long for a return to a way of traveling—before traveling ten thousand miles, put a few books in our spiritual backpack to allow our steps and souls to go further. A spiritual journey does not require "writing poems in youth and studying until the hair turns white," nor does it require hanging the head on the beam, stealing light through a wall, or having a red sleeve add fragrance while not letting go of the book. A spiritual journey only requires reading a few classics in the leisure of a moment. Novels, essays, and poems can all be made into soup for the soul; buses, subways, and even the palms of our hands can be our desks. Therefore, we have tailored a "pocket library" for busy urban dwellers. Classics are the soul of the library; easy to absorb is the essence of the library; carrying it with you, reading anytime, anywhere, and in any way is the purpose of the library. The selected works in the library are all the timeless classics that have been refined after exposing themselves to the storms of different civilizations; the illustrations, carefully selected and painstakingly collected from hundreds of rare books and private collections, are a true restoration of the essence of the classics. The small format design makes it as clever as a wallet; the special printing process makes every book "filled with the fragrance of osmanthus." Classics are not afraid of time, but life cannot withstand the erosion of "time flies." The charm of classics is better seen than heard. It is better to use them to mend the gaps in our time, to add value to the fragments of our days; it is better to use on-the-go reading anytime, anywhere, to gather wisdom piece by piece and to perceive life in the spiritual journey. Reading classics, with the least travel expenses, to reach the furthest life.
"Gulliver's Travels" is the masterpiece of the famous 18th-century British satirical writer Jonathan Swift (1667-1745). It is an outstanding satirical novel in the form of a travelogue. The entire book consists of four parts, describing the adventures of Dr. Gulliver, a surgeon, who is shipwrecked ands to Lilliput, Brobdingnag, the Flying Islands, and the Land of the Houyhnhnms. Through fictional plots and exaggerated techniques, the novel mercilessly satirizes and critiques the then British social politics, laws, parliament, competition, military, education, social customs, and even the various vices of all humanity. Since its publication in 1726, the book has been translated into dozens of languages over the past two hundred years, widely circulated, and warmly welcomed by people around the world, making it an immortal masterpiece in the treasure trove of world literature. It is worth mentioning that although "Gulliver's Travels" was warmly received upon its publication, it was fiercely criticized almost as soon as Swift passed away. Swift's deep criticism of the social evils and moral decline of contemporary British society indeed showed a "permanent aversion" to human vices, and we should understand this in light of the specific historical conditions when reading.