Each volume provides discussions of the literary and historical background of novels from various cultures and time periods. Includes concise synopses of plot, characters and themes, a brief author biography, discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance, and excerpted criticism.

"Gulliver is passionate about travel. In his yearning to discover the world, he will have many great adventures which will take him to extraordinary places where he will meet the most unusual beings: the tiny Lilliputians, the giants of Brobdingnag, some foolish wise men who live on a flying island, and some beings who, without being so, are most human they can be"--

The voyages of an eighteenth-century Englishman carry him to such strange places as Lilliput, where people are six inches tall, and Brobdingnag, a land peopled by giants.

The wayward traveler -- Lemuel Gulliver -- ends up on a series of bizarrely populated islands. First he is a giant among little people, but then sees the situation reversed when he's surrounded by giants twelve times his size. Next he finds himself in the clouds, in a society of devoted but ultimately hapless mathematicians. Lastly, his journey brings him to an island where incredibly noble horses must deal with a race of uncouth, reviled ape-men:...

On a voyage in the South Seas, an Englishman finds himself shipwrecked in Lilliput, a land of people only six inches high.