Gulliver's Travels: Jonathan Swift (Penguin Classics)
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Obwohl es gar nicht so viele Seiten hat, habe ich Monate für „Gulliver‘s Travels“ gebraucht und es dann heute endlich beendet. Eigentlich fand ich es gar nicht so schlecht, aber ich brauchte wirklich immer enorm viel Ruhe, um es zu lesen, und ich musste mich sehr darauf einlassen können. Dann war es jedoch wirklich gut. Und tatsächlich ist Gullivers letzte Reise die interessanteste - und von der hatte ich bisher nichts gehört. 😅
2,5/5 stars This started out really good, but then I felt my attention slipping, not caring anymore. I appreciate the author's imagination and taking into the time in which this was written into consideration, it's really amazing. However, it could be shorter.
As I've said before, I won't shit on classics just because I didn't enjoy them enough for a five star-rating. They're classics for a reason, but sometimes just not for me. This story is surprisingly easy to read despite being roughly 300 years old. It's funny at times and definitely really clever, but I felt like it dragged at some bits.
Der Weg zu diesem Buch war, wie so oft, der des puren Challenge-Zufalls. Aber, wie auch sehr oft, war es eine wunderbar positive Überraschung. Hinweis: Ich habe die klassische Version gehört, keine gekürzte für Kinder. Aber Gullivers Abenteuer sind in einer vereinfachten Form definitiv ein Tipp fürs Kinderzimmer. Wie oft brachte mich dieses Buch zum Lachen. Aber meistens wurde ich dann richtig gut unterhalten, wenn Swift durch Gulliver einen teilweise fast schon zynischen Blick auf die damalige englische Gesellschaft wirft. Wahrscheinlich war auch genau das seine Intention. So oft, wie hier Vergleiche zu Ungunsten der Engländer gezogen werden - welch grandiose Abrechnung! Durch die der Leser bzw. Hörer aus dem 21. Jahrhundert auch gleich noch einen guten Einblick in ein vergangenes England erhält. Ich habe zehn wundervolle Stunden auf Reisen verbracht, die sich zwar grundsätzlich alle im Ablauf ähnlich waren, aber wen stört das schon, wenn der Rest so phantasievoll ausgearbeitet ist?
I have to admit that in my ignorance only one thing popped into my mind whenever I heard Gulliver: Lilliput. So I was surprised about him spending only a short time with the Lilliputians but also travelled to other islands - such with giants living on them (okay, that one was a peninsula), with magicians living on them, to flying islands and to the Houyhnhnms (my favorites!). I definitely will give horses a second sight now! The story of Gulliver's travels that Swift layed on top of his social/governmental critique was interesting, sometimes thrilling, sometimes not so much but all the time enjoyable to read. I unfortunately can't say the same about the actual intention of the book (and I'm sure that a big reason for this is my not so good knowledge of the English kingdom of the early 18th century). I had the feeling that the author was just whining in big parts and complaining about everything. Still, he is probably right in many ideas and quite a number of them can be transformed into 21st century without changing them (My favorite quote for example is that: "If a prince sends forces into a nation where the people are poor and ignorant, he may lawfully put half of them to death, and make slaves of the rest, in order to civilize and reduce them from their barbarous way of living." p. 271f. - doesn't that sound familiar?!). We shouldn't think ourselves so important, we shouldn't lie, we shouldn't harm anyone else...and we should be aware of one or the other horse out there that's much smarter than we are :) But, dear Mr. Swift, I am afraid you have some serious issues with women...what did they do to you? And why do you have to keep talking about excrements and urinating so often? I would have liked to hear Freud's opinion on your book - giant Gulliver letting down his trousers and peeing on the empress's rooms to prevent them from burning to ashes...isn't this a little too obvious?
Very dull at first. Gets better in the second half, where the settings are more interesting and weird. Some funny bits overall; especially liked the necromancy part, but mostly it’s just repeating the same joke over and over again.
Description
Posts
Obwohl es gar nicht so viele Seiten hat, habe ich Monate für „Gulliver‘s Travels“ gebraucht und es dann heute endlich beendet. Eigentlich fand ich es gar nicht so schlecht, aber ich brauchte wirklich immer enorm viel Ruhe, um es zu lesen, und ich musste mich sehr darauf einlassen können. Dann war es jedoch wirklich gut. Und tatsächlich ist Gullivers letzte Reise die interessanteste - und von der hatte ich bisher nichts gehört. 😅
2,5/5 stars This started out really good, but then I felt my attention slipping, not caring anymore. I appreciate the author's imagination and taking into the time in which this was written into consideration, it's really amazing. However, it could be shorter.
As I've said before, I won't shit on classics just because I didn't enjoy them enough for a five star-rating. They're classics for a reason, but sometimes just not for me. This story is surprisingly easy to read despite being roughly 300 years old. It's funny at times and definitely really clever, but I felt like it dragged at some bits.
Der Weg zu diesem Buch war, wie so oft, der des puren Challenge-Zufalls. Aber, wie auch sehr oft, war es eine wunderbar positive Überraschung. Hinweis: Ich habe die klassische Version gehört, keine gekürzte für Kinder. Aber Gullivers Abenteuer sind in einer vereinfachten Form definitiv ein Tipp fürs Kinderzimmer. Wie oft brachte mich dieses Buch zum Lachen. Aber meistens wurde ich dann richtig gut unterhalten, wenn Swift durch Gulliver einen teilweise fast schon zynischen Blick auf die damalige englische Gesellschaft wirft. Wahrscheinlich war auch genau das seine Intention. So oft, wie hier Vergleiche zu Ungunsten der Engländer gezogen werden - welch grandiose Abrechnung! Durch die der Leser bzw. Hörer aus dem 21. Jahrhundert auch gleich noch einen guten Einblick in ein vergangenes England erhält. Ich habe zehn wundervolle Stunden auf Reisen verbracht, die sich zwar grundsätzlich alle im Ablauf ähnlich waren, aber wen stört das schon, wenn der Rest so phantasievoll ausgearbeitet ist?
I have to admit that in my ignorance only one thing popped into my mind whenever I heard Gulliver: Lilliput. So I was surprised about him spending only a short time with the Lilliputians but also travelled to other islands - such with giants living on them (okay, that one was a peninsula), with magicians living on them, to flying islands and to the Houyhnhnms (my favorites!). I definitely will give horses a second sight now! The story of Gulliver's travels that Swift layed on top of his social/governmental critique was interesting, sometimes thrilling, sometimes not so much but all the time enjoyable to read. I unfortunately can't say the same about the actual intention of the book (and I'm sure that a big reason for this is my not so good knowledge of the English kingdom of the early 18th century). I had the feeling that the author was just whining in big parts and complaining about everything. Still, he is probably right in many ideas and quite a number of them can be transformed into 21st century without changing them (My favorite quote for example is that: "If a prince sends forces into a nation where the people are poor and ignorant, he may lawfully put half of them to death, and make slaves of the rest, in order to civilize and reduce them from their barbarous way of living." p. 271f. - doesn't that sound familiar?!). We shouldn't think ourselves so important, we shouldn't lie, we shouldn't harm anyone else...and we should be aware of one or the other horse out there that's much smarter than we are :) But, dear Mr. Swift, I am afraid you have some serious issues with women...what did they do to you? And why do you have to keep talking about excrements and urinating so often? I would have liked to hear Freud's opinion on your book - giant Gulliver letting down his trousers and peeing on the empress's rooms to prevent them from burning to ashes...isn't this a little too obvious?
Very dull at first. Gets better in the second half, where the settings are more interesting and weird. Some funny bits overall; especially liked the necromancy part, but mostly it’s just repeating the same joke over and over again.