Showing results by author "Jonathan Swift" in All Categories

A Signature Performance: Four-time Emmy Award winner David Hyde Pierce delivers an air of lovable self-importance in his rendition of the classic social satire that remains as fresh today as the day it was published.

A comprehensive collection of classic works from some of Ireland’s finest authors, adapted as full-cast BBC radio dramas Ireland has a long tradition of storytelling, from ancient myths and mediaeval folk tales to 21st century bestsellers, Nobel Prize laureates and Booker Prize winners. Though...

This set includes five tales of extraordinary heroism, marvelous intrigue, and exceptional courage that have inspired and amazed people for generations.

The Ultimate Classics Collection: Volume Three is the third instalment of our wide-ranging classic collections. Volume Three features 10 essential works that reach further back into early Greek and Italian stories from Dante, Machiavelli, and Homer, as-well as comparatively modern works from Daniel Defoe, Henry David Thoreau, and others. Read by a cast of incredible narrators including David Rintoul; Daniel Weyman; Rachel Atkins; and more, this is a chance to expand your listening by going back to some of the earliest pieces of classic literature.

Brought to you by Penguin. A wickedly clever satire uses comic inversions to offer telling insights into the nature of man and society, the Penguin Classics edition of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels is edited with an introduction and notes by Robert Demaria, Jr. Gulliver's Travels describes...

Andrew Sachs reads Jonathan Swift's humorous and unforgettable tale of a strange man in some very strange lands. Gulliver had always wanted to see the world. But whenever he steps on board a ship, bad luck always seems near at hand. He is shipwrecked, abandoned, marooned and mutinied against - and each time lands in a strange and curious place.

Lemuel Gulliver, a slightly staid ship’s doctor, relates the tales of his astonishing travels. He encounters the tiny, warring Lilliputians; the giant, sceptical Brobdingnagians; the ludicrously intellectual Laputans; and the idealistic - if rather stolid - Houyhnhnms and their bestial servants, the Yahoos. An immediate best seller when it was first published in 1726, Gulliver’s Travels has remained a favourite ever since. It was an attack on the politics and society of Swift’s day, but it is also a polemical, inventive, surreal, vitriolic, and wonderfully imaginative masterpiece.

Penguin Classics presents Jonathan Swift's inventive classic, Gulliver's Travels, adapted for audio and now available as a digital download as part of the Penguin English Library series. Read by Hugh Laurie, star of the hit TV series House. 'Fifteen hundred of the Emperor's largest horses, each...

This curated collection brings together five iconic works from some of Ireland's greatest writers, each offering a distinct voice and vision that helped shape modern Irish literature. From gothic horror to modernist experimentation, biting satire to fading aristocracy, these novels capture the complexities of identity, society, and imagination across centuries.

This curated collection brings together five iconic works from some of Ireland's greatest writers, each offering a distinct voice and vision that helped shape modern Irish literature. From gothic horror to modernist experimentation, biting satire to fading aristocracy, these novels capture the complexities of identity, society, and imagination across centuries.

Here, in this unusual collection, are some of the greatest essays in Western literature. Witty, informative and imaginative, the topics vary from starvation in Ireland, fine China, the extension of railways in the Lake District, and the tombs in Westminster Abbey. A little like after-dinner monologues, they are passing thoughts expressed as journalism. Neville Jason reads with urbane clarity.

Unabridged readings of five gripping adventure stories This thrilling anthology contains five action-packed tales of incredible journeys, a murderous treasure hunt, invaders from outer space and international espionage - all read in full by some of the very best voice actors. With over 33 hours...

The Irish Classics Collection is a wide-ranging collection of 9 classic works of fiction and poetry by Irish authors, read by an award-winning cast of narrators. Included here are stories by some of the greatest writers of all time, including James Joyce; Bram Stoker; Oscar Wilde; W.B. Yeats; Elizabeth Bowen; and more.

A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public, commonly referred to as A Modest Proposal, is a Juvenalian satirical essay written and published anonymously by Jonathan Swift in 1729. Swift suggests in his essay that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling children as food. By doing this he mocks the authority of the British officials.

Swift's allegorical satire about religion and politics follows the lives of three brothers, Martin, Peter, and Jack, each of who represents a faction of the Christian faith - Anglicanism, Roman Catholicism, and the dissenting faiths, respectively. Each brother inherits a coat (representing religious practice) from their father (God) on the condition that they do not change it. But instead the three quarrelsome youths disobey their father and change their coats beyond recognition.

When Lemuel Gulliver awakens on the shores of Lilliput, he finds himself tied down by tiny, power-hungry inhabitants who see him as both a marvel and a threat. Jonathan Swift’s "Gulliver's Travels" is not just a whimsical adventure; it’s a sharp, satirical exploration of human nature and society's absurdities. As Gulliver navigates through bizarre lands—from the miniature Lilliputians to the colossal Brobdingnagians—he confronts the extremes of power, pride, and morality. Each encounter challenges his understanding of civilization, revealing the dark undercurrents of human behavior and...

Jonathan Swift almost defines satire in his biting and brutal pamphlet in which he suggests that poor (Catholic) Irish families should fatten up their children and sell them to the rich (Protestant) land owners, thus solving the twin problems of starving children and poverty in one blow. When the "Proposal" was published in 1729, Swift was quickly attacked, and even accused of barbarity - the exact state the "Proposal" was written to expose.

Embark on an unforgettable journey with Gullivers Travels, where the extraordinary meets the absurd. Follow Lemuel Gulliver as he navigates fantastical lands and encounters peculiar civilizations that challenge his perceptions of humanity and society. This satirical adventure invites listeners to reflect on the complexities of human nature while enjoying a rich tapestry of imagination and wit.

Lemuel Gulliver, English surgeon turned ship captain, embarks on four fantastic voyages, each a clash with strange beings and cultures - from the eccentric to the odious. Island by island, he meets the savage but tiny Lilliputians, the hideous Yahoos, a stable of talking horses, a race of decrepit immortals, and the ghosts of Julius Caesar and Homer.

Lemuel Gulliver sets out on a series of travels, but each time he finds himself shipwrecked in new and unfamiliar lands. And how unfamiliar! In Lilliput, everyone is tiny, and it takes thousands of them to capture him; in Brobdingnag, they’re huge and treat him as a sort of living toy; in Laputa, they live on a floating island inventing impossibly mad projects; and the Houyhnhnms are horses! But through all his adventures, Gulliver learns to see humans in a different way, too.