A keystone of English literature, "Gullivers Travels" was one of the books that gave birth to the novel form, though it did not yet have the rules of the genre as an organizing tool. A parody of the then popular travel narrative, Gulliver's Travels combines adventure with savage satire, mocking English customs and the politics of the day.
Swift's masterpiece was originally published in 1726 without its author's name under the title "Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World". This work, which is told in Gulliver's "own words," is the most brilliant as well as the most bitter and controversial of his satires.