Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift

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Sources: Literary Criticism & Interpretation: Houyhnhnm Land

As the conclusion and climax of the Travels, Gulliver's fourth voyage is the key to the rest of the work and perhaps to Swift himself. The voyage to Houyhnhnm Land is also the most troubling to readers and critics. The persistent simple approach is that Swift shared Gulliver's views and intended the Yahoos to represent humanity as it really is and that the Houyhnhnms represent a truly superior way of life. In this light many have rejected Swift as a misanthrope.
"In this last part of his imaginary travels, Swift has indulged in a misanthropy that is intolerable. The representation which he has given us of human nature, must terrify, and even debase the mind of the reader who views it." Lord Orrery 1752.
On the other hand, there is a growing awareness that Swift's portrait of the Houyhnhnms was also harsh and that he did not share Gulliver's infatuation with his hosts. The possibility that Swift was presenting us with two untenable choices greatly changes we might understand the work.

Be warned: Swift gives nothing away and conclusive answers may not be forthcoming. As you can see from the following list of sources critics have not been daunted and the debate has been long and strenuous.

Foster, Milton Painter, 1921-
A Casebook on Gulliver Among the Houyhnhnms. New York, Crowell [1963, c1966].
excellent introduction, providing a selection of essays demonstrating the key approaches the fourth voyage over a period of 250 years with the text of Part IV. Additional items not included here follow below.

Curll, Edmund, 1675-1747.
The kingdom of horses. : Being a key to Gulliver's voyage to the Houyhnhnms. : In a fourth letter to Dean Swift. London: : [Henry Curll], 1726.

Book 4, Hard and Soft
"In a now classic essay, "Gulliver's Fourth Voyage: 'Hard' and 'Soft' Schools of Interpretation" ... James L. Clifford describes what he sees as a struggle between two approaches to the last book of Gulliver's Travels..."

Anderson, William S.
"Paradise Gained by Horace, Lost by Gulliver." English Satire and the Satiric Tradition. Oxford. 1984, p. 151-166.

Falzarano, James V.
"Adam in Houyhnhnmland: The Presence of Paradise Lost." Milton Studies. 21(1985) p. 179-197.

Schakel, Peter J.
"Big Men and Little Men, Houyhnhnms and Yahoos: Structural Parallels and Meaning in Gulliver's Travels." in Approaches to Teaching Swift's Gulliver's Travels. New York. 1988, p. 30-36.
Approaches to Teaching World Lit. 18.

Piper, William Bowman.
"Gulliver's Account of Houyhnhnmland as a Philosophical Treatise." in The Genres of Gulliver's Travels. Newark. 1990, p. 179-202.

Bowden, Betsy.
"Before the Houyhnhnms: Rational Horses in the Late Seventeenth Century," Notes and Queries, 39 (237):1 (1992), p. 38-40.

Castle, Terry.
"Why the Houyhnhnms Don't Write: Swift, Satire, and the Fear of the Text" in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels: Complete, Authoritative Text with Biographical and Historical Contexts, Critical History, and Essays from Five Contemporary Critical Perspectives. Boston. 1995, p. 379-95.
Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism.

McNeill, John Dylan
"Our Fallen Tongue": Jonathan Swift's Indictment of Humanity in Part IV of Gulliver's Travels, "A Voyage To the Country of the Houyhnhnms"

Thickstun, Margaret Olofson.
The Puritan Origins of Gulliver's Religious Conversion in Houyhnhnmland. SEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, 37: 3 (1997 Summer), p. 517-34.
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compiled by Lee Jaffe, Comments or questions?
updated: 1 December 1999
Copyright 1999