Gulliver's Travels: A Signature Performance by David Hyde Pierce

By: Jonathan Swift

Narrated by: David Hyde Pierce

Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Four-time Emmy Award winner David Hyde Pierce is famous for playing the lovably self-important Dr. Niles Crane in the hit TV series Frasier. Now, he brings the same wit and charming arrogance to his Signature Classics performance of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.

More than just a mock travel book and fabulous adventure, Gulliver’s Travels is a character study and social satire that skewers politics, science, religion, philosophy, and pretentiousness with a bite and resonance that remains as fresh today as the day it was published. Maybe that’s why it hasn’t been out of print in nearly 300 years.

Set sail with David Hyde Pierce for a smart, fun, new Gulliver’s Travels experience that’s unlike any other. And stay tuned for more one-of-a-kind performances from actors Leelee Sobiesky, Casey Affleck, Tim Curry, and more, only from Audible Signature Classics.

Listen to more Audible Signature Classics.

Public Domain (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Despite Gulliver’s detailed, and sometimes cumbersome, descriptions of strange lands and their inhabitants, Pierce doesn’t miss a beat. His melodic voice wraps perfectly around Swift’s eighteenth-century language. His pronunciations of the imaginative languages are delightful, especially the neighing expressions of the Houyhnhnms, a utopian society of horses. In a book in which the author’s voice comes through on every page, Pierce’s consistently matter-of-fact tone fits Swift’s own. His reading highlights the author’s humor and sarcasm, pulling the listener into this fantastic journey." ( AudioFile)

Spectacular Reading

Tried this book in grade school! Wasn't I precocious? Finally came back and must say this is a great way to experience it. Hyde Pierce is the only narrator to try. He outshines every other option on this or I am sure, any other site. He is perfect in the role and I thank him for his glorius performance. The book gets wearisome near the end, going on a bit long, but I listened almost straight through in 2 sittings, which is a little rare for me. Funny and witty and entertaining. A wholly original idea in its time I expect and one that creators of every kind are still ripping off hundreds of years later. Must have caused a sensation when it came out and rightly so. Still, this will come off as dry to many who do not like older books or subtle styles of humor. Its not hit you in the face with a fish funny or anything. The jokes don't pinch you, you have to pay attention and think a little.

"A real Yahoo in every limb and feature"

After foolishly watching Jack Black's abominable Gulliver's Travels movie on TV, I had to purge myself of the experience by re-reading Jonathan Swift's original novel. The imaginative, humorous, and scathing depiction of human nature and civilization in Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726) set me right with the world. Ah, it's salutary to be reminded that we are all Yahoos! The novel uses the device of an Everyman traveling to imaginary cultures and living among their fantastic denizens to reflect back on our own cultures and selves in quite humbling ways. Swift's first person narrator and alter-ego, Lemuel Gulliver, is an English ship's surgeon who likes his country but can't resist traveling. Over sixteen years, by chance he ends up in various lands hitherto unknown to Europeans, among them Lilliput (whose people are about six inches tall and have accordingly tiny flora, fauna, and things), Brobdingnag (whose people are about sixty feet tall and have accordingly giant flora, fauna, and things), Laputa (whose people live on an adamantine island that floats in the sky), Luggnagg (among whose people are a handful of senile immortals), and the country of the Houyhnhnms (whose people are a race of wise, reasonable, and clean-living horses).

Swift makes the major places and peoples feel "real" and interesting on their own terms. He imagines neat details about what it would be like to be a giant among the Lilliputians (e.g., extinguishing a palatial fire by urinating on it) and a small animal among the Brobdingnagians (e.g., climbing up and down ladders to read giant books). He entertainingly extrapolates to absurd extremes the Laputians' excessive pursuit of mathematics, music, and innovation, rendering the learned men so engrossed in their speculations that servants must "flap" them on the eyes or ears or mouth to get them to attend when something vital to see or hear or say turns up. And he presents the Houyhnhnms as perfectly reason-based beings, with obvious merits (health, chastity, honesty, loyalty, etc.) and less obvious demerits (a lack of sympathy for the presence of a certain Yahoo from abroad).

At the same time, Swift uses all those places to critique 18th-century England and Europe in such a way that applies to our own 21st century world, because, after all people are people no matter when or where they live. He satirizes our political factions (the Lilliputian court is divided between High-Heel and Low-Heel wearing men), ambitious gymnastics (Lilliputians who want high positions in court must dance on a tight rope), and religious disputes (Lilliputians who break an egg at the small end persecute those who break it at the big end and both sides invoke their holy book). He satirizes our complicated law system and career military system through the Brobdingnagian law against the interpretation of laws (which may be no longer than the 22 letters in their alphabet) and custom of fielding an army as needed without pay. And he satirizes our dysfunctional governments by having a learned man suggest that because the human body and the body politic are equivalent, all Senators should be dosed with Palliatives, Laxatives, and the like, which would beget unanimity and shorten debates. After Gulliver interviews spirits of the dead raised for him by a necromancer of Glubdugdribgub, he condemns "modern History," by which "the World had been misled by prostitute Writers" who have made cowards, fools, and traitors appear to be heroic leaders and obscured the fact that the only successful "great Enterprizes and Revolutions" in human history have arisen from "contemptible Accidents."

When among the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver discourses on the unworthy causes of war among European nations and lists the weapons devised by humans to kill and maim as many people and destroy as many cities as possible. He tells his equine master about lawyers, "a Society of men" paid to "wholly confound. . . the very Essence of Truth and Falsehood, or Right and Wrong." In explaining money, he points out "that the Bulk of our People were forced to live miserably, by labouring every Day for small Wages, to make a few live plentifully." One of the funniest moments in the novel is when Gulliver lists the many civilized Yahoo vices and crimes he is free from while living among the Houyhnhnms, of which the following is a small sample: "here were no Gibers, Censurers, Backbiters, Pickpockets, Highwaymen, House-breakers, Attorneys, Bawds, Buffoons, Gamesters, Politicians, Wits, Splenetics, tedious Talkers, Controvertists, Ravishers, Murderers, Robbers, Virtuosos . . . no Lords, Fiddlers, Judges, or Dancing-Masters." His master's conclusion is that we use our small share of reason "to aggravate our natural Corruptions, and to acquire new ones, which Nature had not given us."

So urgent is Swift's need to puncture our pride that excrement and urine play comically gross roles in each of the Four Parts of his novel, from embarrassing accounts of how he "discharged the Necessities of Nature" in Lilliput and Brobdingnag to moments like meeting a scientist who is obsessively researching a way to return human ordure to its original food content.

I found David Hyde Pierce to be a capable but not wonderful reader with one exception: he pronounces Houyhnhnm words with a charming hint of a neigh.

Readers who want plenty of suspenseful and exciting action and adventure might do well to read a different book. But readers who love the English language beautifully, bitterly, imaginatively, and humorously employed by a keen (if misanthropic) observer of humankind would like Gulliver's Travels. Gulliver explains that he could overlook human vices and follies if only people would not be so proud of themselves. If you feel proud to be human ("the most pernicious Race of little odious Vermin" according to the Brobdingnag king), reading this book ought to take you down a peg or two.

Oh! What fun!

This story is amazing. No wonder it has lasted for nearly 300 years. The voice performance was also riveting. This is a very fun adventure novel. It made me wish I could go on sea voyages and land in strange places. The main characters manners are also very charming. I wish people still behaved that way.

Ahead of its time- and a great reader

Somehow I missed reading this classic- though I knew much of the story. This unabridged version is quite good though I thought the story got better as it went on. David Hyde Pierce does an amazing job and his BBC English accent never faltered nor intruded. I’ll never look at Yahoo the same way...

Brilliant Storyline & Unforgettable Performance

David Hyde Pierce delivers the best reading of any audio book on Earth.
The realistic story of Gulliver's Travels documents the heroic journey of England's most accomplished explorer. Jonathon Swift achieves one of the greatest works in European history with a lightness and humor so grand, it will keep you engaged and laughing during the full experience.

ok, I get it

now I know went this is a classic: great story, wonderfully written. throw in the satire about British rule like the cherry on top. Reader is especially good.

Outstanding!

I read this classic many years ago. I enjoyed it enough to read it again, but opted for an audio version. David Hyde Pierce brought this story to life! His use of different inflections and pacing made the satire very humerous and fun.

I hope to find more books with DHP as narrator.

Different Than I Remember

I remember reading this in elementary school, at least part 1, which is fairly common it seems. I understand why it was so popular at the time it was written as I’m sure the language and satire was easier to follow and appeal to, but I felt many times that I was lost or disinterested. Other times I was guffawing because of Pierce’s reading. This book probably requires a class or group to discuss as I ended up just reading online about what some of the absurd things meant or satirized.

It started out so good

Much longer than it needed to be. Had the book ended after part 2, I would have rated it 5 stars.

Strangely current in political events to this day

The book is an outlandish tale of fantasy veiling a shrewd political satire, critical to the core.