Gulliver's Travels to the Country of the Houyhnhnms 7 September 1710 – 2 July 1715
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Gulliver returns to sea as the captain of a 35 ton merchantman as he is bored with his employment as a surgeon. On this voyage he is forced to find new additions to his crew who he believes to have turned the rest of the crew against him. The pirates then mutiny and after keeping him contained for some time resolve to leave him on the first piece of land they come across and continue as pirates. |
Gulliver describes the life with Yahoos & Houyhnhnms
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Gulliver is is abandoned in a landing boat and comes first upon a race of hideous deformed creatures to which he conceives a violent antipathy. Shortly thereafter he meets a horse and comes to understand that the horses (in their language Houyhnhnm or "the perfection of nature") are the rulers and the deformed creatures ("Yahoos") are human beings in their base form. Gulliver becomes a member of the horse's household, and comes to both admire and emulate the Houyhnhnms and their lifestyle, rejecting humans as merely Yahoos endowed with some semblance of reason which they only use to exacerbate and add to the vices Nature gave them.
However, an Assembly of the Houyhnhnms rules that Gulliver, a Yahoo with some semblance of reason, is a danger to their civilization and he is expelled. He is then rescued, against his will, by a Portuguese ship, and is surprised to see that Captain Pedro de Mendez, a Yahoo, is a wise, courteous and generous person. He returns to his home in England, but he is unable to reconcile himself to living among Yahoos and becomes a recluse, remaining in his house, largely avoiding his family and his wife, and spending several hours a day speaking with the horses in his stables. |
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Gulliver's Travels to the Country of the Houyhnhnms - Chapter Summary
CHAPTER I.
Gulliver sets out as captain of a ship. His men conspire against him, confine him a long time to his cabin, and set him on shore in an unknown land. He travels up into the country. The Yahoos, a strange sort of animal, described. Gulliver meets two Houyhnhnms.
CHAPTER II.
Gulliver conducted by a Houyhnhnm to his house. The house described. Gulliver’s reception. The food of the Houyhnhnms. Gulliver in distress for want of meat. Is at last relieved. His manner of feeding in this country.
CHAPTER III.
Gulliver studies to learn the language. The Houyhnhnm, his master, assists in teaching him. The language described. Several Houyhnhnms of quality come out of curiosity to see Gulliver. He gives his master a short account of his voyage.
CHAPTER IV.
The Houyhnhnm’s notion of truth and falsehood. Gulliver’s discourse disapproved by his master. Gulliver gives a more particular account of himself, and the accidents of his voyage.
CHAPTER V.
Gulliver at his master’s command, informs him of the state of England. The causes of war among the princes of Europe. Gulliver begins to explain the English constitution.
CHAPTER VI.
A continuation of the state of England under Queen Anne. The character of a first minister of state in European courts.
CHAPTER VII.
Gulliver’s great love of his native country. His master’s observations upon the constitution and administration of England, as described by Gulliver, with parallel cases and comparisons. His master’s observations upon human nature.
CHAPTER VIII.
Gulliver relates several particulars of the Yahoos. The great virtues of the Houyhnhnms. The education and exercise of their youth. Their general assembly.
CHAPTER IX.
A grand debate at the general assembly of the Houyhnhnms, and how it was determined. The learning of the Houyhnhnms. Their buildings. Their manner of burials. The defectiveness of their language.
CHAPTER X.
Gulliver’s economy, and happy life, among the Houyhnhnms. His great improvement in virtue by conversing with them. Their conversations. Gulliver has notice given him by his master, that he must depart from the country. He falls into a swoon for grief; but submits. He contrives and finishes a canoe by the help of a fellow-servant, and puts to sea at a venture.
CHAPTER XI.
Gulliver’s dangerous voyage. He arrives at New Holland, hoping to settle there. Is wounded with an arrow by one of the natives. Is seized and carried by force into a Portuguese ship. The great civilities of the captain. Gulliver arrives at England.
CHAPTER XII.
Gulliver’s veracity. His design in publishing this work. His censure of those travellers who swerve from the truth. Gulliver clears himself from any sinister ends in writing. An objection answered. The method of planting colonies. His native country commended. The right of the crown to those countries described by Gulliver is justified. The difficulty of conquering them. Gulliver takes his last leave of the reader; proposes his manner of living for the future; gives good advice, and concludes.
