How did readers respond when Gulliver’s Travels was first published?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Illustration of Lemuel Gulliver lying on the ground, tied down by tiny Lilliputians, with crowds and small buildings in the background, from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. — Gulliver’s Travels Lemuel Gulliver in Lilliput, illustration from an edition of Jonathan Swift's *Gulliver's Travels*.

When Gulliver’s Travels was first published anonymously in 1726, its success was immediate. The novel was widely embraced by all classes of readers, who found it both entertaining and intriguing.12

The work's popularity was so significant that several reprints, each containing minor textual variations, were issued within just a few months of its initial release. While the book is recognized as one of Jonathan Swift’s most brilliant and controversial satires, its status as a masterpiece and a keystone of English literature was established early on and has endured ever since.21