When is a children’s book not a children’s book? When it was written for adults, but “adopted” over time as a children’s classic.
One famous example of an adult work “adopted” by children is Gulliver’s Travels, the subject of a recent Curator’s Choice program at the Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books.
Gulliver’s Travels was first published in 1726 as Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. By Lemuel Gulliver, first a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships. It was an adult satire targeting English society and politics.
The author, Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), had it published anonymously for fear of persecution. The book was an immediate bestseller — the first printing sold out within a week.
Although filled with contemporary allusions and biting satire, the book appealed to children from its very beginnings for its depth of imagination, absurd humour and fantastic occurrences.
Francis Newbery, nephew of celebrated 18th-century publisher John Newbery printed this children’s abridgement in 1776. This is a later edition (ca. 1795) published by Francis’s widow Elizabeth. It contains the first two of Gulliver’s voyages.
In Swift’s original, Gulliver undertakes four voyages. During each voyage he meets with calamity — shipwreck, storms, pirates, mutiny — then arrives at an unknown land peopled by strange inhabitants.
This 1805 edition for children was published by Benjamin Tabart in four volumes. It contains all four voyages in abridged form.
Osborne holds many children’s abridgements and retellings spanning the 18th to the 21st centuries. Many of these contain Gulliver’s first, or first and second voyages only.
Don’t forget spin-offs and adaptations. Two examples of “Big Little-type” books from the 1930s offer “twisted” versions of Swift’s classic.
Should you be interested in following Gulliver’s extraordinary adventures more closely, copies are available to borrow through the Toronto Public Library.
