Jonathan Swift

Context:

Referenced as a comparison when discussing how Guillotin's proposal for a beheading machine was seen as ludicrous, comparing it to 'the scientist in Gulliver's Travels who are trying to extract sunbeams from cucumbers.'

Context:

Mentioned (as 'Gulliver's Troubles') as possibly one of the top four books read by British children as late as 1940

Context:

Referred to humorously as 'Gulliver's Troubles' by Dominic Sandbrook, who notes the amusing circularity that Bacon's novel about an island of scientists inspired the Royal Society, which in turn inspired Swift's satirical island of scientists in Gulliver's Travels—showing how the Atlantis concept kept feeding back into literature.

Context:

Mentioned in passing when discussing what happened after the English Civil War period - Dominic asks why people stopped fighting and started 'going to coffeehouses and talking about the South Sea bubble and reading Gulliver's Travels' instead.