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Lemuel Gulliver is the protagonist and first-person narrator of the 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels, created by Jonathan Swift.
Fictional biography
According to Swift's novel, Gulliver was born in Nottinghamshire c. 1661, where his father had a small estate; the Gulliver family is said to have originated in Oxfordshire, however. He studied for three years (c. 1675-1678) at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, leaving to become an apprentice to an eminent London surgeon; after four years (c. 1678-1682), he left to study at the University of Leiden, a prominent Dutch medical school. He also educated himself in navigation and mathematics, leaving the University around 1685.
Prior to the voyages whose adventures are recounted in the novel, he traveled less remarkably to the Levant (c. 1685-1688), and later to the East Indies and West Indies (c. 1690-1696). Between his travels he married Miss Mary Burton (c. 1688), daughter of a London hosier. In his education and travels he acquired some knowledge of "High and Low Dutch, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and Lingua Franca"; he later states that he "understood (Portuguese) very well".
Gulliver's remarkable travels begin in 1699, and ended toward the end of 1715, with Gulliver completely changed in personality, having become a recluse who was offended by contact with human beings. He claims to have written his memoirs five years following his last return to England, i.e., in 1720 or 1721. The frontispiece to the 1726 edition of Gulliver's Travels shows a fictitious engraving of Gulliver at the age of 58 (i.e., c. 1719). An additional preface, attributed to Gulliver, added to a revised version of the work is given the fictional date of April 2, 1727, at which time Gulliver would have been about 65 or 66 years old.
In sequels and spinoffs
In the 2007 comic The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier by Alan Moore, Gulliver is the leader of the second incarnation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in the 18th century, which then consists of The Scarlet Pimpernel and his wife Lady Blakeney, Fanny Hill (with whom Gulliver has been romantically involved), Dr Syn aka The Scarecrow, Nathaniel Bumppo and Orlando. Gulliver leads the League until his death of testicular cancer in 1799 and is buried in Lilliput.
This version of Gulliver is evidently at least a generation younger than Swift's Gulliver; his dates have evidently been shifted forward in time to allow him to interact with other fictional characters of the later 18th century.
Source
- Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
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