Gullivers Travels

Overview

Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World (1726), better known as Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift's satirical novel in four parts, is a book Marie knew in English. (The work and its date: see Wikipedia, «Gulliver's Travels».)

Relevance to Marie

• 7 August 1873 (Vienna). At sixteen she reads «"Gulliver's travels"» from seven to nine in the morning, the title given in English inside the French text (007.0355).
• 4 December 1874. She threatens to keep her family's «esprits oublieux et légers» alert with a «"flapper"» «comme ces hommes de l'île volante dans les Voyages de Gulliver» (027.0157). The flappers belong to Part III, the voyage to Laputa: the absent-minded thinkers of the flying island must be tapped on the mouth and ears with an inflated bladder by a servant before they can speak or listen. Marie keeps the English word.
• 5 September 1875. The same image again: those who «réveille nos sens comme ces hommes avec des baguettes dans l'île flottante de Gulliver» (041.0150, reader footnote 041.0150.1).

Her use of the book shows that she took the flappers as a ready joke about inattentive people, and that she reads English literature in the original.

References in Diary

• First mentioned: 1873-08-07 (007.0355). Also 027.0157 and 041.0150.