Gulliver's Travels Illustration

As a group, we decided on Sarah Willis' book club idea Gulliver's Travels. This satire reflected many great ideas of romanticism, including the ability to question the powers that be and to explore the natural world around us, which Lemuel Gulliver does in his many adventures. Since the most famous of Gulliver's scenes is when he is among the small people, I chose to illustrate a different "travel" of dear Gulliver.

Gulliver Speaking with his Houyhnhnms Master.

Click for larger version. Created with Photoshop.

In part four, Gulliver arrives in the land of the Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos. The Houyhnhnms are the masters and they resemble horses. The yahoos, who are humanlike, are the very dumb slaves to the Houyhnhnms. Gulliver is discovered and well liked by a Houyhnhnm, who becomes his master. He learns their language and begins to teach his master of England and of the affairs between different countries where he comes from. This is a scene of Gulliver explaining to the Houyhnhnm the politics of his hometown. I imagined his master to be quite wealthy and to have Yahoos servants adoring him at all times. This is not specifically described, but I felt it was a bit of artistic license I would like to take.