Shipwrecked and cast adrift; Lemuel Gulliver wakes to find himself on Lilliput; an island inhabited by little people; whose height makes their quarrels over fashion and fame seem ridiculous. His subsequent encounters - with the crude giants of Brobdingnag; the philosophical Houyhnhnms and brutish Yahoos - give Gulliver new; bitter insights into human behaviour. Swift's savage satire views mankind in a distorted hall of mirrors as a diminished; magnified and finally bestial species; presenting us with an uncompromising reflection of ourselves.