Page 113 - Gullivers

down from the clouds to the great diversion of all spectators’ (Writings of Swist, p.214). The culmination of this account is one of shock and silence, ‘My master commanded me silence.’ In the Jenkins/Riddell version it is much more briefly rendered. The section is stronger and more forthright in conveying Swist’s attack on political corruption. On p.130-31 there is a superb sepia-tinted centre page illustration suggesting greed, luxury, lust, and disease, presided over by a figure of death in a brown habit in the top-lest corner. This is an image that refuses to condescend or patronise its young reader. This section discretely reflects Swist’s misogyny in its depiction of a female Yahoo who is attracted to Gulliver and pounces on him. Jenkins’ text is reticent about her intentions and desires: ‘Once when I was bathing I was leapt on by a young female Yahoo. Goodness knows what would have happened if the sorrel nag, who was close by and keeping a watch on me, had not chased it off ’. However, Riddell’s illustration, though still discrete, conveys a decidedly comic sexual rapaciousness in the widely open mouth and eyes of the Yahoo (p.134-35).
Gulliver finds that he is happy in the company of the Houyhnhnms. His devastation at his rejection by the Houyhnhnms is total. In Jenkins’ prose, which is close to Swist’s, the pœtry of the sorrel nag’s valedictory ‘Hnuy illa nyha
maja, Yahoo, Take care of yourself, gentle Yahoo’ (p.138) is perfectly matched by Riddell’s accompanying beautiful full-page seascape which captures the sorrow and despair of Gulliver. Gulliver, a sad, grey, helpless slumped figure, bent almost double in despair sits in the little boat that he has built himself, surrounded by enormous dark blue-green waves tipped with white, reminiscent of the work
of Hokusai, under a cloudy and stormy sky (p.139). There is an epilogue on
the folly of the colonial enterprise explaining why Gulliver dœs not claim the Houyhnhnm’s lands for the king, in white print on black background echoing the introduction, set in the same room, but this time the manuscript has become a book which is read with close attention by Gulliver’s serious-looking young son, at the same table with the same candle. The effect is sober, even sad: a fitting end.
V. Jonathan Swist’s Gulliver, 2004 107