Gulliver’s Travels Turns 300 at Trinity College Dublin

What is unusual about this plant?

It has red, thread-like leaves which end in tightly coiled spirals. Like other sundews, it is carnivorous, meaning that it catches insects. A Florida botanist, Lilly Anderson-Messec, first saw the plant in 2014 and thought it looked very different from other sundews.

Had scientists already identified it at that time?

It was known, but it was classified as a variety of the more widespread thread-leaved sundew. Anderson-Messec questioned that classification. One reason was that the nearest population of that wider-ranging plant was hundreds of miles away, in South Carolina.

So the distance between the plants was an important clue.

Yes. In 2024, Anderson-Messec shared a video of the rare Florida sundew and suggested that it could be its own species. The idea was later studied in detail by Noah Juve, now an undergraduate at the University of Florida, and Andreas Fleischmann, a curator at the Munich Herbarium in Germany.

How did they test whether it was truly different?

They spent years comparing it directly with its closest relatives at more than 100 sites along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Their research found differences in the plant’s red colour, the shape of its seeds, its flowers and when it blooms. In August, Juve published the description that raised Drosera floridana to species status.

That sounds like a major change for a very small plant. Where does it grow?

It grows only around sinkhole lakes in a 12-by-16-mile area of the Florida Panhandle. The area is smaller than Chicago. That makes it the sundew with the most limited range in the United States.

And such a small range must make the species especially vulnerable.

That is the concern. Scientists and conservationists are trying to protect this habitat before it is badly damaged or destroyed. Fleischmann says plants listed only as varieties or subspecies can be missed by conservation work. Now that this sundew is recognised as a species, its limited range is clearer, which could help efforts to protect it.

Thank you, Ella.

Our second story is the 300th anniversary of Gulliver’s Travels.

Jack is LinguaWire’s correspondent for culture, and he has been following the anniversary exhibition in Dublin.

Hello Daniel. This week marks 300 years since Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels was first published. Trinity College Dublin, where Swift studied, is marking the anniversary with an exhibition called Gulliver at 300.

How did this famous book first arrive in print?

In the spring of 1726, a manuscript was brought to a London bookseller called Benjamin Motte. It seemed to have been written by Lemuel Gulliver, the sea captain who tells the story. The real author was not named at first.

So readers were meant to believe that Gulliver himself had written it.

That was the idea. Motte bought the rights to the manuscript and published the novel in two volumes on October 28, 1726. It was an immediate success. Soon afterwards, people learned that Gulliver was a pseudonym for Jonathan Swift, a Dublin-born Anglican clergyman, writer and essayist.

What happens in the story?

Gulliver travels to distant lands, including Lilliput, an island whose people are only six inches tall. The story has strange adventures, but it also makes fun of human behaviour and British social rules.

So it is more than a fantasy adventure.

Yes. It is considered an important work of political satire. Its ideas about class, morality and divisions in society have continued to matter to readers. The novel has been translated into dozens of languages and has never gone out of print.

What does the exhibition show visitors?

It brings together more than 100 versions of the story, from early editions to works inspired by the novel. Visitors can see artworks, a comic adaptation, pop-up books, small booklets and valuable deluxe editions. The exhibition is also available online.

Are there any particularly rare books in the collection?

One highlight is the only known surviving copy of a shortened version of the novel, printed in Dublin in 1761. The exhibition also shows work by printers, engravers and illustrators from the past 300 years. Swift’s influence remains strong: the word “Swiftian” is still used for bitter satire.

Thank you, Jack.

Part one: vocabulary.

Manuscript.

A manuscript is a text written before it is printed; in the story, “In the spring of 1726, a manuscript was brought to a London bookseller called Benjamin Motte.”

She sent her manuscript to a publisher.

Pseudonym.

A pseudonym is a false name used by a writer; in the story, “Soon afterwards, people learned that Gulliver was a pseudonym for Jonathan Swift, a Dublin-born Anglican clergyman, writer and essayist.”

The writer used a pseudonym for her first book.

Satire.

Satire is writing that uses humour to criticise people or society; in the story, “It is considered an important work of political satire.”

The television show uses satire to make fun of politicians.

Part two: the grammar.

Before clauses for timing: “Scientists and conservationists are trying to protect this habitat before it is badly damaged or destroyed.”

Use before plus a subject and verb to say that one action happens earlier than another.

In the story, “Scientists and conservationists are trying to protect this habitat before it is badly damaged or destroyed.”

We locked the door before we left.

Repeat after me: Scientists and conservationists are trying to protect this habitat before it is badly damaged or destroyed.