Gulliver's Travelsis a novel in which the author's own convictions are perceived throughout, even when he employs irony. It is aroman à thèse‐ a didactic novel with a thesis ‐ the structure of which can be viewed as a pattern of concentric circles that are mutually interrelated. At the hub of the novel we note Swift's incontrovertible antipathy toward human odours. Swift's aversion toward people is an idiosyncrasy that finds expression in the novel's various strata. When he imitates descriptive accounts of various bodies politic and depicts fictitious societies, he is an aggressive critic of technical progress. When he imitates fantastic narratives and tells of giant women, his Gulliver is repulsed by such women. And at the perimeter of the novel, where Swift parodies travel literature, he cannot resist an ironic caricature of the nautical minutiae with which that literature often was bur