When Mama Elephant puts her family on a diet, their will power remains strong until Granny sends a cake.

The direct and unadorned narrative describes four remarkable journeys of ship's surgeon Lemuel Gulliver, among them one to the land of Lilliput, where six-inch-high inhabitants bicker over trivialities; and another to Brobdingnag, a land where giants reduce man to insignificance. Written with disarming simplicity and careful attention to detail, this classic is diverse in its appeal: for children, it remains an enchanting fantasy. For adults, it is...