Gulliver's second voyage lands him in a kingdom where he is the tiny one. The giant farmers who find him treat him as a curiosity — a living doll.

He must adapt to a world where a cat's yawn is a hurricane, a maid's apron is a sail, and a single drop of dew is enough to drown him.

The King of Brobdingnag is the most sensible ruler Gulliver ever meets — which is to say, he recognizes a talking insect when he sees one and treats Gulliver accordingly: with curiosity, but not with the reverence Gulliver has begun to expect.

"This creature," the King says to his court, pointing at Gulliver, "has the shape of a human being. But I do not find that it thinks like one. It seems to me that it knows nothing beyond what it has read in books."

Gulliver launches into a passionate defense of his country's institutions. The King listens. Then he says:

"You have convinced me that your country is the most villainous nation under the sun. And your tiny inhabitants the most pernicious vermin the world has ever produced."

Gulliver has no answer. He is right, of course. He simply did not want to hear it from a giant.