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Swiss Family Robinson Summary

This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either share of the introductory artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and in spite of the imperfections, have elected to fetch it back into print as share of our continuing dedication to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We be grateful for your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you take delight in this valuable book.

From School Library JournalGrade 3-5-- It goes without saying that, in the procedure of condensing and rewriting these books down to a fourth-grade reading level, most of the distinguished distinct elements of the works--writing style, language, atmosphere, characterization--have been sacrificed for a simple, not to say simplistic, master-plots approach that conveys the incidents but fails to impart the justification for their continuing endurance in the canon of juvenile literature. The books are illustrated with a good deal of attention salaried to the sense of the plots and characters. For those who persist in the fallacy that knowing what the so-called "classics" of children's creative writing of recognized artisti value are in regards to is a worthy of acceptance or satisfactory substitution for in truth experiencing them by reading the original, this series is acceptable. For the rest of us, it's as if someone's painted a guppy white and called it Moby Dick. --Christine Behrmann, New York Public Library
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language NotesText: English (translation)
Original Language: German

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Most helpful client reviews

52 of 62 humans found the following review helpful.
In the Top Ten of all Time
By Christopher B. Jonnes
But let's be clear right up front. My 5-star rating of this book applies only to the introductory unabridged version in Johann Wyss' own words. The modernized versions are watered down, time-wasters for word wusses.

When I was nine years old I expended months engaged in a struggle through this book for the basi time. The old style language made for rough going, but I persevered. In the end I was rewarded with more than a classic tale marvelously told; I encountered a love of books and earned self-respect for tackling a tough read.

If I was a teacher whose task it was to introduce students to classic literature, I would skip Dickens and use this book. Kids love adventure, animals, and action. Swiss Family Robinson has it all. It's actually a adventure story cloaked as a literary classic. All book lovers ought to read this one at least once.

And please don't watch the Disney movie and assert you've "been there, did that" on this story. The movie is exclusively dissimilar and in no way compares.

36 of 42 people found the following review helpful.
The extreme survival story.
By Godly Gadfly
Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe carved a literary niche for the survival story, and The Swiss Family Robinson is one of the a good deal of stories carved in that mould. Written from the perspective of the father, it chronicles the first-hand account of the shipwreck and survival of a Swiss family of six on a remote island someplace near New Guinea. The family comprises of a Swiss pastor who is a walking encyclopedia on agricultural exercises from around the world; his wife who excels in equivalent measure with culinary skills, and four energetic sons. Displaying remarkable resilience and resourcefulness, they survive altogether alone for over ten years until their rescue. In the process, they fabricate their own European civilization, showing finish mastery over animals and plants, and creatively establishing houses. The bulk of the novel comprises of their struggle for survival with their endless invention of new species of plants and animals..

Readers will have to be admonished that dissimilar versions of the Swiss Family Robinson abound. The Swiss pastor in the first place credited with the work - Johann David Wyss (1743-1818) - in the first place told galore of these tales to his children, one of whom was likely responsible for the editing and publication of it. It was subsequently translated into a good deal of languages, with translators taking major liberties in abridgement or adding sequences of their own. The Disney film version, for instance, holds confrontations with pirates that are completely absent from the original. Some versions speak of the shipwrecked lass as "Jenny", others as "Emily". The version I read (the Puffin Classics edition) was the translation of WHG Kingston, basi published in 1879, and widely regarded as one of the best-loved English translations. Remarkably, however, it is not based on the initial German version, but on an 1816 French version. Regardless of which version one reads, abridged versions sacrifice much of the charm of the original. The longer versions are eloquent, descriptive, and implement vocabulary and language that makes them far more satisfying than most contemporary condensed versions.

Given that the introductory author was a Swiss pastor, it's not surprising to find the narrative soaked with implicit Christian influences. There are popular references to God's providence, commendation into God's care, keeping the day of rest, as well as the encouragement of Christian morals. The exercise and advertising of Christian virtue is a clear theme, evident particularly in a final scene where the father charges his sons to be faithful as Christians. "In a long speech with my sons I solemnly charged them with the future responsibilities of their life, in all it is varied aspects, of responsibility towards God, their fellow men, and themselves, pointing out the temptations to which their dissimilar characters were likely to expose them, and exhorting them affectionately to hold fast to the faith in which they had been brought up." The boys all have dissimilar intensities and weaknesses, and Wyss presents this as a moral lesson for his readers: "Children are, on the whole, very much similar everywhere, and you four lads reasonably represent multitudes, who are growing up in all directions. It will make me happy to think that my simple narrative may lead numerous of these to detect how blessed are the results of patient continuance in well-doing, what gains arise from the thoughtful application of noesis and science, and how good and pleasant a thing it is when brethren dwell together in unity, beneath the eyes of parental love." The importance of a wholesome Christian family working together is very central: "And my outstanding wish is that young humans who read this record of our lives and adventures, will have to learn from it how admirably suitable is the peaceful, industrious and pious life of a cheerful and unified family, to the formation of strong, pure and manly character."

The island proves to be a form of idyllic paradise, where animals from each continent around the world apparently co-exist in a rather totally unlikely manner (Australian kangaroos and platypuses, Antarctic penguins, African lions and elephants, North American wolves, and bears, South American boa constrictors, not to mention walruses, tapirs, toucans, flamingos and ostriches). New species of plants and animals are conveniently came across on a each and everyday basis, and the Wyss family appears to have an unlimited noesis of how to use these resources to give rise to their own civilization. They are little bothered by sickness, storms or strife, and have few difficulties in taming almost each animal known to mankind. They are capable to cook each delicacy ever conceived. Whether their menu offers truffles or turtle, roasted bear-paw or buffalo, the feed is always good and the meat never burnt. In fact their success most times becomes rather repetitious and tiresome, and is evidently rooted in an overly optimistic view of mankind and faith in the possiblenesses offered by scientific knowledge.

But rather than become too frustrated by the utopianism, you must suspend your sense of disbelief and take pleasure in the ride. Certainly it is rather hard to believe that a Swiss pastor may without delay recognize a Myrica cerifera when he sees one and conveniently knows that it is berries may be melted and strained to make candles, or that he knows that a sturgeon's bladder may be applied to make isinglass, or that he remembers intricate details with regards to Italian, Indian and South American exercises of agriculture and animal husbandry. The production of chinaware, porcelain, soap, and rubber boots and the evident accomplishments in taxidermy and other exotic abilities may at times be hard to swallow. And the endless discoveries and conquests of nature are rather repetitive. But in the end it's enjoyable. It's little wonder that the Wyss family decisive not to leave their "New Switzerland" at the end. For the same reason, so a good deal of persons come back to the Robinson's island time and again. Some of the ideas in this book are surely dated, but this book has stood the test of time, and spending time with the Swiss Family Robinson will proceed to be rewarding.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful.
warning!
By A
I want any individual else who is giving careful consideration to ordering this book toknowthat this version is gravely abridged. All references to the family's faith in God are removed, as well as other description. This may or may not be what you are looking for, but it does altogether change the reputation of the story. This volume is with regards to 150 pages, equated to my unabridged paperback, now sadly falling apart, which is 445 pp.

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