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The Swiss Family Robinson
The Swiss Family Robinson (German: Der Schweizerische Robinson, "The Swiss Robinson") is a novel by the Swiss author Johann David Wyss, first published in 1812, about a Swiss family of immigrants whose ship en route to Port Jackson, Australia goes off course and is shipwrecked in the East Indies. The ship's crew is lost, but the family and several domestic animals survive. They make their way to shore, where they build a settlement, undergoing several adventures before being rescued; some refuse rescue and remain on the island.
The book is the most successful of a large number of "Robinsonade" novels that were written in response to the success of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719). It has gone through a large number of versions and adaptations.
Written by Swiss writer Johann David Wyss, edited by his son Johann Rudolf Wyss, and illustrated by another son, Johann Emmanuel Wyss, the novel was intended to teach his four sons about family values, good farming, the uses of the natural world, and self-reliance. Wyss's attitude toward its education is in line with the teachings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and many chapters involve Christian-oriented moral lessons such as frugality, husbandry, acceptance, and cooperation.
Wyss presents adventures as lessons in natural history and physical science. This resembles other educational books for young ones published about the same time. These include Charlotte Turner Smith's Rural Walks: in Dialogues intended for the use of Young Persons (1795), Rambles Farther: A continuation of Rural Walks (1796), and A Natural History of Birds, intended chiefly for young persons (1807). But Wyss's novel is also modeled after Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, an adventure story about a shipwrecked sailor first published in 1719.
The book presents a geographically impossible array of large mammals and plants that probably could never have existed together on a single island, for the children's education, nourishment, clothing, and convenience.
The first edition was published in two volumes in Zurich in 1812 and 1813 by Orell Füssli under the full title: Der Schweizerische Robinson oder der schiffbrüchige Schweizer-Prediger und seine Familie. The second volume lacked a proper ending, concluding with the father wondering if they would ever meet another human. A postscript reported that an English ship later found them but left with only their journal. The second edition, in which the original author was no longer mentioned, appeared in 1821, followed by two continuation volumes in 1826 and 1827. The continuation introduced a shipwrecked English girl, rescued by one of the boys; he returns to England with her, while the family stays, and the island becomes the colony of “New Switzerland.”
An 1814 French adaptation by Isabelle de Montolieu and 1824 continuation (from chapter 37), Le Robinson suisse, ou, Journal d'un père de famille, naufragé avec ses enfants, added further adventures of Fritz, Ernest, Jack, and Franz.
The first English edition was published in 1814 by Juvenile Library in two volumes as The Family Robinson Crusoe, or, Journal of a Father Shipwrecked, with his Wife and Children, on an Uninhabited Island. The translation is attributed to William Godwin and was published by his wife, Mary Jane Clairmont; however, the authorship of the translation has been questioned. The translation is described as “from the German of M. Wiss,” although it includes some of Montolieu’s additions. This edition was republished in an expanded form in 1816, Public Domain at archive.org, also reprinted by Penguin Classics. The better-known title The Swiss Family Robinson was used for the first time in 1818.
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The Swiss Family Robinson
The Swiss Family Robinson (German: Der Schweizerische Robinson, "The Swiss Robinson") is a novel by the Swiss author Johann David Wyss, first published in 1812, about a Swiss family of immigrants whose ship en route to Port Jackson, Australia goes off course and is shipwrecked in the East Indies. The ship's crew is lost, but the family and several domestic animals survive. They make their way to shore, where they build a settlement, undergoing several adventures before being rescued; some refuse rescue and remain on the island.
The book is the most successful of a large number of "Robinsonade" novels that were written in response to the success of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719). It has gone through a large number of versions and adaptations.
Written by Swiss writer Johann David Wyss, edited by his son Johann Rudolf Wyss, and illustrated by another son, Johann Emmanuel Wyss, the novel was intended to teach his four sons about family values, good farming, the uses of the natural world, and self-reliance. Wyss's attitude toward its education is in line with the teachings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and many chapters involve Christian-oriented moral lessons such as frugality, husbandry, acceptance, and cooperation.
Wyss presents adventures as lessons in natural history and physical science. This resembles other educational books for young ones published about the same time. These include Charlotte Turner Smith's Rural Walks: in Dialogues intended for the use of Young Persons (1795), Rambles Farther: A continuation of Rural Walks (1796), and A Natural History of Birds, intended chiefly for young persons (1807). But Wyss's novel is also modeled after Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, an adventure story about a shipwrecked sailor first published in 1719.
The book presents a geographically impossible array of large mammals and plants that probably could never have existed together on a single island, for the children's education, nourishment, clothing, and convenience.
The first edition was published in two volumes in Zurich in 1812 and 1813 by Orell Füssli under the full title: Der Schweizerische Robinson oder der schiffbrüchige Schweizer-Prediger und seine Familie. The second volume lacked a proper ending, concluding with the father wondering if they would ever meet another human. A postscript reported that an English ship later found them but left with only their journal. The second edition, in which the original author was no longer mentioned, appeared in 1821, followed by two continuation volumes in 1826 and 1827. The continuation introduced a shipwrecked English girl, rescued by one of the boys; he returns to England with her, while the family stays, and the island becomes the colony of “New Switzerland.”
An 1814 French adaptation by Isabelle de Montolieu and 1824 continuation (from chapter 37), Le Robinson suisse, ou, Journal d'un père de famille, naufragé avec ses enfants, added further adventures of Fritz, Ernest, Jack, and Franz.
The first English edition was published in 1814 by Juvenile Library in two volumes as The Family Robinson Crusoe, or, Journal of a Father Shipwrecked, with his Wife and Children, on an Uninhabited Island. The translation is attributed to William Godwin and was published by his wife, Mary Jane Clairmont; however, the authorship of the translation has been questioned. The translation is described as “from the German of M. Wiss,” although it includes some of Montolieu’s additions. This edition was republished in an expanded form in 1816, Public Domain at archive.org, also reprinted by Penguin Classics. The better-known title The Swiss Family Robinson was used for the first time in 1818.