The Swiss Robinson; or, The History of a Shipwrecked Swiss Family

Johann David WyssProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.0
Word count
833K words
Chapters
84

Tags

English Originals Children's Literature TeamworkNature WritingFamily BondsIsland SurvivalAdventure ExplorationCourage BuildingSurvival WisdomParent-Child ReadingExtracurricular ReadingYouth Reading

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Le Robinson suisse ou Histoire d'une famille suisse naufragée by Johann David WyssAuthor: Wyss, Johann David, 1743-1818,Language: French, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Apr 11, 2006

Editor's review

"The Swiss Family Robinson" is a classic juvenile novel centered on a family's shipwreck and survival on a deserted island, originally written in German by Johann David Wyss. It expands the Robinsonade narrative into a story of "a family rebuilding life together": the father, drawing on knowledge and experience, leads the family to solve problems of food, shelter, tools, and safety, gradually establishing an orderly daily life in an unfamiliar environment. The work's value lies not in thrilling excitement but in weaving practical natural knowledge, handicraft skills, and family cooperation into the plot, showing readers how education is transformed into survival ability. The narrative bears clear characteristics of early juvenile literature, with considerable didacticism and interpolated knowledge passages, and a slower pace than modern adventure novels; precisely for this reason, it is suitable as a text for understanding the evolution of the "Robinsonade" and European ideals of family education. This is the French electronic edition provided by Project Gutenberg, suitable for readers who wish to compare the original language or study the history of editions. It can be read as a family adventure story with an educational-popularization character, focusing on the relationships between humanity and nature, order and education.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read one chapter first to decide on the pace: treat the interpolated knowledge passages as part of the story rather than skipping them.
  2. Keep pen and paper to record how the family solves food, clothing, shelter, and transport, and sort out its survival logic.
  3. If the French is difficult, consult a Chinese or English translation to grasp the main plot.
  4. After finishing, compare it with "Robinson Crusoe" and consider the difference between "individual survival" and "family reconstruction."

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
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  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
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  11. 11
  12. 12
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  18. 18
  19. 19
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  27. 27
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  30. 30
  31. 31
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  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
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  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75
  76. 76
  77. 77
  78. 78
  79. 79
  80. 80
  81. 81
  82. 82
  83. 83
  84. 84

FAQ

What is the relationship between this book and "Robinson Crusoe"? It is inspired by "Robinson Crusoe," changing solitary castaway survival into a family surviving together on a deserted island; it is a derivative work of the "Robinsonade." It emphasizes family education, division of labor and cooperation, and practical knowledge rather than the adventures of a single hero.
Is the French edition suitable for French beginners? Not very suitable for readers with zero foundation. The work was written early, and its narration and vocabulary bear the marks of its era, with many interpolated knowledge passages. It suits those with some French reading ability who can use a dictionary or a parallel translation; beginners may first read a Chinese or English translation to understand the story.
Is the knowledge content in the book outdated? Some natural observations and handicraft methods bear the limitations of their era and should not be copied as a modern survival guide. Its value lies more in showing how people of the time understood nature, education, and self-reliance; readers may treat them as knowledge imaginings in a historical text.
What are the features of the Gutenberg edition? This is a free electronic edition released by Project Gutenberg, in French, and belongs to public-domain book resources. It is convenient to read and search on electronic devices, but usually lacks the notes and introduction of a modern translation, so readers may need to supplement background information themselves.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Johann David Wyss Author · Swiss · 1743–1818

Johann David Wyss (1743–1818) was a Swiss writer born in Bern. He served as a military chaplain and later as a pastor at Bern Cathedral. Public information about his life is limited, and he is remembered chiefly for one work. To educate his children, he wrote The Swiss Family Robinson (1812), which tells of a Swiss family shipwrecked on a desert island who survive through labor and cooperation and build a new home. Combining adventure narrative with practical knowledge and moral instruction, the novel was edited and published by his son and gradually became a world classic of children's and adventure literature, translated and adapted many times and still circulating in numerous editions.