The Swiss Family Robinson or, Adventures on a Desert Island

Johann David WyssProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.3
Word count
687K words
Chapters
69

Tags

English Originals Children's Literature TeamworkNature ObservationWilderness SurvivalPortrait GalleryAdventure JourneyFamily BondsIsland SurvivalInspirationPopular NarrativeYouth 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.The Swiss Family Robinson; or, Adventures on a Desert Island by Johann David WyssAuthor: Wyss, Johann David, 1743-1818,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Jan 1, 2011

Editor's review

The Swiss Family Robinson is a classic desert-island adventure novel by Johann David Wyss, telling of a family shipwrecked on a remote island who rebuild their lives through their own hands and knowledge. Its appeal lies not in thrills and suspense but in weaving survival skills, observation of nature and family cooperation into a gradual narrative of settlement: from building a shelter and taming animals to making tools, the reader sees how a miniature society takes shape in the wilderness. The work has an evident educational intent and is often regarded as a coming-of-age book for young readers; its descriptions of natural produce also reflect early European imaginings of exotic environments. It can be enjoyed as an adventure story, while readers should also note its historical limitations: the colonial perspective and the attitude toward exploiting nature call for critical reading today. Suitable for reading aloud with children or as a young reader's entry into classic literature.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Start with the opening shipwreck and landing to get a feel for the narrative pace before deciding how to proceed.
  2. When reading with children, pause after each chapter to discuss how the family divides the work to solve specific problems.
  3. Note the descriptions of natural produce and compare them with today's ecological thinking.
  4. Young readers might keep a notebook of the survival methods that impress them most, and why.

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
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  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

FAQ

What age of child is this book suitable for? As a classic juvenile title, it suits young readers with some reading patience; the exact age varies with the edition and the child's reading ability. Younger children are better off reading it with a parent, who can explain the historical background and unfamiliar things and spare them comprehension difficulties when reading alone.
Are the survival descriptions in the story realistic? It is an adventure novel with an educational intent; the survival details serve the narrative and the moral teaching rather than constituting a strictly realistic survival guide. Readers can enjoy its imagination and informative charm, but should not treat the practices in the book as operational guidance for real wilderness survival.
Are there period limitations to watch for? Yes. The work carries an early European colonial perspective, and its descriptions of nature and exotic environments reflect the attitudes of its time. Readers are advised to stay critical and treat such content as material for understanding the historical background rather than as values to accept uncritically.
Is the original English edition hard to read? The original English belongs to classic juvenile literature, with relatively clear sentence structures, but it involves many names of natural produce and objects, which may add to the vocabulary load. Consider an annotated edition, or read a Chinese translation first to become familiar with the plot before attempting the original.

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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.