The Swiss Family Robinson

For the 1940 film produced by RKO, see Swiss Family Robinson (1940 film)

For the 1960 film produced by Disney, see Swiss Family Robinson (film)

The Swiss Family Robinson
Illustration for an English edition by Harry Rountree (1907)
Author(s)	Johann David Wyss
Original title	Der Schweizerische Robinson
Country	Switzerland
Language	German
Genre(s)	Adventure novel
Publisher	Johann Rudolph Wyss (the author's son)
Publication date	1812
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)

The Swiss Family Robinson (German: Der Schweizerische Robinson) is a novel, first published in 1812, about a Swiss family shipwrecked in the East Indies en route to Port Jackson, Australia.

History

Written by Swiss pastor Johann David Wyss and edited by his son Johann Rudolf Wyss, the novel was intended to teach his four sons about family values, good husbandry, the uses of the natural world and self-reliance. Wyss's attitude toward education is in line with the teachings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and many of the episodes have to do with Christian-oriented moral lessons such as frugality, husbandry, acceptance, cooperation, etc.^[1] The adventures are presented as a series of lessons in natural history and the physical sciences, and resemble other, similar educational books for children in this period, such as Charlotte Turner Smith's Rural Walks: in Dialogues intended for the use of Young Persons (1795), Rambles Further: A continuation of Rural Walks (1796), A Natural History of Birds, intended chiefly for young persons (1807). But the novel differs in that it is modeled on Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, a genuine adventure story,^[1] and presents a geographically impossible array of mammals (including pangolins, porcupines, capybaras, camels, monkeys, lions, leopards, tigers, bears, onagers, peccaries, wild boars, tapirs, mustangs, kangaroos, elephants, hyenas, wolves, giraffes, jackals, walruses, platypuses, koalas, wombats, dingos, zebras, bison, rhinos, hippos, and moose) and flora that probably could never have existed together (including the rubber plant, flax, coconut palms, sago palms, fir trees, cinnamon trees, Myrica cerifera, cassava, potatoes, rice, and an entirely fictitious kind of sugar cane) on a single island for the children's edification, nourishment, clothing and convenience.

Over the years there have been many versions of the story with episodes added, changed, or deleted. Perhaps the best-known English version is by William H. G. Kingston, first published in 1879.^[1] It is based on Isabelle de Montolieu's 1813 French adaptation and 1824 continuation (from chapter 37) Le Robinson suisse, ou, Journal d'un père de famille, naufragé avec ses enfans in which were added further adventures of Fritz, Franz, Ernest, and Jack.^[1] Other English editions that claim to include the whole of the Wyss-Montolieu narrative are by W. H. Davenport Adams (1869–1910) and Mrs H. B. Paull (1879). As Carpenter and Prichard write in The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature (Oxford, 1995), "with all the expansions and contractions over the past two centuries (this includes a long history of abridgments, condensations, Christianizing, and Disney products), Wyss's original narrative has long since been obscured."^[1] The closest English translation to the original is William Godwin's 1816 translation, reprinted by Penguin Classics.^[2]

Although movie and TV adaptations typically name the family "Robinson", it is not a Swiss name; the "Robinson" of the title refers to Robinson Crusoe. The German name translates as the Swiss Robinson, and identifies the novel as belonging to the Robinsonade genre, rather than as a story about a family named Robinson.

Map of "New Switzerland"

Characters

• The Father: He is the narrator of the story and leads the family. He knows a great deal of information on everything from roots to hunting, demonstrating bravery and self-reliance.
• Elizabeth: The mother. She is intelligent and resourceful, arming herself even before leaving the ship with a "magic bag" filled with supplies, including sewing materials and seeds for food crops. She is also a remarkably versatile cook, taking on anything from porcupine soup to roast penguin.
• Fritz: The oldest of the four boys at fourteen. Though he is not the most intelligent, he is the strongest and accompanies his father on many quests.
• Ernest: The second oldest of the boys, he is twelve. Ernest is intelligent, but a less physically active boy, often described by his father as "indolent". Like Fritz, however, he comes to be an excellent shot.
• Jack: The third oldest of the boys, ten years old. He is thoughtless, bold, vivacious, and the quickest of the group.
• Franz (sometimes rendered as Francis): The youngest of the boys, he is nearly six when the story opens. He usually stays home with his mother.
• Jenny: An English girl found on Smoking Rock near the end of the novel. She is shy but soon is adopted into the family.
• Knips: An orphan monkey adopted by the family after their dogs have killed its mother. The family use him as a test subject for unfamiliar foodstuffs.

Other adaptations

Book sequels

• Willis the pilot: a sequel to The Swiss family Robinson; or, Adventures of an emigrant family wrecked on an unknown coast of the Pacific Ocean (1858) has been attributed to Johann Wyss or to Johanna Spyri, author of Heidi.
• Second Fatherland (Seconde Patrie, 1900), by Jules Verne takes up the story at the point where Wyss's tale left off. It has also been published in two volumes, Their Island Home and Castaways of the Flag.

The novels in one form or another have also been adapted numerous times, sometimes changing locale and/or time period:

Film versions

• Al-Ṭurfa al-Šahiyya fī aḫbār al-ʿAʾila al-Swīsiyya—Arabic translation (c. 1900)
• Swiss Family Robinson (1940 film)
• Swiss Cheese Family Robinson (Mighty Mouse episode, 1947)
• Swiss Family Robinson (1960 Walt Disney film)
• The Swiss Family Robinson (1976)
• Mountain Family Robinson (1980)
• The New Swiss Family Robinson (1998 film)^[3]
• The Adventures of Swiss Family Robinson (1998)

Television series

• English Family Robinson (1957)
• Lost in Space (1965–68) TV series
• Swiss Family Robinson (1974)—Canadian series starring Chris Wiggins
• Swiss Family Robinson (1975)—American series starring Martin Milner
• The Swiss Family Robinson: Flone of the Mysterious Island—(1981) anime series.
• The Adventures of Swiss Family Robinson (1998)—New Zealand series

Made for TV movies

• The Swiss Family Robinson (1958)
• The Swiss Family Robinson (1973)
• The Swiss Family Robinson (1973)
• The Swiss Family Robinson (1975)
• Beverly Hills Family Robinson (1998)
• The New Swiss Family Robinson (1998)—starring David Carradine
• Stranded (2002)

Comic book series

• Space Family Robinson (1962 to 1984)

Computer adventure game

In 1984, Tom Snyder Productions created a game for the Apple II and Commodore 64, published under the Windham Classics label. The player takes the role of Fritz, the eldest brother.

• Swiss Family Robinson (computer game)

See also

Novels portal

• Robinson Crusoe
• Castaway
• The Coral Island

References

• Weber, Marie-Hélène (1993). Robinson et robinsonnades: étude comparée de "Robinson Crusoe" de Defoe, "Le Robinson suisse" de J.R. Wyss, "L'Ile mystérieuse" de J. Verne, "Sa majesté des mouches" de W. Golding, "Vendredi ou les limbes du Pacifique" de M. Tournier, Ed.. Universitaires du Sud. 
• Wyss, Johann. The Swiss Family Robinson, ed. John Seelye. Penguin Classics, 2007. The only unabridged complete text genuinely by Wyss (and his son) currently in print.

Footnotes

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} "A Note on Wyss's Swiss Family Robinson, Montolieu's Le Robinson suisse, and Kingston's 1879 text" by Ellen Moody.
2. ^ John Seelye, ed. The Swiss Family Robinson. Penguin Classics. 2007. ISBN 978-0-14-310499-5
3. ^ The New Swiss Family Robinson at the Internet Movie Database

External links

• The Swiss Family Robinson, available at Internet Archive (original edition scanned books with illustrations in color)
• The Swiss Family Robinson, available at Google Books (original edition scanned books with illustrations)
• The Swiss Family Robinson at Project Gutenberg (plain text and HTML). Version unknown, ca. 1850, missing two pages of text.
• The Swiss Family Robinson at Project Gutenberg (plain text). Kingston's 1879 translation.
• "A Note on Wyss's Swiss Family Robinson, Montolieu's Le Robinson suisse, and Kingston's 1879 text", by Ellen Moody. Information about the book and its many versions.