The Swiss Family Robinson

by Johann David Wyss

If you were stranded on a desert island, what would you do? Young readers can read and imagine in this unabridged paperback edition of The Swiss Family Robinson.  
 
After their ship crashes onto a deserted island, the Robinson family begins a castaway life of adventure, scientific exploration, and the primal instinct to survive. As the years pass, the family begins to wonder: do they want to be rescued and return to civilization, or continue their island life forever? 
This high-action novel—available in its unabridged entirety—is perfect for young readers’ libraries.  

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Adventure, Childrens, Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Classic Literature

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

From Christian Classics Library

Wyss is best remembered for his book The Swiss Family Robinson . A pastor with four sons, it is said that he was inspired by Defoe's Robinson Crusoe to write a story from which his own children would learn, as the father in the story taught important lessons to his children.

The Swiss Family Robinson was first published in 1812 and translated into English two years later. It has since become one of the most popular books of all time. The book was edited by his son, Johann Rudolf Wyss, a scholar who wrote the Swiss national anthem. Another son, Johann Emmanuel Wyss, illustrated the book.

Reviews

[Jama]

This is a book for kids, and my boys really like it a lot.

Many of the negative reviews posted about this book are totally correct. The Swiss Family is a product of its time. They treat the island like their playground, killing and domesticating everything in sight. They mention god a lot. They never name the mother, and she stays in the background cooking and mending things while the father and boys go out adventuring, but in all fairness, none of the characters have real fleshed out personalities. Besides the fact that one boy is more scared than others, one is young and often left out, and one is slightly lazy, they are all basically the same blank slate into which the child reader can insert themself and imagine surviving in the bountious plentiful island where death and disease do not exist (human death, that is.)

When I read this to my kids ( this is my second time, right now I'm reading to the 7 and 10 year old), we talk about the characters' dated historical attitudes. We mock the unrealistic success of every project they tackle. We laugh at the preposterous confluence of animals and plants from every continent on earth. Yet they really get something out if the story. If it was up to me, I would stop reading it in a heart beat, but I read it for them. And at least the version we have uses great vocabulary and wording I am happy to expose them to.

My sons would rate this 5 stars. I would rate this 2. I could never read this on my own. But reading it to them ups it a star.

[Lesle]

I found a bookmark on page 237, so I skimmed through to bring things back to current.
The story, after days of being tossed and battered by a raging storm, the pastor his wife and their four sons are passengers. The ship smashes against a reef - and the last lifeboat pulls away without them. The next morning the family finds itself cast away on an island. They retrieve what they can from the ship and construct a life for themselves - building a treehouse, finding such food as coconuts, sugarcane, honey, potatoes, and protecting themselves against danger. Adventure follows adventure as they explore the island. They end up domesticating all sorts of animals, mostly because the boys were a bad shot and they felt bad leaving injured animals behind. They encounter terrifying animals. Although they indure many hardships, the family lives in harmony and even rescues a girl who is a castaway on a nearby island.
There was no real challenges they always thanked God for their good fortune, “Thank Providence” is something they would say quite a bit.
Again no real challenges for the family to face. It made it boring to read. Also, there is no way that all of the animals and plants that were described could have lived together, some were from Australia, Asia and Africa which when I was younger found exciting and thrilling but as an adult not so much anymore.
My Sister and I grew up watching the Disney version of the movie and I am sure if I watched it again I would find it fun again!

[Emily]

I don't think I finished this when I attempted it as a child, but the early chapters made a big impression on me (I liked their different houses: a tree house, a cave house, etc., and the way they always found something useful washed up in the wreckage). Glad that someone put the cover of the edition my family owned on goodreads. It's always very satisfying to have the "right" edition on one's shelves.

[Michael Fitzgerald]

A bit long but there is regular excitement to hold interest of young listeners.

[Jennie]

I really enjoyed listening to this story with my husband and children. I had forgotten how detailed Wyss is about how they crafted their lives in the island. This was and especially engaging listen for my ten year old son. I appreciate the values of integrity, working hard, ingenuity, courage, fortitude, teamwork etc expressed in this story.

[Frances]

I know it is not fair to judge an old book by todays standards but it was, dare I say, boring as hell. I commend Walt Disney for his ability to make a classic movie from a boring novel. There is no fun here. The father was smug and among his many talents he was a zoologist, botanist, inventor, ship builder, herbologist, astronomer, shoe maker and generally annoying know-it-all. There was not an animal that they did not kill for the joy of it. Flamingos, penguins, it did not matter. Dead it was. I hated it so badly that I donated it to my local library bookstore. I expunged it from the Grossett and Dunlap Junior Illustrated Classics that I collect.

[Loraine]

This version of the Swiss Family Robinson was written for upper elementary level children. It would be an enjoyable read for them particularly boys.

[Joe]

Family: Sees yet another inexplicable exotic animal.

"Let's kill it!"

I don't recall if the book reveals what the dad's occupation was before the events of the book, but I'm convinced that he wrote for an encyclopedia and had been praying to be stranded on an island his whole life so he could show off his knowledge.

[Joanne-in-Canada]

I had no idea what the plot of this book was, but found it immensely entertaining. Partly because of the archaic language ("he must needs stop", "behindhand", "ever and anon"), partly because the family conveniently had soooo many supplies and the ship never sank or floated away, and partly because everything went just so well (except for a bee sting or two)!

My favourite part, however, was that mysterious character "my wife" aka "the mother" (once called "Elizabeth"). She was just so good at staying behind with the younger boys, making meals appear on time like magic, and being excited to spin, weave and sew clothing for everybody!

[Sarah Eastley Martschenko]

It’s always hard to give thoughts on a book that was written during a different time (1812). After doing some research, I learned that this book was intended to teach Johann David Wyss’ four sons about family values and self-reliance. I think I was expecting more tension from a desert island situation, and all the problems were solved without any mistakes being made.

[Sara]

So glad they didn't run into any "savage blackamoor Malay pirates", and only had to consort with "civilised Europeans" :)

Don't worry, I understand it's old, and racism was "fine" in the past, so I actually didn't even consider it in my rating.

[Roslyn Ross]

Anders, 4, enjoyed this book. I thought it was a little unrealistic. I do like stories about nice people who are competent at life though.

[Frank]

Read this one way back in grade school. Remember getting a copy for Christmas when I was 10.

[Jasmíne Kobata]

Fritz is kind of trigger-happy, and I feel bad for all the animals.

[Samala Rayn (Kafka's Version)]

This wasn’t bad at all!
It just wasn’t my speed…
It took me three weeks to make it this far, I think that speaks for itself…
Sadly, DNF at 44%
RIP 🪦

[Schelle Bixler]

Completely fantastical story filled with long narratives describing the natural history of every plant and animal discovered, even when that animal was crushing and swallowing the family’s pet donkey! Nobody in the family gets seriously injured or sick with disease despite constant contact with exotic animals and insects. The family can miraculously tame every animal they capture alive and everybody, including their menagerie of pets, gets along harmoniously.

The wildlife on this island is completely a manufactured combination without any basis in reality. Apparently, antelope, jackals, monkeys, baboons, bears, ostriches, muskrats, buffalo, duck-billed platypuses, tigers, huge boa constrictors, tapirs, peccaries, capybaras, and wolves all live here despite being native to different continents and unlikely to land on one remote tropical island. I’m sure all the helpful plants that live here have similar global origins.

Every tool or machine is able to be manufactured with a little thought and effort using the limited supplies from their shipwreck and the materials found on the island. And for some reason, the supply of gunpowder and bullets is unlimited, with frequent celebratory and communicative shots made even after 10 years of being marooned. The time spent in their modest treehouse is reduced to summer months only while the bulk of effort in making a comfortable home is made in an elaborate cave.

The Disney movie is loosely based on the book but was more enjoyable to sit through than this narrative. Because the author was a pastor, there is also quite a bit of preachy religious overtones and constant gratitude to god for all the unnatural good fortune bestowed on the family.

[Brandon Current]

Read and pass. This book is for young children. There is a pious tone of humility, trust, and gratitude towards God that is helpfully woven through every part of the book. There are also many character lessons presented (even if in a sermon if way) However, there is no story from one chapter to the next. Each problem is resolved like a tv episode. Everything on the planet seems to exist on their island. They know too much about each thing they encounter. The father’s parental style and attitude towards his wife are far more patriarchal than modern culture and is fairly grating. The family have a colonial “harvesting” resources mindset along with a low value of the life of creatures and native people groups. All these are historical realities, yet deeply unchristian in the biblical sense.

Nevertheless, kids have always loved it and will continue to love it and it does more good for their character than most modern children’s books.

[Erica Jenkins-Loranger]

I was excited to start this one and the plot started out very intriguing, but it quickly fell into repetition. The main character father was a condescending know-it-all and the story devolved into them collecting a zoo worth of animals (despite the boys shooting at every animal they encountered), somehow always discovering random plants that they happened to know the history / uses of, and building a neverending amount of abodes. This book did not need to be this long.

[D]

This is the Godwin translation. Faithful to the original text but more dry and a bit more religious while lacking some of the iconic scenes English speakers will likely expect from various renditions of the story. I read to Chapter 14 to get a feel for the Wyss’ tone and style but switched to the Kingston translation at that point which actually worked fairly naturally.

[Valerie Hounjet]

It was so good. I didn’t read this book as a kid so if you were like me and haven’t read it. I highly recommend it. I gave it more than a 5 star rating. It was one of those books I couldn’t put down. It had everything you needed in a book.

[Elizabeth Morrison]

I read this with my 5th graders, we all loved it!

[Scott]

It wasn't great literature, but I did enjoy how much the kids enjoyed it.

[Mimab Ab]

It is a fantastic adventure book!

[Jay Wickett]

Idk man, it’s just too weirdly religious. Couldn’t do it

[Sarah]

I’m all for some suspension of belief but by the 10th or 11th new animal/plant that the dad just knew and knew how to use?! It got a little repetitive. Not a bad family read aloud but I don’t think we’ll read it again.

[Ethan Roberts]

Two stars is about as harsh as I’ll rate a book, but this one is not deserving of more in my book.

In theory, the premise is a fascinating one: a family is marooned on a desert island and learns to thrive. That being said, their story could be told in roughly 100 less pages. Wyss, in trying to cram in as much adventure as possible, ends up providing way too much detail about the mundane and not nearly enough about the adventure.

I was willing to give the family being ship-wrecked with many of their supplies the benefit of the doubt for getting their colony going. However, the island is apparently the lost Garden of Eden, for EVERY animal and plant imaginable is present there to the point that it’s laughable.

The book is also from an extremely paternalistic point of view. A devout Christian myself, I was totally annoyed with the father’s preachy attitude on every aspect of his son’s lives.

[David Richardson]

Quick and easy to read, an illustration on every other page. Good for children. you could probably let them use it for a coloring book!

[Kate Z]

If you have an adventure loving emerging reader, this is the book for you!!!!!! This version of SFR is great for that demographic. It's easy enough to read for my 6 1/2 year old son (we alternate) and this version pares down the tale to the "exciting" bits ... this is like the book version of "Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!" We usually read three chapters a night and on one night we had the following: rodeo type events with youngest boy riding a 4 month old buffalo calf, then the middle boy Francis gets stuck in quicksand, then a 14 foot boa constrictor "stalks" the SFR's camp and ultimately eats their donkey, then they men of the family go hunting and send their pet eagle to kill an ostrich ... they then bring back ostrich eggs and add ostriches to their menagerie. A few chapters later a male lion invades their camp and they shoot him, after which a lioness attacks - she is set upon by the family's pet dogs (one of which is killed and then laid to rest) and then .... well, you get the picture.

For OUR specific interests and purposes, this was a GREAT book. Low on gore but high on intense excitement, survival and exotic animals. Right up Will's alley. A big hit.

[Nathan Kaczmarek]

The book the Swiss Family Robinson was about this family that was headed to an island off the coast of New Guinea to set up a new colony. However, on there trip there, a huge storm comes and they are stuck on a big rock. The crew members and the captain of the ship see land and make a break for it without the Robinson Family. They wait on the ship overnight and the next day the weather is perfect. So the family heads for the island, with almost every thing on board. They get to there new exotic island without any signs of the others. They then have to survive on the island.
I really liked this book. the author really intrigued me through descriptive details, making me feel as if I were there facing the exotic animals, standing side by side with the Robinson family.
I really didn't find anything that I didn't like about the book. I really think that the book was all around good.
I would recommend this book to anybody that likes reading adventurous books. And anyone that likes exciting books.

[J A]

I have read the other reviews, and I get it. No island exists, especially one with such varied terrain and plant/animal life, on which you can crash land and not suffer some horrific fate in ten years of living there. Yes, we're human, and we're prone to disease and mishaps. BUT this is not meant to be a historical account, even though it reads like one. It is an adventure, but more importantly it is the story of both a familial bond and the family's bond with God. No, you wouldn't find EVERY creature and plant on one island, but that's what makes it so fantastic. They get to fight giant lobsters and boa constrictors, suck on sugar cane, fashion kitchen utensils out of gourds and explore vast, glittering salt caverns. I could read this book once a year for the rest of my life and never get bored, because not only is it an adventurer's dream, but it's also got some good information on plants and animals, and it's rooted in family values.