The Swiss Family Robinson

This adventure book about a shipwrecked Swiss family was written in 1812. So the US was fighting a war against Britain not long after independence, the world was young and exploration of unknown regions was still going on. The southern hemisphere was especially an unknown region. In this adventure, a family from Switzerland was emigrating (not said why, possibly for religious freedom) and were heading somewhere in the Indian Ocean when their ship foundered on rocks after a huge storm. The family, below decks, was abandoned by the crew and other passengers and found themselves without lifeboats, aboard a ship caught on the rocks near an unknown shore.The rest of the book is how the family survived, making a boat from cut open barrels, saving the rich stores of the ship's hold (supplies for settlers) and then living for 12 years isolated on an island with every kind of flora and fauna imaginable, from lions, tigers, kangaroos, eagles and jackals to plants such as rubber, cassava, New Zealand flax, calabash and mangroves.The ingenuity is what was for me, as an eight year old, the attraction. How they made rubber boots, bottles, a treehouse, rugs out of hides, wool and glue, raincoats from linen shirts and rubber coating, and much more. I was so excited to read this book that I begged it for a birthday present and read it in one go.Alas, today, some of the customs and habits of the settlers will shock modern sensibilities. "Shoot first, use an animal later" will be terrifying to animal lovers. Fear of "savages" and the attitudes of Christian resignation and gratitude to Providence will flummox others. Millennials won't love it.There is a sequel to this book written by Jules Verne, the famous French adventure author. It is called "Castaways of the Flag." The second volume of the book (published as one volume) is quite an adventure so if you love this book, you'll want the sequel, even though it was not written by Johann Wyss. The style is pretty close.Note on the printing: The print in this book is rather small to make a compact volume,.

This is the most loved of all the books I read in my childhood over 60 years ago -and the most remembered. Somewhere in heaven there is Johann David Wyss smiling - a better author I never found that could keep my imagination going for so well and so long. This book's hard cover in the 1950's became dog-eared at first, then pages got creased, then the cover broke off and was lost in a rain and high wind hurricane in Rhode Island one year, then the back cover went also one day overside a boat I was on by accident, and I had the rest of the spine re-glued twice (by my 5 th grade school teacher) to make sure the rest didn't go away too- I read it and re-read it multiple times- before I was ready to go take on the world I found in this enchanting fun to read and discover with book. I'm in my 6th decade now and am reading it again - and they are just like memories- still there, still waiting for me to climb and hunt and learn and do the things with the Robinson family that I couldn't do as a child - but oh I wanted to! I made a pact with myself that I would try to do as many as I could of what the Robinsons found and did. I think I succeeded - I have been to and lived in not a few countries and seen and done many things - and I owe a lot of the imagination that took me out into the world - to this Book.

Wanted to reread an old classicIt was great

This was fine. It was not the version I remembered, but apparently there are several different versions of the text, each added to by different authors over time! It was interesting to read this one.

Just reading about the science of the times is most instructive as to how much it has grown and changed in the ensuing years.

This was very strange, the book was missing parts including the ending. It was printed in very small print and paragraphs were spread across the page. This is a great classic story and this edition was a very poor representation.

A good, clean, classic read! One of my favorites. The story of a family stranded on an island and how they survived. Great entertainment

There are no page numbers and half of the book is missing!!! We don't know the ending - not good when you are trying to use this to teach a class!

Just plain enjoyable story

The book has no page numbers, the paragraphs are horrible and overall the text size is very small.Awesome story very bad print from Amazon.

Old classic bought for my grandson. I loved it - I hope he will!

Read this when I was young and reading it again it still captivates. This was one of those books that began me on decades reading always looking for stories as interesting and exciting as The Swiss Family Robinson.

A must read for all ages.