sweetpaulie's Full Review: Chris Tait ( editor ) - Swiss Family Robinson: Lev...
SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON
Forkids invited me, along with Leah, gracef, KristinThomas, caconti, cornelia, conradd, stonehousellc, Grouch, auntnono, halfsweet, taurusmoon, DoubleCoog, caravan70, kcfoxy, mshawpyle, sleestakk, kchowell, emlin, CurtisEdmonds, fdknight, WorkingMomof2, expono, kimmiko, Bonies7, pogomom, Redlass, Lambira, poseidon, GwenK, jrk, and ErgoPropterHoc, to review our favorite children's book. Forkids is getting ready for a milestone epinions piece and asked us to join her by submitting these reviews. Thanks for all your work, Forkids, and congrats on all your contributions to the site.
I recall reading SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON (SFR) aloud, to my sister (19 months younger than I), when I was seven or eight years old. I was an "early reader" and remember the joy and feeling of accomplishment I felt by reading to her. If there were halcyon days in my youth, these days were included.
I think that the year was 1947 (yes, I'm that old). I can remember, in 1945, the "Bomb" being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, torpedoed tankers burning on the Atlantic horizon at night, and asking my parents what we had won when I heard that "We won the war!" It seems like air-raid drills, bomb shelters and the cold war was what we won, in my childhood mind, as they followed the euphoria of the troops coming home.
The story of the SFR's triumph over the powers of both the crew who abandoned them when their vessel went aground, and the challenges presented by establishing a life on an uninhabited island must have been reassuring to the seven-year-old reader I try to recall. The intact family must have also been appealing as my dad was absent often. I'm sure the "happy ending" was a plus. Rereading the book fifty-three years later has been quite an experience. I am reviewing the book, in part, in this piece, and it follows.
The SFR was written by Johann Wyss in 1812. If you'd have asked me, prior to my buying my recent copy, who wrote the book I'd have said Robert Louis Stevenson. Yes, that's my final answer, Regis. It's strange to me how the mind misremembers facts and names. Wyss had read the Greek's adventures and DeFoe's ROBINSON CRUSOE. There are vestiges of these in Wyss' book.
SFR was, originally, four different essays by Wyss. They were written as lessons on morality, Christian ethics, science/non-science, and geography(with a lot of adventure thrown in), for his sons. The essays were combined into book form by the sons after Wyss' death and published as a novel. In the book the family is the father (narrator), mother (who we find has a name after 50 pages or so) and four sons. The sons range in age from five or six through late adolescence.
The language is rather formal and the story reflects the patriarchal world view of the era. The gifts given the wife during the story are all work-related gifts or are utilitarian. She accepts these with the expected aplomb and probity of the "good-wife" of 1800. Some of the tripe that appears on epinions reflects these dated and dangerous views and, IMHO, the site would be better without them. But I digress.
The island is a paradise with plenty of water, native flora and fauna, that easily find their way into the family's larder. The explanation of how in the world this variety of plants and animals arrived on this island is never addressed, and the story does alright without that data.
The ship is filled with a hold-full of supplies for a new colony and the SFR is able to remove the cargo, from the reef-bound ship, to the island. The SFR establishes a half-dozen homes, of sorts, on the island; a tree house, a cave and several less formal dwellings. All of these accomplishments occur with all family members working together and praying together. I read the book, the first time, in the era when the Rosary was regularly prayed and broadcast over the radio. "The family that prays together stays together" was drilled into my head five days a week by the good Sisters of St. Joseph. One could describe the story as "ego syntonic" and not be far off.
This is a children's book. I loved it. The adventures were great and I have enjoyed rereading them more than fifty years later. It would be very easy to take more shots at the book than I already have. The message is that hard work, intelligence and a strong faith will get you through hard times. I can't/won't argue against that premise. For the last four nights I have willingly suspended disbelief as I walked the shores of the island as an uninvited and silent member of the family.
One could certainly enjoy reading, or hearing read, these stories by a father for his children. There are excellent, richly illustrated volumes of this book available. I bought my very plain copy at B&N for $4.95; a cheap ticket for a pleasant journey into the past. sweetpaulie says to give this one a try, and try reading it to your kids . . . or your kid sister.
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