The Swiss Family Robinson

by Wyss, Johann D.; Miller, J. Hillis; Janeway, Elizabeth

• ISBN13: 9780451529619
• ISBN10: 0451529618
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-12-07
• Publisher: Signet Classics

Summary

With a new introduction by J. Hillis Miller Swept off course by a raging storm, a Swiss pastor, his wife, and four young sons are shipwrecked on an uncharted tropical island. Thus begins the classic story of survival and adventure that has fired the imaginations of readers since it first appeared in 1812.

Author Biography

Johann David Wyss (1743–1818) was an army chaplain with four sons; it was to entertain them that he wrote The Swiss Family Robinson. His son Johan Rudolf prepared the manuscript for publication in Zurich in 1812–13. The first English edition was translated by William Godwin in 1814.

 

J. Hillis Miller taught for many years at Johns Hopkins University and then at Yale University, before going to the University of California at Irvine in 1986, where he is now a UCI Distinguished Research Professor. He is the author of many books and essays on nineteenth- and twentieth-century English, European, and American literature and on literary theory. His books include Others, Speech Acts in Literature, and On Literature, the last of which includes a section on The Swiss Family Robinson.

 

Literary critic and feminist thinker Elizabeth Janeway is the author of six novels and many works of nonfiction, including Improper Behavior, Powers of the Weak, and Between Myth and Morning.

Table of Contents

Shipwrecked and Alone	p. 1
A Desolate Island	p. 9
We Explore Our Island	p. 19
The Homeward Journey	p. 28
We Revisit the Wreck	p. 35
Mother Makes a Suggestion	p. 45
We Build a Bridge	p. 52
The Journey to the Wonderful Trees	p. 58
The Tree-House	p. 64
A Visit to Tentholm	p. 71
The Strange Animal	p. 78
Towed by a Turtle	p. 85
An Important Experiment	p. 92
The Pinnace and the Petard	p. 99
The Calabash Wood	p. 105
Last Visit to the Wreck	p. 115
The Buffalo Hunt	p. 122
The Hollow Tree	p. 131
The Rainy Season	p. 139
The Salt Cavern	p. 145
"Woodlands"	p. 155
Thanksgiving Day	p. 161
The Island Sports Carnival	p. 165
A Midnight Raid	p. 173
The Stranded Whale	p. 184
Jack Discovers a Skeleton	p. 193
Death of a Monster	p. 198
An Inland Journey	p. 208
The Desert	p. 214
Ostriches and Bears	p. 221
The Captive Ostrich	p. 230
Home Again	p. 238
A Visit to Whale Island	p. 244
Our First Harvest	p. 251
The Trial of the "Sea Horse"	p. 257
News by Pigeon Post	p. 263
To the Rescue	p. 268
After Ten Years	p. 274
The Mysterious Message	p. 281
Fritz Says Good-bye	p. 288
The Stranger	p. 293
Jenny	p. 302
The Mysterious Guns	p. 311
Three Cheers for New Switzerland!	p. 320
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