The Swiss Family Robinson

Name: The Swiss Family Robinson
Brand: Penguin Random House NZ
SKU: 9780143104995
Price: 55.0 NZD
Availability: InStock

By Johann D. Wyss

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Summary

The Swiss Family Robinson tells the timeless tale of a Swiss pastor, his wife, and their four sons, who are shipwrecked on a remote tropical island. Struggling to survive, they creatively use the island's natural resources to build a new life together. Inspired by Robinson Crusoe, this classic adventure explores themes of family, ingenuity, and resilience in the face of adversity.
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Format: Paperback / softback

$55⁰⁰

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The Swiss Family Robinson

$55⁰⁰

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Ideal for readers who enjoy classic survival stories, family adventures, and historical fiction. Suitable for readers interested in early 19th-century literature and timeless tales of exploration and self-reliance.

A terrible storm strands a Swiss pastor, with his wife and four sons, on a tropical island. Luckily, the Robinsons are optimistic and inventive, and with what they salvage from the wrecked ship, and the island's abundant fruits, plants and animals, they soon adapt - each day discovering new dangers, skills and delights.

Description

The authoritative original English version of a beloved classic.

One of the world's best-loved stories of shipwreck and survival, The Swiss Family Robinson portrays a family's struggle to create a new life for themselves on a strange and fantastic tropical island. Blown off course by a raging storm, the family—a Swiss pastor, his wife, their four young sons, plus two dogs and a shipload of livestock—must rely on one another in order to adapt to their needs the natural wonders of their exotic new home.

Inspired by Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, this classic story of invention and adventure has fired the imaginations of readers since it first appeared in 1812. Freely translated over the years, with major sections excised and new subplots added, the novel is published here in its original English translation, fully restored for a new generation of readers.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780143104995

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 29 May 2007

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Classics

Contributors:

Introduction by John Seelye
Notes by John Seelye

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 25.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 397g

Pages: 496

Collections

Classic Fiction Fiction General Fiction Johann D. Wyss Literary Fiction Penguin Books Penguin Classics

About the Author

Johann Wyss (1743-1818) was, like the narrator of The Swiss Family Robinson, a Swiss pastor who had four sons. He devised the idea of the island and its plethora of natural resources as a way to entertain and instruct his children. One of his sons, Johann Rudolf (1782-1830), was an accomplished writer and poet, educator and editor who devoted himself to collecting and publishing the folklore of his homeland, and who in 1811 composed the Swiss national anthem, "Call'st Thou, My Fatherland?," to the tune of "God Save the King." Johann Rudolf is best known for having completed and seen to publication of his father's novel, originally titled Der Schweizerische Robinson (Zurich, 1812) and translated into English two years after its first publication. The novel was an immediate popular success, and since then its translators have been many, and they have freely adapted and expanded the original German text, making it one of the most popular novels of all time. This edition reproduces the original English translation from 1816 by the great political philosopher William Godwin and his wife Mary. John Seelye (editor, 1931-2015) taught at the University of Florida and wrote numerous books, among themThe True Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,Mark Twain at the Movies,Prophetic Waters- The River in Early American Literature,Beautiful Machine- Rivers and the Early Republic, Memory's Nation- The Place of Plymouth Rock, andWar Games- Richard Harding Davis and the New Imperialism. For thirty years he was the consulting editor for Penguin Classics in American literature.