I didn’t realize it until just now, but this is the second-oldest book I’ve reviewed on this blog—the oldest being the superior Robinson Crusoe (1719). It’s no surprise that many of my fiction reads 100 years or older deal with ships and shipwrecks, since most adventure-seekers back then could scratch their itches only by crossing the waves.

My kids and I chose this book for this year’s Cousins’ Book Club, and I can admit that I was more excited going into it than they were. While I had hoped to read the novel aloud to them, we opted instead to purchase it on audio book via Chirp for our long drives across the U.S. this summer. I’m glad, because the further the story ran, the more I scoffed at its more ludicrous elements, and I’m not sure how well I’d have been able to keep my under-the-breath comments to myself!

You needn’t look too deeply into my blog to know that I love stories of shipwrecks and survival, though I’m much happier to read true stories than fiction. Books like Robinson Crusoe, The Castaways (1870), and The Swiss Family Robinson are incredibly unbelievable to modern readers—perhaps not to the point of unreadable, but close.  In this review, I’d like to touch on three topics that sprang from this book.

The Family’s Incredible Good Fortune

I had been surprised by the great luck Robinson Crusoe had 100 years prior in finding rifles and gunpowder and all the provisions he needed to sustain life on his deserted island, but this Swiss family outdoes him. The luck by which they come about their own survival is a miracle in itself, but that the ship they had boarded was one outfitted to supply an entire colony with provisions even more so. Their perpetual return to the craft to gut her of her stores was fortuitous, but it made the story leans towards implausibility.

Dishes, utensils, fabrics, weapons, tools, animals, lard, etc.—this family had it all in spades. If you’re looking for a story of “survival”, you won’t find it here. This is best-case-scenario “thrival,” and hard to swallow because of it. True survival looks like Brian’s experiences in Hatchet (1986) and Brian’s Winter—or like Tom Hanks in Castaway.

All this to say that I consider this book more fantasy than adventure. Preachy fantasy too!

Pastor Wyss’ Life Lessons and Proverbs

Through the voice of Father, Johann David Wyss, an ordained minister himself, preached many mini-sermons to his readers in this book. One particular event came on the anniversary of their wreck:

One morning…happening to awake unusually early, I turned my thoughts, as I lay waiting for sunrise, to considering what length of time we had now passed on this coast, and discovered, to my surprise, that the very next day would be the anniversary of our escape from the wreck. My heart swelled with gratitude to the gracious God, who had then granted us deliverance, and ever since had loaded us with benefits; and I resolved to set tomorrow apart as a day of thanksgiving, in joyful celebration of the occasion… Therefore I read aloud passages from my journal, as well as many beautiful verses from the Psalms, expressive of joyful praise and thanksgiving, so that even the youngest among us was impressed and solemnized at the recollections of escape from a terrible death, and also led to bless and praise the name of the Lord our Deliverer.  (Chapter 9)

Most often, though, Father speaks in proverbs, like those quips that people often mistake for Scripture itself. For example, take this from Chapter 2: “God helps those who help themselves; let us not despise the smallest article, for it may one day save us.”

Here’s just a small sampling of other little lessons Father teaches throughout the book:

• “Learning is good, Ernest, but it must go hand in hand with humility and action.” (Chapter 6)
• “Labor sweetens the bread it earns; idleness is a rust that consumes the spirit.” (Chapter 7)
• “Courage is not rashness, but a calm trust that God will aid the diligent.” (Chapter 10)
• “Enjoy the gifts of Providence, but do not be their slave.” (Chapter 14)
• “Behold in every plant, every animal, the wisdom of the Creator, who made nothing in vain.” (Chapter 16)

This last one brings me to the third topic…

Natural History in Action

Perhaps what people dislike most about this book—and Disney’s 1960 film adaptation of it—is how the family treats the animals they meet on the island. And boy, do they meet some animals!

For whatever reason, this random island is filled with animals that comes from all corners of the earth, as if some traveling zoo-ship had wrecked on its shores 100 years prior. There’s no real explanation for it all, just that the family responds with curiosity and excitement. It reminded me a lot of Cpt. Reid’s book The Castaways (1870) in this respect.

Then, like most naturalists in their era (I’m thinking of Theodore Roosevelt a century later, actually), they “study” these animals best by hunting them down, sometimes nearly out of existence (as in the case of the monkey genocide). They create an elaborate museum of their creatures, thanks to the art of taxidermy, and become experts in the fauna field.

It just never sits right with a reader that every time they met some new creature on the island, we can predict with near 100% accuracy that one of the characters is going to find a way to kill it. In fact, my daughter at one point about 3/4 of the way through exclaimed: “Why do they kill everything??” I wonder the exact same thing—especially since Father tells the family at one point in Chapter 8: “The creatures are given to us not only for our use but also for our care.” It would have been good to see more of the care aspect on display.

Conclusion

Overall, this is an entertaining book if one approaches is as a feel-good fantasy rather than a tale of survival and adventure. I realizes after reading this that Disney’s 1960 film added way more to the story than what the novel contains—which is too bad, since I had promised the kids they get to see pirates in this one! Nevertheless, it was a fun story to read this year as a family and nice to check off my long list of long-to-reads.

Last in our Cousins’ Book Club list this year is Emily’s Runaway Imagination by Beverly Cleary (1961). My son (14) isn’t looking forward much to it, but it will be good to finish and to start consider which ten books we’ll read together next!

©2025 E.T.