# Swiss Family Robinson--Correct Original English Translation? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [April 28, 2025, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-correct-original-english-translation/1017613 "2025-04-28T16:20:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-correct-original-english-translation/1017613/21 "2025-04-30T21:55:11Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > “What would you do if you were ship-wrecked on a deserted island?” was sort of the 18th/19th century equivalent of “What would you do during a zombie apocalypse?” And it arguably remains popular to this day. > **[Robinsonade - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Robinsonade)** > > A Robinsonade is a plot about characters being stranded in the wilderness, far away from civilization, and forced to live off the land in order to survive. Robinsonade takes its name from the 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, which … ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-correct-original-english-translation/1017613/22 "2025-04-30T22:36:17Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > “What would happen if you were shipwrecked with only five other people with a whole ship-load of supplies at your disposal” is a scenario that NEVER happens. LOL, as a Romantic influenced by fellow Swiss Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Wyss wasn’t looking at the situation in terms of realism. He was probably trying to show Rousseau’s argument that civilization was not to be trusted (“Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains”), and that away from civilization, in a “state of nature”, humans could construct a better, freer society. So the scenario of six people stranded with all the supplies isn’t just an adventure story; it’s a social and philosophical experiment that demonstrates Rousseau’s ideals. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-correct-original-english-translation/1017613/23 "2025-04-30T23:01:27Z")
> [@gkster](#): > > in a “state of nature”, humans could construct a better, freer society. Yeah, then again, even children could go all “Lord of the Flies”… ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-correct-original-english-translation/1017613/24 "2025-05-01T06:43:43Z")
Another variant is the play (and 1950s movie) _The Admirable Crichton_, where the class system is up-ended as the butler is (obvs) the competent leader/manager, and his bumbling employer clueless. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2025, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-correct-original-english-translation/1017613/25 "2025-05-08T15:33:03Z")
> [@gkster](#): > > in the original German: [Schweizerischer Robinson: Ein lehrreiches Buch für Kinder und Kinderfreunde - Johann David Wyss, Johann Rudolf Wyss - Google Books](https://books.google.com/books?id=HgKisXro2nYC&dq=%22%2C+Vater%21+sagte+Ernst%2C+ich+glaube+mein%22&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q=%22%2C%20Vater!%20sagte%20Ernst%2C%20ich%20glaube%20mein%22&f=false) The guys at QI did mention that originally the title was Der Schweizerische Robinson oder der schiffbrüchige Schweizer-Prediger und seine Familie, As Stephen Fry said, in essence it meant: A Swiss family **doing** a Robinson. (or pulling a Robinson). [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/xPmX-xAngRg/maxresdefault.jpg "QI | Swiss Family Robinson") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPmX-xAngRg&t=2s) Translators mangled it and many later thought that the family was called Robinson. The family, as noted, were not named in the book, it was just a title pointing out that it was a Robinsonade. (Curiously, nowadays, I notice a lot of this in manga or other places: Long title names that are exactly what it says on the tin -or cover-) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2025, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-correct-original-english-translation/1017613/26 "2025-05-08T16:50:28Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Translators mangled it and many later thought that the family was called Robinson. The family, as noted, were not named in the book, it was just a title pointing out that it was a Robinsonade. The family in the Gold Key comic _Space Family Robinson_ was named “Robinson”, as was the family in the unrelated TV series _Lost in Space_. Homage, or ignorant creators? Take your pick. ---
**Author:** ![Nerd1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/aca169/32.png) [@Nerd1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nerd1)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2026, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-correct-original-english-translation/1017613/27 "2026-04-20T21:22:00Z")
> Yeah, then again, even children could go all “Lord of the Flies”… On the other hand, six teenage boys were marooned on an island, and they worked together until they were rescued in good health over a year later. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongan\_castaways#:~:text=The%20Tongan%20castaways%20were%20a%20group%20of%20six,of%20Tongatapu%2C%20stealing%20a%2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongan_castaways#:~:text=The%20Tongan%20castaways%20were%20a%20group%20of%20six,of%20Tongatapu%2C%20stealing%20a%252) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-correct-original-english-translation/1017613/28 "2026-04-21T00:25:50Z")
I remember seeing the Disney movie around the time I was in first grade. For some reason, the scene where they install the bamboo plumbing in the treehouse stuck in my mind. Wasn’t Kurt Russell in the movie, probably in one of his first roles? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-correct-original-english-translation/1017613/29 "2026-04-21T04:09:50Z")
Thanks to the attraction at Disneyland, I was intimately familiar with that treehouse before I ever saw the movie for the first time on TV. What else were you going to do with those C tickets? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-correct-original-english-translation/1017613/30 "2026-04-21T13:49:07Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Wasn’t Kurt Russell in the movie, probably in one of his first roles? 'fraid not. James MacArthur (“Book’im Danno – Murder one”) was in it, although he’d ben in other Disney roles. And Tommy Kirk (another Disney fave), but Russell didn’t start until 1963. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-correct-original-english-translation/1017613/31 "2026-04-21T13:55:19Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I remember seeing the Disney movie around the time I was in first grade. For some reason, the scene where they install the bamboo plumbing in the treehouse stuck in my mind. > > Wasn’t Kurt Russell in the movie, probably in one of his first roles? Fun fact: Before Disney’s 1960 version, there had been a 1940 RKO version. Disney used that film as an example of “what not to do” (that is, film on indoor sets – the Disney filmshot on location). Nevertheless, Disney bought the rights to the RKO film and haven’t released it. It’s hard to avoid sayin that Disney suppressed the earlier version (as Wikipedia tries to do), but they pretty clearly did. There have been opportunities to get a DVD copy, but you had to look for them, It’s reportedly available streaming on Disney plus, but that doesn’t make up for all the years the film was unavailable. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swiss-family-robinson-correct-original-english-translation/1017613.md?page=1)