Robinson Library, Switzerland

The Oldest Book

karremann_admin — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Are you ready to embark on another adventure? Robinson Crusoe certainly is as he sets out to explore the world once again in The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719). A copy of the sequel of the world-famous novel can be found at the Robinson-Library, a second edition printed already in 1720. Almost too delicate to touch, it is the library’s oldest possession. More than 300 years have left…

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Female Robinsons

karremann_admin — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Most of us are familiar with the story of Robinson Crusoe, a man stranded on a desert island, but have you ever wondered how the story would change if Crusoe was female? This is the concern of ‘Female Robinsonades’. Stories of female castaways began to appear shortly after the publication of Defoe’s novel, pointing to a fascination with exploring an alternative perspective on the conventional…

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The Black Crusoe

karremann_admin — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 08:00:00 +0000

The Black man submitting to his White master, Robinson Crusoe teaching Man Friday to say “yes”, “no” and “master”. These images are connected to critical readings of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe as a novel about colonialism. Many illustrated editions feature the key scene of colonial submission. But one nineteenth-century Robinsonade reverses its message: The Black Crusoe by French author Alfred Séguin…

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The Swiss Family Robinson

karremann_admin — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 07:00:00 +0000

The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss (1743–1818) tells the story of a pastor’s family of six who leave Switzerland around 1800 for a missionary assignment in the South Pacific. In this explicit adaptation of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, the characters in the ‘family Robinsonade’ are also shipwrecked and from then on live as the only survivors on a deserted island.

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Robinson in China

karremann_admin — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Did you know that Robinson Crusoe also travelled to China? After his return to England at the end of Part One, he is eager to see his island again and to explore the world. Like many eighteenth-century merchants, he travels to the Far East. After a long sojourn in the Bay of Bengal and Indonesia, he enters China through its southern shore with some Portuguese sailors and a Jesuit priest. Together…

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Arctic Robinsons

karremann_admin — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Imagine someone removed Robinson Crusoe from his tropical island and placed him into the colds of Greenland to create an arctic Robinson. That might be a concept that seems hard to grasp. But two books in the collection, the autobiographical account by Ejnar Mikkselsen, An Arctic Robinson (German: Ein arktischer Robinson, 1913), and the adventure novel Nuvat the Brave: An Eskimo Robinson Crusoe…

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Illustrated Robinsons

karremann_admin — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 04:00:00 +0000

One reason for the immense popularity of Robinson Crusoe were the richly illustrated editions the novel as well as retellings for young readers. The covers and spines of the books often show immediately recognisable moments from the novel, while the text is interspersed with vividly imagined scenes full of colour and detail. The publishing history of Robinson Crusoe and its adaptations is a…

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Robinson and Graphic Art

karremann_admin — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 03:00:00 +0000

Illustrations have been an important dimension of Robinson Crusoe‘s popular appealsince it was first published over 300 years ago. Many of the works and artefacts in the collection have beautifully illustrated covers, as well as maps and drawings hidden among the pages. There are also several items which are not books, but rather works of visual art or new interpretations of the form.

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Crusoe in Consumer Culture

karremann_admin — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 02:00:00 +0000

Among the many books at the Robinson Library, some curious items of everyday life can be found that one would never expect on the shelves of a literary archive: a tin of tuna, a sheet of thin orange wrapping papers, a tray with single portions of coffee cream. A closer look reveals that they all bear scenes from Robinson Crusoe. Yet what does Defoe’s novel have to do with these mundane consumer…

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Robinson’s Animals

karremann_admin — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 01:00:00 +0000

A common myth about Defoe’s novel is that Robinson Crusoe was alone on his island. What is often forgotten is that Robinson’s “little family” included his dog and the two cats. Beside domesticated pets, the island also hosts a wider range of familiar and of novel creatures that support or threaten Crusoe’s survival. These animals are ever-present throughout the story and, depicted on covers and in…

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