Steig’s juvenile novel Abel’s Island (1976) is a Robinsonade, the adventure of Abelard Hassam di Chirico Flint a mouse stranded for a year on an island in a river.
Like Robinson Crusoe, Abel manages to live off the land and returns to his former life chastened but eager to resume his old life.
The adventure begins when Abel and his wife Amanda have a picnic. “Early in august 1907, the first year of their marriage, Abel and Amanda went to a picnic in the woods some distance from the town where they lived. Though there is an ominous sign of an approaching thunderstorm, Abel and Amanda disregard it.
At their peril, the storm approaches d as they lunch on a refined lunch of “pot cheese and watercress, along with hard-boiled egg, onions, olives, and black caviar.” It’s an elegant menu because Abel is a sophisticated mouse. Carefree, the loving mice toast each other and relax on the forest moss.
When it rains, however, Abel gets swept away in the river but manages to wade ashore on an island where he remains for a year before figuring out how to regain the shore.
At last, a chastened Abel climb the steps to home and a new life with Amanda.
Featured Image: “They Played a Jolly Game of Croquet.”
See William Steig. Abel’s Island. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1976