Emilio Salgari

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Emilio Salgari (August 21 1862 - April 25 1911) was an Italian writer of action adventure swashbucklers and a pioneer of science fiction. Image:Emilio Salgari ritratto.jpg

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Biography

Emilio Salgari was born at Verona.

After a failed attempt to become a naval officer he turned his passion for exploration and discovery to writing. He wrote more than two hundred adventure stories and novels, setting his tales in exotic locations, with heroes from a wide variety of cultures.

While extremely popular in Italy, Portugal and Spanish speaking countries (known as the Italian Jules Verne, although his works were usually more about cliffhanger adventures than speculative or scientific fiction), he remains less known in the rest of the world.

The deeds of the fictitious Sandokan seem to be loosely based on the exploits of Libau, a Dayak chieftain resisting James Brooke from his hideout at Mount Sandok in Sarawak.

Though his characters achieved an almost immortal fame, and Salgari had millions of readers, he never attained the financial success and stability he deserved. His publishers, taking advantage of his poor business skills, left him almost destitute. Overwhelmed by creditors and family misfortunes, he committed suicide in Turin on April 25, 1911. In one last act, drawn from his vast research and imagination, he slit his throat and stomach, in the ceremonial suicide of the Japanese samurai.

But though the dreamer was gone, his books continued to sell and many owe their love of adventure, reading and writing to the characters and stories he created. Composers Pietro Mascagni and Giacomo Puccini were contemporary fans; later Umberto Eco and Federico Fellini would read Salgari to explore the world. Sergio Leone, one of the fathers of the spaghetti western, got his first glimpse of the outlaw hero in the pages of Salgari's books.

Emilio Salgari is particularly popular in Latin America. Isabel Allende, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Pablo Neruda, Luis Sepulveda, Octavio Paz and Carlos Fuentes all devoured his works in their youth. Che Guevara first read of boarding raids, jungle warfare and battles against injustice in Salgari's adventure novels. Guevara read 62 of Salgari's books causing his biographer Paco Ignacio Taibo II to remark that one could see that Che's anti-imperialism was "salgariano in origin."

Several of his novels were adapted for the big screen, Vitale De Stefano being the first to direct some of Salgari's pirates in the early 1920s. Lex Barker appeared as the tiger hunter Tremal-Naik in the 1955 B-movie The Mystery of The Black Jungle, while Sandokan was played by muscle man and Hercules star Steve Reeves in Sandokan the Great and The Pirates of The Seven Seas. Ray Danton took his turn playing the pirate in Luigi Capuano's Sandokan Against the Leopard of Sarawak (aka Throne of Vengeance.) and later reprised the role along with most of the original cast in Sandokan Fights Back (aka The Conqueror and the Empress).

It wasn't until 1976 that the quintessential Sandokan was cast, Kabir Bedi played the Tiger of Malaysia and took Europe by storm. He later reprised the role in the late 1990s in a series of sequels.

Though popular with the masses, Emilio Salgari was shunned by critics throughout his life and for most of the 20th century. It wasn't until the late 1990s that his writings began to be revisited and new translations appeared in print.

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The Sandokan series

Sandokan, "The Tiger of Malaysia", is Emilio Salgari's most enduring creation. Orphaned when the British murdered his family and stole his throne, Sandokan gathered a legion of pirates and took to the sea to attain his vengeance. Under the command of Sandokan and his loyal friend Yanez de Gomera, the Tigers of Mompracem fight for the defense of tiny native kingdoms against the colonial powers of the Dutch and British empires.

The first Sandokan adventure appeared in serial form in the La Nuova Arena in 1883, and was published as Le tigri di Mompracem in 1900. The tale proved so popular, the characters so intriguing, that it spawned a legion of sequels, pitting Sandokan and Yanez against a variety of enemies: Rajah James Brooke, Governor of Sarawak, better known as The Exterminator for the merciless way he hunted down pirates; the Thugs of the Kali cult in the Indian Sunderbands, and a variety of petty dictators and colonial powers. Salgari's pen transformed the bloodthirsty pirate into a noble warrior, a kind of Malay Robin Hood, imbuing his characters with a strong sense of idealism, passion, and loyalty.

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Titles in the series

  • The Mystery of the Black Jungle (I Misteri della Jungla Nera, 1895)
  • The Tigers of Mompracem (Le Tigri di Mompracem, 1900)
  • The Pirates of Malaysia (I Pirati della Malesia, 1896)
  • The Two Tigers (Le due Tigri, 1904)
  • King of the Sea (Il Re del Mare, 1906)
  • Quest for a Throne (Alla conquista di un impero, 1907)
  • Sandokan Fights Back (Sandokan alla riscossa, 1907)
  • Return to Mompracem (La riconquista del Mompracem, 1908)
  • The False Brahman (Il Bramino dell'Assam, 1911)
  • An Empire Crumbles (La caduta di un impero, 1911)
  • Yanez' Revenge (La rivincita di Yanez, 1913)

The last two tiles were published posthumously.

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The Black Corsair series

  • The Black Corsair (Il Corsaro Nero, 1898)
  • Queen of The Caribbean (La regina dei Caraibi, 1901)
  • Yolanda Daughter of The Black Corsair (Jolanda, la figlia del Corsaro Nero, 1905)
  • Son of the Red Corsair (Il figlio del Corsaro Rosso, 1908)
  • The Last Pirates (Gli ultimi filibustieri,, 1908)
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The Pirates of Bermuda series

  • I corsari delle Bermude (1909)
  • La crociera della Tuonante (1910)
  • Straordinarie avventure di Testa di Pietra (1915)
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Adventures in the Old West series

  • Sulle frontiere del Far-West (1908)
  • La scotennatrice (1909)
  • Le selve ardenti (1910)
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Other series

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Two sailors

  • Il Tesoro del Presidente del Paraguay (1894)
  • Il Continente Misterioso (1894)
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Il Fiore delle Perle

  • Le stragi delle Filippine (1897)
  • Il Fiore delle Perle (1901)
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I figli dell'aria

  • I Figli dell'Aria (1904)
  • Il Re dell'Aria (1907)
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Capitan Tempesta

  • Capitan Tempesta (1905)
  • Il Leone di Damasco (1910)
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Other adventures

  • La favorita del Mahdi (1887)
  • Duemila Leghe sotto l'America (also known as Il Tesoro Misterioso, 1888)
  • La scimitarra di Budda (1892)
  • I pescatori di balene (1894)
  • Le novelle marinaresche di Mastro Catrame (also known as Il vascello maledetto, 1894)
  • Un dramma nell'Oceano Pacifico (1895)
  • Il re della montagna (1895)
  • I naufraghi del Poplador (1895)
  • Al Polo Australe in velocipede (1895)
  • Nel paese dei ghiacci (1896)
  • I drammi della schiavitù (1896)
  • Il re della Prateria (1896)
  • Attraverso l'Atlantico in pallone (1896)
  • I naufragatori dell'Oregon (1896)
  • I Robinson italiani (1896)
  • I pescatori di Trepang (1896)
  • Il capitano della Djumna (1897)
  • La rosa del Dong-Giang (also known as Tay-See, 1897)
  • La città dell'oro (1898)
  • La Costa d'Avorio (1898)
  • Al Polo Nord (1898)
  • La capitana del Yucatan (1899)
  • Le caverne dei diamanti (1899)
  • Le avventure di un marinaio in Africa (1899)
  • Il figlio del cacciatore d'orsi (1899)
  • Gli orrori della Siberia (1900)
  • I minatori dell'Alaska (1900)
  • Gli scorridori del mare (1900)
  • Avventure fra le pellirosse (1900)
  • La Stella Polare e il suo viaggio avventuroso (also known as Verso l'Artide con la Stella Polare, 1901)
  • Le stragi della China (also known as Il sotterraneo della morte, 1901)
  • La montagna d'oro (also known as Il treno volante, 1901)
  • I naviganti della Meloria (1902)
  • La montagna di luce (1902)
  • La giraffa bianca (1902)
  • I predoni del Sahara (1903)
  • Le pantere di Algeri (1903)
  • Sul mare delle perle (1903)
  • L'uomo di fuoco (1904)
  • I solitari dell'Oceano (1904)
  • La città del re lebbroso (1904)
  • La gemma del fiume rosso (1904)
  • L'eroina di Port Arthur (also known as La Naufragatrice, 1904)
  • Le grandi pesche nei mari australi (1904)
  • La sovrana del campo d'oro (1905)
  • La Perla Sanguinosa (1905)
  • Le figlie dei Faraoni (1905)
  • La Stella dell'Araucania (1906)
  • Le meraviglie del Duemila (1907)
  • Il tesoro della montagna azzurra (1907)
  • Le aquile della steppa (1907)
  • Sull'Atlante (1907)
  • Cartagine in fiamme (1908)
  • Una sfida al Polo (1909)
  • La Bohème italiana (1909)
  • Storie rosse (1910)
  • I briganti del Riff (1911)
  • I predoni del gran deserto (1911)
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External links

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See also

es:Emilio Salgari hr:Emilio Salgari it:Emilio Salgari pl:Emilio Salgari

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