Emilio Salgari was an Italian writer of action adventure
swashbucklerSwashbuckler or swasher is a term that emerged in the 16th century and has been used for rough, noisy and boastful swordsmen ever since. A possible explanation for this term is that it derives from a fighting style using a side-sword with a buckler in the off-hand, which was applied with much...
s and a pioneer of science fiction.
For over a century, his novels were mandatory reading for generations of youth eager for exotic adventures. In Italy, his extensive body of work was more widely read than that of
DanteDelivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
. Today he is still among the 40 most translated Italian authors. Many of his most popular novels have been adapted as comics, animated series and feature films. He is considered the father of Italian adventure fiction and Italian pop culture, and the grandfather of the
Spaghetti WesternSpaghetti Western, also known as Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western films that emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's unique and much copied film-making style and international box-office success, so named by American critics because most were produced and...
.
Life
Emilio Salgari was born in
VeronaVerona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...
to a family of modest merchants. From a young age, he had a desire to explore the seas and studied seamanship at a Naval Academy in Venice, but his academic performance was too poor, and he never graduated.
He began his writing career as a reporter on the daily
La Nuova Arena, which published some of his work as serials. As his powers of narration grew, so did his reputation for having lived a life of adventure. He claimed to have explored the
SudanSudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
desert, met
Buffalo BillWilliam Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody was a United States soldier, bison hunter and showman. He was born in the Iowa Territory , in LeClaire but lived several years in Canada before his family moved to the Kansas Territory. Buffalo Bill received the Medal of Honor in 1872 for service to the US...
in Nebraska (he had actually met him during his "wild West Show" tour of Italy), and sailed the
Seven SeasThe phrase "Seven Seas" can refer either to a particular set of seven seas or to a great expanse of water in general. Today in modern times, this also includes the four oceans, and three large seas...
. His early biographies were filled with adventurous tales set in the
Far EastThe Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
, events which he claimed were the basis for much of his work. Salgari had actually never ventured farther than the
Adriatic SeaThe Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...
.
He turned his passion for exploration and discovery to writing. His first stories were serialized in newspapers. Early in his career, he began signing his tales as "Captain Salgari", a title he once defended in a duel when his claim to it was questioned.
Though knighted by the Queen of Italy and wildly popular, Salgari did not earn much money from his books and lived hand to mouth for most of his life.
Salgari married Ida Peruzzi - nicknamed "
AidaAida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
," - with whom he had four children - which added to the family's economic problems - and with whom he was very happy for years. Salgari private life was clouded by several tragedies. In 1889 his father committed
suicideSuicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. Ida became ill after 1903 and Salgari's struggling increased with her medical bills.
These events led Salgari to
depressionDepression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
, and he attempted suicide in 1910. After Ida was committed to a mental ward in 1911, Salgari was overwhelmed and took his own life soon afterwards, imitating the Japanese ritual of
seppukuis a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. Seppuku was originally reserved only for samurai. Part of the samurai bushido honor code, seppuku was either used voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies , or as a form of capital punishment...
, and died on April 25, 1911. He left three letters, addressed to his and Ida's children, his publisher, and the editors of his newspaper in Turin. The letter to his publisher said:
One of the sons of Emilio and Aida also committed suicide in 1933.
Writing career
Salgari wrote more than 200 adventure stories and novels, setting his tales in exotic locations, with heroes from a wide variety of cultures. He gained inspiration from reading foreign literature and newspapers, travel magazines and encyclopedias, which he used to portray his heroes' worlds. He wrote four major series:
The Pirates of Malaysia;
The Black Corsair Saga;
The Pirates of Bermuda; and a collection of adventures set in the Old West. Salgari’s heroes were mostly pirates, outlaws and barbarians, fighting against greed, abuse of power, and corruption.
Salgari opposed colonization in his fiction. His most legendary heroes
SandokanSandokan is a fictional pirate of the late 19th century, who first appeared in publication in 1883, created by Italian author Emilio Salgari. He is the protagonist of eleven adventure novels and is known throughout the South China Sea as "The Tiger of Malaysia".-Sandokan novels:Emilio Salgari...
, The Tiger of Malaysia, a Bornean prince turned pirate, and his loyal lieutenant Yanez of Gomera, led their men in attacks against the Dutch and British fleets. They declared war on
James BrookeJames, Rajah of Sarawak, KCB was the first White Rajah of Sarawak. His father, Thomas Brooke, was an English Judge Court of Appeal at Bareilly, British India; his mother, Anna Maria, born in Hertfordshire, was the illegitimate daughter of Scottish peer Colonel William Stuart, 9th Lord Blantyre,...
, the White Rajah of Sarawak, and tried to force him from his throne. The Black Corsair and Captain Morgan battled against injustice in the Caribbean, while Salgari’s pirates of Bermuda fought for American independence.
His tales had been so popular that soon his publisher hired other writers to develop adventure stories under his name. They added 50 novels to his “canon”. Salgari's style was imitated by many, but no other Italian adventure writer managed to duplicate his popular success.
Legacy
Salgari's work was imitated in one form or another by many who came after him. A large part of the Italian adventure literature is a continuation of Salgari's work. Many late 19th century writers such as Luigi Motta and Emilio Fancelli wrote further
Sandokan adventures imitating Salgari's style: fast-paced, filled with great battles, blood, violence and punctuated with humour.
The style soon spread to movies and television. One example is the work of the director
Sergio LeoneSergio Leone was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter most associated with the "Spaghetti Western" genre.Leone's film-making style includes juxtaposing extreme close-up shots with lengthy long shots...
, whose outlaw heroes in his
Spaghetti WesternSpaghetti Western, also known as Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western films that emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's unique and much copied film-making style and international box-office success, so named by American critics because most were produced and...
s were inspired by Salgari's piratical adventurers. More than 50 film adaptations have been made of Salgari's novels, and many more were inspired by his work (corsair stories, jungle adventure stories, and swashbuckling B movies, such as
Morgan, the PirateMorgan, the Pirate is a 1961 film by André De Toth and Primo Zeglio, and starring Steve Reeves.For the pirate Morgan see Admiral Sir Henry Morgan...
, starring
Steve ReevesStephen L. Reeves was an American bodybuilder and actor. At the peak of his career, he was the highest-paid actor in Europe.-Childhood:...
).
Federico FelliniFederico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
loved Salgari's books.
Pietro MascagniPietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music...
had over 50 Salgari titles in his library.
Umberto EcoUmberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
read Salgari's works as a child.
His work was very popular in
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Spanish-speaking countries, where Latin American writers such as
Gabriel Garcia MarquezGabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...
,
Isabel AllendeIsabel Allende Llona is a Chilean writer with American citizenship. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the "magic realist" tradition, is famous for novels such as The House of the Spirits and City of the Beasts , which have been commercially successful...
,
Carlos FuentesCarlos Fuentes Macías is a Mexican writer and one of the best-known living novelists and essayists in the Spanish-speaking world. He has influenced contemporary Latin American literature, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages.-Biography:Fuentes was born in...
,
Jorge Luis BorgesJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
and
Pablo NerudaPablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....
, all attested to reading him when young.
Che GuevaraErnesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
read 62 of his books, according to his biographer
Paco Ignacio Taibo IIPaco Ignacio Taibo II , is a Mexican writer and novelist....
, who remarked that the revolutionary's
anti-imperialismAnti-imperialism, strictly speaking, is a term that may be applied to a movement opposed to any form of colonialism or imperialism. Anti-imperialism includes opposition to wars of conquest, particularly of non-contiguous territory or people with a different language or culture; it also includes...
could be seen to be "Salgarian in origin".
Though popular with the masses, Salgari was shunned by critics throughout his life and for most of the 20th century. It was not until the late 1990s that his writings began to be revisited, and new translations appeared in print. They have been newly appreciated for their characterization and plots. In 2001 the first National Salgari Association was founded in Italy to celebrate his work.
Films
Historians debate the first film adaptation of a Salgari novels.
CabiriaCabiria is a silent movie from the early years of Italy's movie industry, directed by Giovanni Pastrone . The movie is set in ancient Sicily, Carthage, and Cirta during the period of the Second Punic War . It follows a melodramatic main plot about an abducted little girl, Cabiria, and features...
, directed by Giovanni Pastrone bears many similarities to Emilio Salgari's 1908 adventure novel
Cartagine in Fiamme (Carthage is Burning). Salgari was never credited, and
Gabriele D'AnnunzioGabriele D'Annunzio or d'Annunzio was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist, and dramatist...
was billed as the official screenwriter. D'Annunzio had been brought on board to help revise the film once it had been shot, earning the credit by changing the title to
Cabiria, changing the name of some of the characters, and rewriting the captions from what Pastrone had done. The three-hour epic movie with its cast of thousands created a sensation throughout Italy. It pioneered epic screen production and foreshadowed the work of D.W. Griffith,
Sergei EisensteinSergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein , né Eizenshtein, was a pioneering Soviet Russian film director and film theorist, often considered to be the "Father of Montage"...
and others.
Vitale De Stefano brought Salgari's pirates to the big screen in the early 1920s with a series of five films shot over two years, including
Il corsaro nero The Black CorsairThe Black Corsair is an 1898 adventure novel written by Italian novelist Emilio Salgari. Set in the Caribbean during the golden age of piracy, the novel narrates the exploits of Emilio Roccanera, Lord of Ventimiglia and his attempts to avenge his brothers, slain by the Duke Van Guld, now Governor...
and
La Regina dei caraibi (The Queen of the Caribbean).
Lex BarkerLex Barker was an American actor best known for playing Tarzan of the Apes and leading characters from Karl May's novels.-Early life:...
appeared as the tiger hunter Tremal-Naik in the 1955 B-movie
The Mystery of The Black Jungle. Sandokan was played by Hercules star
Steve ReevesStephen L. Reeves was an American bodybuilder and actor. At the peak of his career, he was the highest-paid actor in Europe.-Childhood:...
in
Sandokan the GreatSandokan the Great is a 1963 adventure film directed by Umberto Lenzi and starring Steve Reeves.-Cast:* Steve Reeves - Sandokan* Geneviève Grad - Mary Ann* Andrea Bosic - Yanez* Rik Battaglia - Sambigliong* Mario Valdemarin - Tenente Ross...
and
The Pirates of MalaysiaThe Pirates of Malaysia is a 1964 swashbuckler directed by Umberto Lenzi.Shot on location in Singapore, The Pirates of Malaysia is the story of a Malaysian rebel, Sandokan, who, with his group of renegades, tries to thwart an evil British general from forcing the good Sultan Hassim to resign in...
aka The Pirates of The Seven Seas.
Ray DantonRay Danton , also known as Raymond Danton, was a radio, film, stage, and television actor, director, and producer whose most famous role was The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond...
played the pirate in Luigi Capuano's
Sandokan Against the Leopard of Sarawak (aka
Throne of Vengeance.) and later reprised the role in
Sandokan Fights Back (aka
The Conqueror and the Empress).
In 1976, the landmark
Sandokan TV miniseries played throughout Europe. It starred
Kabir BediKabir Bedi is an Indian television and film actor. His career has spanned three continents including India, the United States and many European countries in three mediums: film, television and theatre. He is noted for his role as Emperor Shah Jahan in Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story...
in the title role and attracted more than 80 million viewers a week. Bedi has been considered the quintessential
SandokanSandokan is a fictional pirate of the late 19th century, who first appeared in publication in 1883, created by Italian author Emilio Salgari. He is the protagonist of eleven adventure novels and is known throughout the South China Sea as "The Tiger of Malaysia".-Sandokan novels:Emilio Salgari...
ever since. He later reprised the role in the late 1990s in a series of sequels.
Work available in English
Though Salgari's novels have been popular in Europe and Latin America for over a century, at present only five titles are available in English.
Tigers of Malaysia series
- The Mystery of The Black Jungle
- Sandokan: The Tigers of Mompracem
- Sandokan: The Pirates of Malaysia
- Sandokan: The Two Tigers
- Sandokan: The King of the Sea
Pirates of Malaysia (Sandokan)
- The Mystery of the Black Jungle
The Mystery of the Black Jungle is an exotic adventure novel written by Italian author Emilio Salgari, published in 1895. It features two of his most famous characters, the hunter Tremal-Naik and his loyal servant Kammamuri. The adventure continues in The Pirates of Malaysia.-Plot summary:Few can...
(I Misteri della Jungla Nera, 1895)
- The Tigers of Mompracem
The Tigers of Mompracem is an exotic adventure novel written by Italian author Emilio Salgari, published in 1900. It features his most famous character, Sandokan.-Plot introduction:...
(Le tigri di Mompracem, 1900)
- The Pirates of Malaysia
The Pirates of Malaysia is an exotic adventure novel written by Italian author Emilio Salgari, published in 1896. It features his most famous character, Sandokan, and is a sequel to The Tigers of Mompracem....
(I pirati della Malesia, 1896)
- The Two Tigers
The Two Tigers is the fourth adventure novel in the Sandokan series written by Italian author Emilio Salgari, published in 1904.-Plot summary:...
(Le due Tigri, 1904)
- The King of the Sea
The King of the Sea is an exotic adventure novel written by Italian author Emilio Salgari, published in 1906. It features his most famous character, Sandokan.-Plot introduction:...
(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 di 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.
The Black Corsair series
- The Black Corsair
The Black Corsair is an 1898 adventure novel written by Italian novelist Emilio Salgari. Set in the Caribbean during the golden age of piracy, the novel narrates the exploits of Emilio Roccanera, Lord of Ventimiglia and his attempts to avenge his brothers, slain by the Duke Van Guld, now Governor...
(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
The Son of the Red Corsair is an exotic adventure novel written by Italian author Emilio Salgari, published in 1908...
(Il figlio del Corsaro Rosso, 1908)
- The Last Pirates (Gli ultimi filibustieri, 1908)
The Pirates of Bermuda Series
- I corsari delle Bermude (1909)
- La crociera della Tuonante (1910)
- Straordinarie avventure di Testa di Pietra (1915)
Adventures in the Old West Series
- Sulle frontiere del Far-West (1908)
- La scotennatrice (1909)
- Le selve ardenti (1910)
Two sailors
- Il Tesoro del Presidente del Paraguay (1894)
- Il Continente Misterioso (1894)
Il Fiore delle Perle
- Le stragi delle Filippine (1897)
- Il Fiore delle Perle (1901)
Other adventures
- La favorita del Mahdi (1887)
- Duemila Leghe sotto l'America (1888; also known as: Il Tesoro Misterioso)
- La scimitarra di Budda (1892)
- I pescatori di balene (1894)
- Le novelle marinaresche di Mastro Catrame (1894; also known as: Il vascello maledetto)
- 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 (1897; also known as: Tay-See)
- 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 (1901; also known as: Verso l'Artide con la Stella Polare)
- Le stragi della China (1901; also known as: Il sotterraneo della morte)
- La montagna d'oro (1901; also known as: Il treno volante)
- 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 (1904, also known as La Naufragatrice)
- 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)
External links
- "Emilio Salgari", Official Website, in Italian
- "Emilio Salgari", ROH Press, in English. Also includes images from movies and animated series based on his novels.
- "Emilio Salgari: Literature’s Invisible Man", ROH Press, in English.
- Carla Passino, "Book of the Week: Sandokan, the tigers of Mompracem", Italy Magazine, December 2009
- Salgari's Works: text with concordances and frequency list
- Le novelle marinaresche di Mastro Catrame, Audiobook Creative Commons Edition
- Works by Emilio Salgari at Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...