I remember reading somewhere that Burroughs never visited Africa before writing his Tarzan books. Salgari may not have had direct experience of the times and places he describes here, but I believe he is not an exception among writers of the period. I believe my very short summary of the plot to be enough of a teaser for the sort of adventure this story covers. I will not repeat my reservations about the literary value of the text, more suited for a younger audience. The Pearl of Labuan falls in love herself with the dangerous pirate while the authorities, with the help of the actual historical figure of James Brooke, the Rajah of Sarawak, are determined to raze the island fortress of Mompracem to the ground. Numerous complications, jungle adventures, battles at sea, tiger hunts and daring incursions against the fortified Guillonk villa ensue. He wakes up a couple of days later in a luxurious bed, tended by the alabaster hand of Lady Marrianna Guillonk, daughter of the local English governor, and the very muse who set his heart on fire. The pirate fleet is destroyed, with Sandokan wounded and left stranded, unconscious, on the shores of a tropical island. On the way to Labuan, the ‘prahus’ are rocked by storms and viciously attacked by colonial patrol boats, who have the advantage of steam engines.
#FILME SANDOKAN SKIN#
Her hair is like gold, her eyes are bluer than the ocean, and her skin is as white as alabaster. He gathers his crew of bloody outlaws and sets out with three ships to investigate the matter. The plot is rather straightforward, with a vibe of an Italian opera libretto: Sandokan, the fearless leader of a band of pirates from Borneo, hears of a beautiful young maiden nicknamed ‘The Pearl of Labuan’ and his passion is inflamed instantly, with some help from copious amounts of alcohol. Like these, it’s probably better to read them at a young age and not with the critical eye of a jaded and slightly cynical old fart. Ultimately, the books deserve to be shelved among childhood adventure classics, alongside Fenimore Cooper, Karl May or Edgar Rice Burroughs.
#FILME SANDOKAN MOVIE#
The constant description of plot points through dialogue, the heavy-handed foretelling (“I have a bad feeling about this!”) and the almost comical declarations of undying love are balanced against haunting memories of the theme song from the movie and of the arresting presence of Kabir Bedi in the title role. Emilio Salgari somehow has the skill to pull this off, the bombastic, melodrama touched language serving well the larger than life character of the pirate leader Sandokan and the action-filled plot of this first book about the pirates of the Far East.įor myself, reading the novel more than four decades after watching the movie, the experience is defined mostly by nostalgia rather than admiration for the style. How’s this for an opening gambit? A more elaborate version of the famous ‘It was a dark and stormy night’ cliche. Whipped by the wind, the raging seas roared relentlessly among the crashes of thunder, while above, clouds swirled wildly across the sky unleashing torrents of rain upon the island’s dark forests. On the night of December 20th, 1849, a violent hurricane raged over Mompracem, a small island a few hundreds miles off the west coast of Borneo and home to the most feared pirates in the South China Sea. How’s this for an opening gambit? A more elaborate version of the famous ‘It was a dark and st
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