Guest Squee: The Tigers of Mompracem by Emilio Salgari

NB: We always like hearing about good, squee-worthy books! This recommendation comes from Ren. Ren loves books, especially historicals, though she’s happy to live in the era of jeans and nerd t-shirts. She also likes fantasy and black tea.

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The back cover copy of The Tigers of Mompracem:

Would you be the greatest pirate in the South China Sea or would you hang up your sword to be with the woman you love?

Malaysia, 1849. The Tigers of Mompracem are a band of rebel pirates fighting for the defense of tiny native kingdoms against the colonial powers of the Dutch and British empires. They are led by Sandokan, the indomitable “Tiger of Malaysia”, and his faithful friend Yanez de Gomera, a Portuguese wanderer and adventurer.

Orphaned when the British murdered his family and stole his throne, Sandokan has been mercilessly leading his men in vengeance. But when the pirate learns of the extraordinary “Pearl of Labuan” his fortunes begin to change…

If you think that the summary screams “swashbuckling romance crazysauce” — then you’d be absolutely correct. The Tigers of Mompracem is the first book in the Sandokan series, and it’s all about Sandokan’s love story with the beautiful Marianna Guillonk. Written by Italian author Emilio Salgari, it was first serialized in 1883 and then published in 1900. The book sold so many copies that it spawned many sequels and adaptations and it’s still famous in Italy today. It’s not a standard romance book, more like an adventure with strong romantic elements, but I think many of its characters and themes could appeal to romance readers. Which is why, when I found out it had been translated into English, I immediately went and flailed to SBTB about it. Because: swashbuckling romance crazysauce!

Sandokan was born a prince but lost his kingdom because of evil Englishmen, so he became a pirate and now rules the sea from the island of Mompracem. He’s got a fleet of ships, thousands of men at his command, lots of plundered riches, and red leather boots. Sandokan really likes the colour red, by the way. He’s always prancing around dressed in red leather, or red silk, or in enough gold and jewels to ransom a kingdom, which I’m pretty sure he does in one of the later books. He’s also reeeally into tigers: his nickname is the Tiger of Malaysia, he calls his pirates his “little tigers,” his flag is a tiger’s head on a red field…the tiger theme, it is not subtle.

Anyway, when this story starts, Sandokan has heard one of his men talking about the Pearl of Labuan, a beautiful girl living on a nearby island. So of course he decides that he is IN LOVE WITH THIS GIRL HE’S NEVER SEEN, and that he must at once GO TO LABUAN AND MEET THIS GIRL BECAUSE IT IS HIS DESTINY. (I’m sorry for the caps but I need to convey how UTTERLY DRAMATIC Sandokan is whenever he’s talking. Dude has no chill.) Yanez, Sandokan’s BFF and resident deadpan snarker, points out that this is a terrible idea because Labuan is an English stronghold and the English hate Sandokan for raiding their coasts and sinking their ships.

However, since THE TIGER IS NOT AFRAID OF THE ENGLISH LEOPARD, Sandokan sets sail to Labuan. This turns out to be a terrible idea: he meets an English warship, he’s shot, his ship is sunk, and he has to swim to the shore, where he proceeds to run half-naked and delirious in the forest. Luckily for him, he’s found by Lord Guillonk, who mistakes him for a Malaysian prince. Which Sandokan is, to be fair, but Guillonk mistakes him for an innocuous, non-pirate-y prince. So Sandokan is brought to the Guillonk villa to recuperate, and there he meets the Pearl of Labuan who is none other than…Marianna Guillonk, the English lord’s niece. Because of course we need to have some star-crossed lovers drama in here.

Marianna is, by the way, awesome. Sandokan is reckless, and a braggart, and most of the times too stupid to live, but Marianna is so badass that she puts him to shame. She’s a military brat, having travelled around the world with her uncle since her parents died, so she’s an excellent rider and a crack shot. When Sandokan boasts that HE WILL KILL A TIGER WITH HIS KNIFE AS A GIFT TO MARIANNA, Marianna decides the best course of action is to find the tiger first and shoot it herself so Sandokan can’t do something stupid. (Sorry, tiger!) Also, I am reliably informed that in one of the film adaptations Marianna mans a cannon.

She unfortunately also faints a lot, because it’s an old book and there were limits to how subversive women could be, but when she’s not unconscious? Marianna is great. Sandokan was already in love with her before meeting her, so now he’s like triple in love with extra sprinkles, because she’s pretty and sweet and hunts tigers. Marianna also falls in love with him, because he’s tall, dark and handsome and hunts tigers, but she’s somewhat concerned because he keeps saying dramatic stuff such as THERE IS A DARKNESS SURROUNDING ME and I BEAR A DREADFUL NAME.

So Marianna’s like, um, who the heck are you, prince? One of my favourite things is that Sandokan never gave them a name before that. He stayed at the Guillonk villa for weeks and didn’t even bother to make up a false name and everyone else just…rolled with it. But when Marianna asks, Sandokan confesses that HE IS THE TIGER OF MALAYSIA. Which is all kinds of awesome! Because! Much later, when Lord Guillonk accuses Sandokan of deceiving and seducing his niece, it’s not true: Marianna found out about Sandokan’s identity long before her uncle, and yeah she wasn’t thrilled about Sandokan being a wanted criminal, but she still chose him of her own free will. (I love those two idiots, okay? I shipped them before I even knew what shipping was.)

Anyway, I figure I shouldn’t give away the rest of the plot in case you decide to pick up the book, which you should if you like old skool wackiness. Personally I think it’s a great summer read, it was originally serialized so the chapters are fairly short and most end in some sort of cliffhanger. There are betrayals, duels, naval battles, descriptions of forests and jungles, and beaches that gave me a serious case of wanderlust. There’s Yanez, the token white guy, with his snarky one-liners and his marginally-less-insane-than-Sandokan’s plans — did I mention that he and Sandokan call each other “brother”, because they totally do and the bromance is up to eleven. I used to crush on Yanez so hard; I was heartbroken when he got a lady love in the later books, even though she’s quite badass in her own right.

Full disclaimer: I read Sandokan for the first time when I was a kid, so it has huge nostalgia value for me. Re-reading it after all those years, I can see that it’s not perfect. Salgari was super progressive for his times, making his protagonist a POC who fights against colonial oppressors and giving the love interest her own agency, but to a modern audience he does at times end up sounding like a racist grandpa. A nice, well-meaning grandpa, to be sure, but you still wish you could explain that we don’t use the n-word any more and why.

There’s also a lot of violence in the books. Limbs being torn away by cannon balls, torturing people for information, and so on. I know some people don’t like the romanticizing of pirates and criminals, and while the book does it sometimes (what with the gold and jewels and private island kingdom) Sandokan never denies that he’s got blood on his hands. On the flip side, there is absolutely no sex in the book since it was originally written as an adventure story for children. You know…wholesome fun for the family, with a bit of mutilation on the side.

If you’re not put off by all that, though, it’s a fun read. Later books by Salgari are sort of hit and miss as his style becomes more formulaic, but The Tigers of Mompracem has been an instant classic since it came out. Plus, which other book of great cultural impact has a scene in which two grown men hide in a stove to escape pursuit? All right, so it’s not considered Literature with a capital L, probably because it’s too fun for book critics, but ask any Italian and chances are that they’ve at least heard about Sandokan.

Even if they never read the books, they might be familiar with one of the many adaptations. The most famous TV adaptation is probably the 1976 one starring Kabir Bedi and Carole André. It had so much success that it prompted a case of reverse whitewashing, as Bedi became so famous that he ended up being cast as the Black Corsair in another film despite that character being white in the original book.

For reference:

(I’m not complaining. He’s good at brooding and that’s all that matters.)

There were also at least two cartoon adaptations that I know of. The one I used to watch in the 90s had a blonde Yanez and a pet chameleon named Paco, but a friend tells me that there was also a cartoon in which all the characters were anthropomorphic animals. Sandokan was, of course, a tiger.

I’m always surprised that foreigners never heard about Sandokan, though in hindsight I can see why it didn’t get an English translation in its time, what with the British Empire being the enemy. ROH Press, which published Sandokan’s books in English, is an independent publishing house established in 2007 to translate Salgari’s books. They received the Italian Ministry of Cultural Affairs’ 2008 Translation Award for their work on The Tigers of Mompracem. Most of Sandokan’s series is now available in ebook form, and ROH Press has the first chapters of each book available as a sample on their website.