Customer Reviews

El Corsario Negro/ The Black Corsair (Spanish Edition)

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This is a Spanish translation of and Italian work. There, as far as I know, no English translation of this work. More about that later (Reference my rant below).

I chose this particular translation because my command of the Italian language is weak at best and pathetic at worse. On the other hand, my Spanish is also pretty bad but with the help of a good dictionary and the very, very much appreciated support and assistance of two dear, and I must say, patient Hispanic friends, I was able to muddle my way through a work such as this...one that is targeted for the younger reader. Hey, it took me a couple of months but it was well worth the effort involved. ("I get by with a little help from my friends").

The Black Corsair is the first in a number of adventure books written by the great and prolific author Emilio Salgari. (Note: It is well worth the reader's time to investigate the impact the writings of this author had. I will not go into it here, but it is well worth the time to investigate. You may not know you know of him...but I assure you that you do.) The story is of the Lord of Ventimiglia. It is a pure swashbuckling adventure, completely filled with action, but at the same time investigates some very difficult issues. Lord Ventimiglia's two brothers, The Red Cosair and the Green Cosair are killed by the Duke of Van guld. The Black Corsair vows revenge. He travels to the Caribbean Seas and takes up with a number of the greatest pirates of the time. Much of the action takes place on the lake of near the city of Maracaibo, Venezuela.

Bravery, an unrelenting desire for revenge, and a plethora of extremely wicked characters make this an absolute page turner, in particular for the younger reader (We are talking 12 to 15 years of age here).

Spoiler: It needs to be noted that novels such as this which were written in 1898 were a bit different in their outlook on life and the reactions of characters are different that we may find in most quarters today. As an example, we find that the Black Cosair of this novel falls in love with a young woman, Honorata, and she with him but when he discovers that she is the daughter of his archenemy, the one he is seeking revenge from, he casts her adrift in a boat in a stormy sea to meet her fate; after all, he has sworn to do the entire family in, one way or the other. Grim? You bet.

End of spoiler.

There were a number of books in this "Corsair Series" and only one of them has been translated into English. Of the dozens upon dozens of books written by this author I personally know of only five that have been translated into English even though most of his work has been translated into quite a number of languages around the world. This is a true pity. We, and our kids, are missing out on some great reading here. Several of the authors books have been made into movies; alas, most not in English.

Anyway, this is a great read. I am sure I missed many of the subtle nuances of the story and greatly regret that my Spanish is so deplorable and Italian is even worse...I feel deprived.

This is the end of the review. The rest is a short rant:

There are laterally thousands of books out there for young readers that have not been translated into English. Most notable are ones written in Spain, Italy, Germany, France , Norway and Sweden. Most of these old classic books have been translated into many different languages...why not English? I rather get my nose bent out of shape over this situation. Of course I am not happy with the language programs our educational system offers at this time. It is bad and due to budget cuts, it is getting worse. This is a rant for another time though so I will spare you.

End of rant. Thank you for your indulgence.

If you are fluent in the Spanish language, I would highly recommend this author's work. Yes, it is for younger readers, but I promise you that "adult" readers will enjoy his work also.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

There is now an English translation of "El Corsario Negro" titled "The Black Corsair". It is published by ROH press which has other English translations of Salgari's works.