I just finished reading
The Tigers of Mompracem, written in 1900 by
Emilio Salgari as part of his
Sandokan series.
Looking over the Wikipedia page, I'm a little confused as to where this book falls in the larger series of Sandokan stories. If I'm reading the page right, it seems to suggest that this is the book where the character of Sandokan (and his best friend/sidekick/partner Yanez) are introduced, and yet it also seems to be the third book in the series, with Sandokan apparently appearing alongside a different protagonist in an earlier novel? I can't quite figure it out.
I picked this book up at my local library's perpetual book sale, as I enjoy old pulp stories, which this definitely was. However, I didn't find myself liking this tale as much as I expected it to, and I'm not entirely clear why. The story is one of sword-swinging, naval warfare, espionage, and other feats of derring-do, and yet I frequently found myself bored or even off-put by the main character.
Part of this can be blamed on the pacing, I think. The overall plot is simple (i.e. pirate lord falls in love with the niece of his hated enemy, and upon confirming that she feels the same way, plans on eloping with her), so much so that it doesn't seem large enough to fit into a two hundred-fifty page novel. It makes up for this by having a lot of instances of mischance and ill luck make things take longer than they have to; the entire story feels like it's stuck in the mud as a result.
I also found myself unable to relate to the characters much, as they just came across as one-dimensional. Everyone is defined by their role in the story, and while I expect this was supposed to make them seem larger than life, it struck me as bordering on caricature. Sandokan's pirates are fanatically loyal to him, to the point of accepting orders that are literally suicidal without so much as blinking. The British antagonists are either weak and cowardly, or frothing at the mouth with their hatred for Sandokan. Marianna, the love interest, is almost immediately swept up with love for the hero and spends the entire story reiterating how she can't bear to be without him and will do anything for him.
Sandokan himself is the worst of the bunch, being apparently ruled by his id. He vacillates between mania in needing to be with Marianna, despair when he can't be, and overwhelming rage at the British standing between him and her. Yet he's also a supposedly indomitable fighter, master strategist (even if he admits that Yanez does more of the heavy lifting in that regard), unparalleled sailor, etc. I get that being in love is supposed to make you crazy, but he comes off as unhinged more than anything else.
This is a story that, like many of the pulps, would probably have worked better as a shorter story. From what I know of Salgari's life, that might not have been an option, since he often didn't get paid much despite the popularity of his work (and weak IP protections meant that his characters were frequently used for profit without his permission), meaning that he probably had little recourse but to write more, but I feel like that was to his work's overall detriment. I can't imagine reading all eleven books in this series.
It was a classic bit of fiction, to be sure, but not one that I can bring myself to recommend.
