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The
Black Corsair: Salgari's Somber Hero |
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Il
corsaro nero. El corsario negro. The Black Corsair.
Hailed as Salgari's masterpiece, it was the first in
a series of adventure stories set in the Caribbean.
A tale of revenge, it is filled with all of Mr. Salgari's
usual hallmarks: love and adventure, swashbuckling battles,
exotic jungles, and of course characters that are larger
than life. |
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The
Black Corsair first appeared in serial form in 1898,
and was published as Il corsaro nero in 1899.
It sold 80,000 copies in its first run, a record for
the era. And what a tale it was.. |
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Arriving
in the Caribbean to avenge an act of betrayal, the Black
Corsair leads an attack against the city of Maracaibo,
in an attempt to capture its governor. To fight the
Spanish, the Black Corsair enlists the greatest pirates
of his time: Michael The Basque, L'Ollonois and a young
lieutenant named Henry Morgan.... |
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The
novel was so popular it generated a number of sequels
including La regina dei caraibi (The Queen of the
Caribbean) and Yolanda, la figlia del corsaro
nero (Yolanda the daughter of the Black Corsair). |
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The
Black Corsair first made the jump to the silver screen
in the 1920s in a series of short black and white films
directed by Vitale Di Stefano. With the advent of sound
came Il Corsaro Nero in 1936 starring Olympic
fencing champion Cirro Verratti. The story has been
retold several times, on both sides of the Atlanic,
the first Spanish version being filmed in Mexico in
1944 by director Chano Urueta. After his worldwide success
as Sandokan, Kabir Bedi took a turn at playing the Lord
of Ventimiglia in Sergio Solima's 1977 version of Il
corsaro nero. |
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Salgari's
Caribbean tales inspired a series of spaghetti swashbucklers
including Primo Zeglio's Morgan: The Pirate
starring Steve Reeves, Mario Soldati's The Three
Corsairs with Marc Lawrence and Luigi Capuano's
Hercules and The Black Pirates starring Alan
Steel. |
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The
Black Corsair recently returned to television as an
animated series created by Italian animation house Mondo
TV. |
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