Winnetou

Rating:
Summary: The Indonesian must be proud of Karl May
Review: As an Indonesian moslem, my life supposed to be completed as I already visited two "sacred" places in the world i.e Mecca and Radebeul.(places that "visited" also by Karl May). After all Karl May already"visited" Indonesia in his book "Am Stillen Ocean", but unfortunately I do not understand German and there is no English translation. The Indonesian should aware that their founding fathers read Karl May's in Dutch version then they were inspired the freedom of the nation after read the books. But I much prefer Hadchi Halef Omar bin Hadchi Abbul Abbas ibn Hadchi Dawud al Gosarah. rather than Winnetou. Howgh!!

Rating:
Summary: Winnetou; spaghetti western in books
Review: Good for children's library and as vacation reading.
K. May is one of the romantic story writers, writing after the western travel-stories role model; like many before who made a good sell but did poor favour to the public imagination ( misconceptions) of the countries and cultures they wrote about.

For expl. Albert Fortis travel writings...
I used to watch the Winnetou film serial and identified with the characters and story, and was surprised at older age to learn that my favorite "indian" film was filmed in Croatia!

BTW, Does anyone know where to get those tapes?

Rating:
Summary: Winnetou
Review: Good for children's library and as vacation reading.
K. May is one of the romantic story writers, writing after the western travel-stories role model; like many before who made a good sell but did poor favour to the public imagination ( misconceptions) of the countries and cultures they wrote about.
For expl. Albert Fortis travel writings...
I used to watch the Winnetou film serial and identified with the characters and story, and was surprised at older age to learn that my favorite "indian" film was filmed in Croatia!
BTW, Does anyone know where to get those tapes?

Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable Winnetou
Review: I was 11 years old when my father handed me over the French edition of Karl May's Old Shatterhand and Winnetou series.
Having read Fenimore Cooper's books, I was already hooked on anything dealing with "Indian Americans" or what is called today "Native Americans", especially the Apaches, the Comanches, the Sioux, Cheyennes and Cherokees. I don't remember having ever since shed a tear while reading a book, like I did when Winnetou died...as with Unca, the last of the Mohicans...
Karl May's unforgettable Winnetou has opened to me the rich world of the noble warriors and proud nation that populated the American West. I sensed with great dispair how the white race has been greedy and cruel, trying to subdue a people who refused to give up their land, their freedom, their pride...One would wonder who the real "savages" were...
Karl May has at least immortalized the grandeur of a certain lifestyle in the wild west, with its "code of honor", and the value of friendship between two "blood brothers", in a way no literature or "western" (John Wayne's kind of movie) has done.
I'm glad I have this opportunity, over twenty years after having discovered him, to pay a tribute to his work.
By the way , just to give an idea about how cosmopolitan his readers are, I am a woman...and I live in Lebanon...!

Rating:
Summary: spell-binding......won't stop reading before you finish it..
Review: I was 12 years old tomboy when I started to read Karl May books from school library in Indonesia. Once started, I never stop reading them until I finish. After I read the Winnetou book, I am so drawn to his character that I've dreamed to be Winnetou's girl friend! I was very sad and crying hard when he died. When I came to the US 11 years ago and meet my husband for the first time in my first 4 years, it was a dream come true. He is part Cheyenne and proud to be a Native American (though he's as blond as a white man)! I read all his books and looking forward to read them again. Is there anyway you compile all his book in one, but not necessarily shortening it? And I would be gladly to order them for me, my husband and my children.

Rating:
Summary: An unique experience
Review: It is pretty difficult to find K. May's books, although he was fairly famous at a certain stage. If you get a chance, buy them, if only to save them for future days.

His writings that take place in the American 'wild west' are not novels nore historical chronics, but best summarized as historical novels.

Voluminous books that may seem discouraging for those who aren't used to read, they remain extremely easy to read since chapters are somewhat independant from one another, and more like short stories oftentimes.

One can't have read one of these books without having well understood what the United States were at the end of the XIXth century, where they come from, and the effects that progressively forged the particular contemporary American mindset (since the end of WWI anyway).

Very few countries were (and still are I think) as diversified in terms of religion, ethnicity, etc., thus the importance in my opinion of a good understanding of history as cohisive factor.

This book or any other would do it, but I would strongly recommend 'Old Shatterhand & Winnetou' (direct translation from the title in French but it should be approaching), Winnetou featured above is the book just before in the series; but once again they're independant.

Briefly, The narrator (nicknamed Old Shatterhand in the closed world of the wild west of the time), is a well educated European gentleman, who comes temporarily as a trapper and addapts rather well to this new modus vivendi, while keeping his gentlemanlike manners, which'll allow him to describe both the frontier and the city life in the US of this period. Extremely rich and vivid.

Hopefully these lines will have given the desire to read this book and others by K. May, I am certain that one unvariably comes out changed after such a reading.

Rating:
Summary: Winnetou
Review: The book description (above) is a good summary of the "Winnetou" series, which is hugely popular in Germany. The story involves a newly-arrived German-born frontiersman who becomes "blood brothers" with a Mescalero Apache. These books are mostly read by teenagers with characters who, like the Star Wars series, are clearly identified as "good" and "bad." Karl May did propogate the "noble savage" concept in his books. Their appeal is primarily the fabulous story-telling quality to them, the effortless writing, the engrossing way they read. Not having read this translation I cannot comment on the quality of that, but I will note that the German language version of "Winnetou I" posted on the Amazon.de website is 542 pages, while this one is 256. That suggests that a lot was left out in the translation.

Rating:
Summary: A rootin'-tootin', sure-shootin' sensation
Review: Though he is virtually unknown to the English-speaking world, May is possibly the most-read German author of all time: his books have sold an estimated 100m copies to date. The Germans have a saying: "We know Goethe, but we read Karl May".

Karl May developed a love of good stories while serving time in prison for fraud. He wrote over 70 books, many of which have been translated into over 30 languages. Among his best-known works is Winnetou, published in three volumes between 1876 and 1893. The story depicted the friendship of Old Shatterhand, an American pioneer of German descent, and Winnetou, a noble Indian chief.

Picking up where Buffalo Bill Cody's 1889 German tour left off, he came up with the ingenious idea of presenting a western adventure in which a German novice, Old Shatterhand, out-lassos, out-hunts, out-shoots and finally out-wits Yankees and Indians alike. Throw in the hero's great alliance with Winnetou, the stoical "red gentleman", and May had created both a patriotic epic and a popular monument to the Native American race. The 2,000-page "Winnetou" series, is a rootin'-tootin', sure-shootin' sensation, still a great for all western and adventure lovers everywhere.

Rating:
Summary: Books from my childhood
Review: Winnetou was the first book I ever read. I remember goig to the library in my hometown of Dubrovnik Croatia (former Yugoslavia) and checking it out based on the recommendation by a librarian. It was a small format book, worn out, with that old-book smell and yellowish pages, you know. Very many pages for a seven-year old. I loved the series, I loved it so much that I read all the other books written by Karl May and bought them too.

After first having read it, I was so upset with how the First Americans were treated that I decided to "go to America when I grew up, become President and give them their freedom."

I did come to the US in 1976 and was really susprised that no one had ever heard of Karl May. I just want to share with potential readers how rich a world KM portrayed for us young readers throughout the world in his may books. World where passion, respect, honor, friendship was not completely gone and had a chance to overcome all the evil which we humans are capable of cimmitting.

Rating:
Summary: Books from my childhood
Review: Winnetou was the first book I ever read.... I loved the series, I loved it so much that I read all the other books written by Karl May and bought them too. After first having read it, I was so upset with how the First Americans were treated that I decided to "go to America when I grew up, become President and give them their freedom."...