Winnetou

by Karl May

Book Overview

Karl May's German-language novel of the American West has been a perennial favorite in Europe since its release in 1892. The story of the German-born frontiersman Old Shatterhand and his Apache companion Winnetou in the western plains and mountains has been reprinted innumerable times, made into films and plays, and has inspired musical compositions. Today in Germany, Old West enthusiasts by the tens of thousands attend outdoor "Karl May" festivals...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 087422179X
• ISBN13: 9780874221794
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Washington State University Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Excellently done

I read all the Karl May books when I was eight or nine and loved them (as well as the movies with Lex Barker) . They are written in an archaic, stylistically complex German but the wonderful stories of honourable men, friendship and adventure in foreign lands transcended the language. This English adaption is excellently done. The translator has found a perfect, classic style that reads beautifully and reminds us this is a book written in the late nineteenth century. She has condensed the story into a fast moving exciting narrative that should be more accessible to a modern reader than the original 400 page door-stop. Yes, there are some typos in the text but not more than twenty. Well done, I will look forward to sharing this with my children. What about the other Old Shatterhand books and when will the Kara Ben Nemsi series come out?

Just as I remembered

I was 15 years old in Hungary when I read the Karl May's stories of Winnetou and Old Shatterhand. What a great nostalgic experience it was to read them again, this time in english, over 50 years later.

Winnetou

I'm born of West Indian parents, lived in Germany from age 3 to 12, and at that tender age, I naturally spoke fluent German, but I have never been back since 1967 - I'm almost 50 now! But I'll always remember my love affair with the Winnetou series by Karl May. I remember spending countless days and nights inhaling novel after novel. Our next door neighbor's kid had a huge, leather-bound collection and happily shared it with me. My German is now beyond rusty, and I've been looking for English translations of these wonderful books, and was very happy to come across this one. I wish I could get more Americans turned onto these books - but, although the translated version was very satisfying after so many decades of being deprived, I'm fairly certain that the work suffered somewhat in the translation. But I'm not complaining at all. I'll just have to re-ignite my German comprehension skills and read the real thing again. My 5-star rating is probably borne of nostalgia, but I'm not retracting it!

Unforgettable Winnetou

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...!

So many years and still so wonderful

I first read Winnetou and Old Surehand (Polish translation) when I was 10 years old and in bed with a chicken pox. I fell in love with the books immediately and kept re-reading them until they fell apart. Now, almost 40 years later I am discovering Winnetou again. I am very happy so many readers share my feeling and I wish to join the voices begging for the continuation of the series. Lets hope a new generation of readers gets hooked-up like the parents.