Discover the Inspiring Tale of the Trapp Family Singers

Hei: Das ist die Auto-Biographie der „echten“ Maria. Das, was der Film behandelt, ist nur ein winziger Teil des Buches und somit ist das Buch ein Muss für jeden, der wissen will, wie es weiter ging: Die Flucht vor den Nazis und die Emigration in die USA. Die schwierigen Jahre in den USA bis hin zum Erfolg sind der Schwerpunkt dieses Buches.

Maria beschreibt im Detail, wie es der Familie ging und mit welchen Schwierigkeiten sie als Einwanderer zu rechnen hatten und überwinden mussten, denn sie mussten neu und praktisch ohne nennenswerte Geldmittel anfangen.

Man erfährt, was für eine starke Frau Maria war: voller Energie und Tatendrang, sowie Vertrauen und Hoffnung.

Das Buch ist eine dreifache Geschichte, in erster Linie der Trapp Familie, aber auch Österreichs und der USA. So erfährt man wie die High Society in Österreich lebte und wie sich der Einmarsch der Nazis auf das Leben auswirkte. Auch erfährt man, wie die Einwanderer aus Europa die USA erlebten.

Ich habe das Buch in der englischen Fassung mit großem Vergnügen gelesen. Immer wieder gibt es lustige Ereignisse. Maria hat Humor. Das Buch ist leicht zu lesen und zu verstehen.

Die...

Germany on Nov 03, 2023

Daniel: Autobiographical. The actual story is better than the movie. Although the movie is excellent.

United States on Jul 24, 2023

Robert McIntyre: It’s fine

United States on May 18, 2023

Annabella: This was a very interesting book. I had watched 'Sound of Music yet again over Christmas and wanted to know the real story of the Von Trapp family. It put it all into perspective and really made you appreciate their struggles as a family and how they overcame them. A very good read.

United Kingdom on Jan 11, 2021

Gerhard Jason Geick: If you like The Sound of Music, and are looking for more of that, this is not it. This is factual, dry, and not nearly as much fun. The movie took many liberties when adapting the Von Trapp Singers. This book isn't bad, per se, but it wasn't what I was expecting, and I didn't enjoy it.

Canada on Dec 31, 2020

anne pryce: Anyone looking for this biography to be exactly like the film will be disappointed. I wasn't. I came across this book by chance and got it more out of curiosity than any thing else. I liked the film both as a child and as an adult but was happy to learn the true story
Some commentators have said the book is a bit too religious and they could do without all that. If someone's faith is the basis for all their life decisions then there faith is an integral part of
their story.
I enjoyed reading the life of an always positive and energetic person. She tells the reason why they left Austria and that the journey on the ship was 6 weeks to the States but
leaves out all the details of how they left Europe which is disappointing. No singing while climbing over any mountains!
There's little mention of her husband. It seems he was a very reserved person and didn't get on stage to sing with his family but was either in the audience or at home.
I mostly liked her always positive attitude. She didn't seem daunted by many things and it's this that brought them finally to the position of owning a farm while becoming respected in the classical and traditional music world.
This...

United Kingdom on Sep 20, 2016

Carina: I decided to read this book, of course, because I love the movie The Sound of Music and I've always been curious about what happened to the Von Trapps after they crossed those mountains, and I've always wanted to know how their lives changed when they came to America.

The plot of the movie takes up only the first few chapters of the book and is, honestly, quite different in many respects. Maria, who is a teacher, is sent to tutor one of the Von Trapp children before taking her vows and becoming a full-fledged nun. The children all have different names in real life, by the way. Not sure why. Anyway, Maria goes to the Von Trapp home, meets the children and their father, who does have a whistle to call his children but is otherwise a very nice man and father who only avoids his kids because they remind him too much of his dead wife. The Captain is engaged to a princess (not baroness) who quickly leaves the picture after telling Maria that the Captain is in love with her. The family begins to make music together, Georg proposes, and the Mother Superior forces Maria to marry him even though she doesn't really want to. Hitler takes over Austria and the Von Trapps leave Europe in...

United States on Feb 04, 2015

Melamed: I bought this book for my wife at her request: it's not really my thing at all. In fact, the sort of book that ordinarily I'd run from - a worse prospect for a dreary afternoon than sweeping wet leaves. But I picked it up out of mild, cynical curiosity, expecting just to confirm my prejudices about how awful, saccharine and predictable (after all, I saw the film...) it would be. But to my surprise, the book engaged and entertained me from the first couple of pages on. The story of the family is well told, and - of course - goes far beyond the Hollywood-ised version that we remember from years ago. It's a genuinely interesting story and one that can hold the attention even of an old cynic like me. The characters are almost too good and perfect to be true, and one has to accept that this is probably a sanitised version of the true life of the Trapps. But so long as one accepts that, the underlying tale is enjoyable. The author is a deeply religious Catholic and the book is unashamedly preachy about religion, but the sincerity and simplicity with which the preachy passages are written makes them quite tolerable and actually helps contextualise the tale by giving insight into the the...

United Kingdom on May 15, 2014

Amy D.: Maria Trapp's book reads a little bit like one of those Landmark biographies written for kids back in the 50s. That is not to say that the book isn't good. It is! But there's very little in the way of dates, historical background, reflection, analysis, introspection or anything negative. Maria tells her tale in a largely unimaginative style with mostly just the facts of how things happened. Note that, as the title indicates, this is a book about the family's singing career and life in the U.S., and not strictly speaking an account of Maria's life.

Thus, most disappointing to me was the almost complete lack of information surrounding the family's flight from Austria after the European phase of their singing career had begun. Similarly, Maria tells next to nothing about her romance with the Baron except for one little whimsical anecdote, and, then, suddenly they were married! Nor was there a shred of information about Maria's childhood or life prior to entering the Trapp household.

The highlight of the book for me was Maria von Trapp's deep devotion to her Catholic faith which I found really very inspiring. Her faith permeated everything she did. This is especially...

United States on Apr 06, 2014

Chris T.: At the age of 36, my husband had not yet seen "The Sound of Music"...a Thanksgiving staple in my life since I can remember... After nine years ~ and continuing the tradition of watching the great classic musical every Thanksgiving ~ my husband is just enamored with the film... So much so that he would get online and research the actors and the movie...

This book was a Christmas gift that satisfied so much curiosity for him in ways unforeseen upon purchasing... Within a month he finished the book (which is HUGE since he works 10 to 11 hour days).

He loved reading the history of this family through Maria's eyes... As he told me, the movie only touches on a very small part of their lives...but the general premise is true...they're a singing family who really did have to skidaddle out of Austria right under the noses of the Nazi authorities...

Here's one thing he told me that really stuck... The Von Trapp family didn't have much money when they got to the States (not going to spoil it so I won't state why). They didn't know where to settle for a little while when a friend had suggested building there...and the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont is their actual...

United States on Feb 04, 2013