The Sound of Music and Me: A Memoir of Reflection and Remembrance

Elizabeth Dokulil: Thought it filled in many gaps not mentioned in the first book

Australia on Oct 22, 2023

Deb: Nice condition and very happy with purchase.

United States on Aug 24, 2023

Merle Miller: I have watched the movie many, many times! It is a favorite of mine! It is great to enjoy your book. I wish I knew the actual story before. It is great to hear the actual characters and how actually Made the Sound of Music. I am sorry that they didn't realize any of the profits, but they might not have been the same Family!

United States on Feb 04, 2023

Lyne Filion: Le livre est arrivé un peu endommagé, malheureusement, mais sinon il est en bon état.

Canada on Jan 01, 2023

eleanor R.: I really enjoyed this book having just read the book written by Maria herself . This made some things clear about the first book and also showed Maria was not the so so sweet little thing as she was seen in the film. I is good to know the talent of making music has been passed on through the generations.

United Kingdom on Dec 08, 2022

Giselle RoederGiselle Roeder: Not too far into the book by one of the original Trapp family members, I was stunned: Their 'escape' from Austria happened in a totally different way. The Nazis did not hassle them; they just realized it was time to leave, packed rucksacks and suitcases and left through a gate at the bottom of their property on a short path to the railway station and boarded a train heading for Italy. Later, they immigrated to the USA.
My dreams, based on the movie I have seen a few times, were shuttered. There was no sweet love affair with a young boy turned Nazi, the song "You are sixteen..." is a Hollywood invention, and so is a lot of other 'stuff.' Maria von Trapp, the young wife of the captain, had signed a contract with a German movie producer who offered her $10.000.00 and if she wants it now, 9.000.00 - and she needed money building a new life in America for the family with now 9 children. She accepted 9thousand dollars, no rights, no royalties. The family did not like the movie, later produced by Hollywood. They toured as a family for twenty years, singing their own songs, making a life while building a place on an old farm. None of the singers were paid for twenty years; each just...

Canada on Feb 07, 2021

AvdRedr: Like many who have enjoyed The Sound of Music movie, I was interested in finding out how much of the story was true, and how much Hollywood had taken “artistic license” with the story. They seem to have gotten three things right. The Von Trapps were Austrian, they were almost all musically talented and could sing, and lastly, Maria was a problem for the Abby! The rest of the movie they took large license with how they portrayed the story. Agathe, the eldest daughter does provide a more intimate view of the family and the timeline of events that lead us to know them as portrayed in the movie. I was especially interested in Captain Von Trapp and his Word War I experiences that lead up to his notoriety as a hero to the Austrians. The book is very much a memoir and drags with too much detail from her early memories. However it does portray a family life that at times fit the movie version, but most of the time was filled with the family memories that you would expect. Worth the read.

United States on Aug 25, 2019

Cynthia K. Robertson: After reading a book about movie musicals, I decided to read something more about the story behind one of the biggest musicals ever—The Sound of Music. Agathe Von Trapp was the second child and oldest daughter of Captain Georg Von Trapp, and Memories Before and After The Sound of Music is her autobiography. It is mostly delightful and includes sketches drawn by the author. However, fans of the movie may be disappointed that the life of the Von Trapp family is often quite different from the movie-version.

Memories Before and After The Sound of Music spends much time describing Agathe’s childhood. Her father was a handsome submarine commander in the Austrian Navy. Their mother, also named Agathe, came from Austrian aristocrats on one side, and a wealthy British inventor and industrialist on the other. They married and had seven children before Agathe died from scarlet fever. Their childhood is disrupted by World War I, and then again with the rise of the Nazi party and World War II. The author makes a special effort to tell the reader all the fiction in the movie based on their lives. She claims that their father wasn’t stern but loving and kind. He was always...

United States on Apr 24, 2017

AmandaPup: I always enjoy reading about the average person and I suspect Agathe von Trapp would have considered herself average even though she tells of a life foreign to most of us. No show biz glamour and even her early life of privilege doesn't sound overly coddled.
Before buying the book, I read one review which puzzled me and I am addressing it to help others. The reviewer remarked that the book seemed to have been written to "get even" although no suggestion as to with whom. Having previously Maria von Trapp's story (decades ago) and enough other commentary to know that the original Maria was not the sweet naif of the show and movie. She was a strong willed woman capable of dominating her husband and directing everyone's life as she thought. Perhaps just what was needed at the time, but I wondered if Agathe had spoken unkindly of the woman she called Mother. No such thing. She speaks respectfully and fondly of Maria.
The only point at which I felt there was any regret shown was in the reaction to the Sound of Music. She admits to being unhappy with the show, especially with unflattering and totally inaccurate portrayal of her beloved father.
She is certainly not the first...

United States on Jun 29, 2016

Catmistress: Anyone who has ever enjoyed the Sound of Music knows at least a little bit about the family von Trapp on which the stage musical and film was based. Many years after I first saw the movie, I read Maria von Trapp’s book (the rights of which were purchased for a paltry $9000 to enable the musical) so it was interesting to read Agathe’s book which covers a much wider period.
They were a remarkable family well before the advent of the second Baroness von Trapp; the Captain was not only a decorated commander of submarines in the First World War, but his first wife was also the granddaughter of the inventor of the torpedo.
Agathe, the oldest daughter, tells a lot of stories about their childhood. It is clear that she resented the popular misconception of her father as a stern disciplinarian who ordered his offspring about with a whistle and who banned music and gaiety from the house after his first wife’s untimely death. For many years Agathe and her siblings seem to have disliked the musical largely for this reason although she eventually came to terms with its influence.
Her view of Maria von Trapp (the second Baroness) is interesting. It seems Maria was a prickly and...

Australia on Dec 16, 2014