Several weeks ago, we watched The von Trapp Family: A Life of Music, the story of the family from The Sound of Music, from the viewpoint of Agathe, the oldest daughter (Liesel from the film). There were quite a few differences between the two films, though the basic story line was the same. I remembered I had a book in my Kindle app about the family written by Maria, so I thought it was high time I got around to reading it.

I had wondered which came first: did the book inspire the movie, or was the movie made first and then the book written to “set the record straight.” The book was published in 1949, and a musical based on it began in 1959. The movie we all know came out in 1965.

Maria was training to be a nun when she was asked to tutor Captain von Trapp’s daughter, also named Maria, who had been ill. Eventually she began helping with the other six children as well.

The book doesn’t mention any animosity between Maria and the children at the beginning. There also didn’t seem to be any distance between the children and their father as the film suggests. Later Maria write in passing that they had their share of normal family squabbles.

The Captain fell in love with Maria over time. She had never given any thought to marriage, so she went back to the convent to ask what to do. She was told it was God’s will to marry the Captain. She loved the children like a mother, but it took her a while to love their father. They went on to have three more children together but also experienced several miscarriages due to a kidney condition of Maria’s.

The family loved to sing together in the evenings. Once while singing outdoors, a well-known soprano heard them and encouraged them to sing publicly, saying “You must not keep that for yourselves . . You have to share this with the people” (p. 121, Kindle version). The Captain was mortified at first, but eventually decided they wouldn’t be doing anything wrong. Then they were invited to sing on the radio, then someone heard them and wanted to sign them up for some concerts, and one thing led to another.

A bank failure led to the loss of most of the family’s cash. As the children took everything well and pitched in to help, Maria thought it lucky that they had lost the money. “How would we ever have found out what fine fellows the children are?” (p. 115). She was happy to find out that “we were not really rich, we just happened to have a lot of money. That’s why we can never be poor” (p. 115).

They took in boarders to supplement heir income, but eventually their singing hobby had to become their profession.

The Nazis invaded Austria, something Hitler had promised not to do. When the Chancellor announced on the radio that he was “yielding to force” and the next voice on the radio proclaimed Austria was dead and the Reich was in control, the Captain tearfully said, “Austria, you are not dead. You will live on in our hearts. This is only a sleep. We promise you to do all we can to help you wake up again” (p. 130).

The family found themselves unable to comply with several demands of the new regime. They knew that would not be tolerated for long, so they looked for a way to leave the country. Someone in America had invited them to come and give some concerts, loaning them the money to do so.

Their adjustments to American customs bewildered them but also provided a lot of humor. For instance, they put their shoes outside their hotel doors at night so they could be shined, like they always had. They were informed that not only would their shoes not be shined, but they might disappear. They were confused when a couple of them found they could get their shoes shined in the barber shop, of all places.

Maria applied logic to learning English: if the past tense of freeze was frozen, then it followed that the past tense of squeeze should be squozen and sneeze/snozen. If a drunkard was someone who drank too much, then a thunkard was someone who thought too much (p. 162). Unfortunately for them, English is not that logical.

Someone had taught her what to say in various instances–“If you want someone to leave the room quickly, just say . . . scram” (p. 168). When she and a Bishop caused a traffic jam, wanting him to go first, she told him to please scram. His entourage was “petrified,” but thankfully he laughed (p. 168).

They experienced adventures and trials along the way til they eventually were allowed to become US citizens and settled in Vermont, which they found to be much like Austria.

They had a penchant—or at least Maria did—for getting into ventures that were over their heads and having to figure things out as they went.

It was interesting and touching to read of the last years that were unmentioned in both films.

Some parts of the family’s story were more exciting than others—which I suppose could be said of anyone. It was a little disappointing that some parts of the movie weren’t true to life. I disagreed with much of the theology in the book. But overall, I enjoyed learning what happened to the real Trapp family.

The blurb of the book on Amazon says it contains pictures, and there’s even a copyright notification in the book for pictures—but, sadly, there are no pictures in the Kindle version I have except for the cover. However, I found several online.

This is a cute interchange between Julie Andrews, who played Maria in the film, and the real Maria: