Resumen
Resumen de El rescate
Para quién es
For readers who love rich sea adventures and moral dilemmas, and who enjoy Conrad's mood of heat, danger and doubt. Honor, divided loyalty and impossible love meet among the shoals of the Malay Archipelago.
De qué trata este libro
The Rescue is a sea novel by Joseph Conrad, published in 1920. He began it in the 1890s, put it aside for many years, and finished it only after writing some of his best-known books. It is set in the Malay Archipelago, among the shoals and river mouths off the coast of Borneo, in the days of sail. It is the last of three books about the trader and sea captain Tom Lingard, who also appears in Almayer's Folly and An Outcast of the Islands.
The story is simple to state. Lingard, a bold and trusted English captain, has promised to help a dispossessed Malay prince and his sister win back their lost kingdom. Then a yacht full of wealthy Europeans runs aground on a shoal near his secret plans, and a woman on board changes everything he thought he wanted. He must choose between a pledge given to friends and a feeling he has never known before.
This is a book of action, but also of divided loyalty. You will meet a sea captain who believes he can manage every danger, and you will watch that belief meet its limits. In the first key point, we start with the sea itself, and the shallows that give the book its subtitle.
En este resumen
- 1A yacht aground on the shoalsFree
- 2A promise made to a dispossessed prince
- 3The travelers who do not understand where they are
- 4Lingard meets Edith Travers
- 5Two duties pull against each other
- 6A rescue that endangers everything
- 7What the story says about honor and love
- 8Two worlds that cannot quite meet
- 9How Conrad tells it
Idea clave 1 de 9
A yacht aground on the shoals
The story opens in the Shallows, a region of sandbanks and uncertain channels off the Borneo coast. Few Europeans know these waters well, but Captain Tom Lingard does. He is known among the Malays as King Tom, and he sails a brig called the Lightning. His skill with the winding channels is his power, and he guards it jealously.
Conrad begins with the place before the people. The sea is calm, the air heavy, and the horizon seems to hold its breath. A ship that cannot move is a ship at the mercy of everything around it. That idea runs through the whole novel, and it is first shown here, in the stillness before anything happens.
In this calm a small European yacht, the Hermit, sticks fast on a sandbank. The vessel carries a party of rich passengers who have little idea where they are or whom they are among. They are not sailors. They are visitors in a world that has its own rules, and the rules are not written for them.
Lingard sees the stranded yacht and comes near. He is a man of generous instincts, and he does not think of leaving them to their fate. He also has a secret on his mind that makes this meeting more awkward than a simple rescue should be. His brig carries his private hopes, and he cannot afford a distraction.
So the first key point is a quiet one. The adventure begins with a man doing a decent thing at the wrong moment. A helpful act, made in good faith, will pull him into a tangle that he cannot predict, and the calm sea will not stay calm for long.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about El rescate
What is The Rescue by Joseph Conrad about?
It tells of Captain Tom Lingard, a sea trader in the Malay Archipelago, who has promised to help a dispossessed prince. A stranded European yacht and a woman aboard it force him to choose between duty and feeling.
Is The Rescue part of a series?
Yes, loosely. It is the third of Conrad's novels about Tom Lingard, after Almayer's Folly and An Outcast of the Islands. It can be read alone, but its main character is richer for those who know the earlier books.
When was The Rescue written and published?
Conrad began it in the 1890s, set it aside for many years, and finished it after the First World War. It was published in 1920. It is fiction, but it draws on Conrad's own years as a sailor in Eastern waters.
What does the subtitle A Romance of the Shallows mean?
The Shallows are the hidden sandbanks and uncertain channels off the Borneo coast where the story is set. They also stand for the dangers beneath calm surfaces, in both the sea and the choices people make.
Is The Rescue hard to read?
No. The story is simple to state: a captain has promised to help a prince and his sister, then a yacht runs aground and a woman changes his plans. It is told in nine clear parts, and a calm observer, d'Alcacer, helps explain events.