Résumé
Résumé de Le Dieu jaune
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
Readers who love old-fashioned adventure with hidden kingdoms, golden idols and daring escapes, and who enjoy a villain with a smooth face, a sweetheart with a sharp tongue, and a servant who steals every scene.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
A Yellow God is an adventure novel by H. Rider Haggard, the English writer who also gave readers King Solomon's Mines. It begins in a granite office in the City of London and ends on a ship leaving the African coast. It follows Major Alan Vernon, an honest engineer, who walks away from a crooked company and goes looking for a hidden people and their gold.
Haggard wrote it as a tale of adventure with a moral edge. The first chapters laugh at the world of company promoters, who sell shares in a scheme they never mean to build. The later chapters move to forests, swamps, cannibals and a secret city ruled by a priestess. Between them runs a love story, a rivalry, and the voice of Jeekie, a servant who is part comic and part guardian.
You will meet a golden fetish with a woman's face, a mountain full of gold, and a queen who believes her soul has lived for thousands of years. You will also find out what it costs a man to keep his conscience when money is within reach. The story starts with that choice, made in a London office on an April evening.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A Granite Office Built on AppearancesFree
- 2Alan Gives Up a Fortune
- 3Jeekie Tells the Tale of Little Bonsa
- 4Two Proposals and a Sharp Reply
- 5A Diary, a Map, and a Plan
- 6Poison Arrows in the Dwarf Forest
- 7The City of Bonsa and Its Priestess
- 8Greed, Conscience and Belief
- 9How Haggard Tells the Tale
Point clé 1 sur 9
A Granite Office Built on Appearances
The story opens in the City of London, in the office of Sir Robert Aylward. The building is made of Aberdeen granite and topped with a statue of Justice, all to make investors feel safe. Inside, Sir Robert, who is forty-four and pale as a wax mask, works out his share of a vast new scheme called Sahara Limited. Eighteen months ago he stood at the edge of bankruptcy. Now he is about to be rich.
His partner, Mr. Champers-Haswell, is a stout, cheerful little man who whistles through his lips when he is moved. He believes the public can be caught by solemn buildings and glowing newspaper articles. The pair have planned to flood a desert and make it a sea, and the plan has been sold to French bankers and English lords. Newspapers are paid to praise it, and one editor, old Jackson of The Judge, refuses to be paid at all.
In a dim corner of the room sits an ugly object on a marble pedestal. It is a yellow toad-like thing of gold, topped by a woman's face of devilish beauty, with eyes that change color like opals. Sir Robert, who believes in nothing, half believes that this thing brought him luck from the day it arrived. It belongs to Major Alan Vernon, the third partner, who inherited it from a missionary uncle.
Alan is an engineer with a fever-thinned face and an honest, puzzled look. The Sahara idea was his, but he meant it as a sound project with modest profits. He has begun to smell something rotten in how the firm runs it. Sir Robert, sensing this, sends him to Fleet Street to soften old Jackson.
Jackson will not be softened. He was a friend of Alan's father, and he hands the young man a typed history of the two promoters and the investors they have ruined. He warns that the Sultan's permission for the whole scheme may not be what it seems. He also asks after Miss Barbara Champers, whom he calls an honest woman. Alan leaves with his mind turning over.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Questions about Le Dieu jaune
What is A Yellow God about?
It follows Major Alan Vernon, an honest engineer who leaves a crooked London company and travels to Africa with his servant Jeekie. He carries a golden idol back to its home among the secretive Asiki, hoping to trade it for gold.
What does the Yellow God mean in the book?
It has two meanings. In London, Sir Robert uses the phrase for money. In Africa it is a real golden idol called Little Bonsa, the wife of Big Bonsa, worshipped by the Asiki as a goddess of death.
Who is Jeekie?
Jeekie is Alan Vernon's African servant, a tall man with white hair, born among the Asiki and saved from sacrifice by Alan's uncle. He is comic, boastful and resourceful, and he guides Alan through danger.
Is A Yellow God a true story?
No, it is a work of fiction by H. Rider Haggard, written in the early twentieth century. The Asiki, Bonsa Town and the Asika are invented, though the book draws on real ideas of West African fetishes and company promoting of its day.
Is A Yellow God easy to read?
Yes, the book moves quickly with short scenes, lively dialogue and clear adventure. Jeekie's humor and the cliffhanger chapter endings keep it light, and the story is easy to follow from London to the African forest.