Riassunto
Riassunto di Zoraida
A chi è rivolto
Readers who love desert journeys, harem palaces, secret brotherhoods and buried treasure, and who enjoy a hero who rides, fights and falls in love far from home, in the style of Victorian adventure.
Che cos’è questo libro
Zoraida is an adventure romance by William Le Queux, set in the Sahara and the cities of North Africa in the years of French rule. It is told in the first person by Cecil Holcombe, a young Englishman who loves the desert and speaks Arabic. The book mixes caravan raids, harem intrigue, secret societies and a hunt for lost treasure, and it gives you a long ride through places few readers of its day had seen.
It opens with a warning. An old merchant named Ali Ben Hafiz tells Cecil that a camel has stepped where he spat, and that this is an omen of a woman who will bring him ruin. Soon after, Cecil is a captive of the outlaw Hadj Absalam, and a veiled woman cuts his bonds in the night.
What follows is a quest across two thousand miles of desert, with a rusty iron crescent as its only clue. You will meet soldiers, slaves, sultans, fanatics and a woman whose name is spoken with awe. The first key point is the omen itself and the night of the asp.
In questo riassunto
- 1An old merchant's warning of ruinFree
- 2Captured by raiders and left to the asp
- 3A fight at Meskam and a Spahi's secret
- 4Algiers, the harem and the Shrine of Darkness
- 5South across the desert, betrayed and enslaved
- 6Flight, a stone drawer and a secret council
- 7Among the Ennitra and the plan to take Agadez
- 8The imam, the burning house and Octave
- 9What the story is really about
- 10How the tale is told
Punto chiave 1 di 10
An old merchant's warning of ruin
The story begins in the Great Sahara in the month of Moharram. Cecil Holcombe, an Englishman who has spent three years among Arabs, rides alone to catch a caravan bound for the Touat Oasis. He carries a letter from a French general to the merchant Ali Ben Hafiz of Biskra, and the old man welcomes him, shares salt with him and takes him under his protection.
As they ride together, Cecil learns that Ali is deeply pious and loves to scold unbelievers. He is also a man who reads signs. One morning the merchant tells him that a camel has set its hoof on the spot where Cecil spat. This, he says, is the Omen of the Camel's Hoof.
Ali explains what the omen means. A woman with eyes like a gazelle's will one day enter Cecil's life, and love for her will be fatal. He tells the story of his own nephew, who ignored the same sign, fell in love when a gust of wind lifted a woman's veil and was poisoned in a cup of tea by the woman he married.
Cecil laughs it off. He is an orphan who grew up among the artists of Paris, and he has never loved a woman. Yet the warning stays with him, and it returns again and again as the book goes on. It sets the tone of the whole story, in which a desert superstition hangs over every hope.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Zoraida
What is Zoraida by William Le Queux about?
It follows Cecil Holcombe, an Englishman rescued from torture by a veiled woman named Zoraida. He then travels across the Sahara to Agadez with a mysterious crescent of steel, meeting raiders, slave traders, secret brotherhoods and hidden treasure.
What is the Omen of the Camel's Hoof?
It is a sign described by the merchant Ali Ben Hafiz. If a camel steps where a traveller spat, a woman will soon enter his life, and loving her may bring him ruin. The warning returns throughout the story.
Who is Zoraida, the Daughter of the Sun?
She is a beautiful woman called Daughter of the Sun by the desert outlaws of the Ennitra, who follow her as a prophetess. Her true origin is one of the book's central mysteries, and it is explained near the end.
What is the Crescent of Glorious Wonders?
It is a rusted half-hoop of worked iron kept in a worn leather case. Zoraida gives it to Cecil as a pledge, and everyone from the imam of Agadez to Hadj Absalam wants it, because it is said to hold a great secret.
Is Zoraida a true story, and when was it written?
No, it is an adventure romance. William Le Queux wrote it in the late Victorian period, when stories of the Sahara, harems and secret societies were popular. It is set among real places such as Algiers, Tuggurt and Agadez.