Story summary
Samenvatting van Een zestal verhalen
- 8 min. leestijd
- 11 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
A strong prisoner bends prison bars to bring thirsty men water, and a young lieutenant cannot forget him.
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Een zestal verhalen in het kort
Samenvatting: 8 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 5 h 35 min4 h 25 min fast, 6 h 40 min slow
- Lengte
- 79.800 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Gemiddeld longer sentences, everyday words
- Voor het eerst verschenen
- 1908by Joseph Conrad
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Hoelang het duurt om de klassiekers te lezen · Bijgewerkt
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Een zestal verhalen in short
A Set of Six is a gallery of stories about people caught in forces larger than themselves. A peasant is turned into a weapon by a ruined woman. A ship is blamed as if it had a mind.
What Een zestal verhalen is about
A prisoner stands tied and thirsty in a fort courtyard at Valparaiso, condemned to be shot at sunset. A seventeen-year-old lieutenant cannot bear the sound of men begging for water. What happens at that barred window sets off a chain of events that will cover a whole country.
A Set of Six is a collection of six stories by Joseph Conrad, gathered in 1908. Their settings run from the Andes to the docks of London to a Provence pine wood. Most are told aloud by a narrator, such as an old general, a quiet revolutionary organizer or a talkative sailor, and you hear each tale with its turns and its irony.
Voor wie is het?. Readers who like short fiction with a sharp edge, tales of revolution, sea and soldiering told by a voice at a dinner table, and endings that make you think again.
The story in 11 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A thirsty courtyard begins the tale of Gaspar Ruiz
The first story is told by General Santierra, an old man who entertains English naval officers in his garden in Chile. He remembers being a lieutenant of seventeen in the war of independence against Spain.
Gaspar Ruiz is a huge peasant soldier. The Royalists force him to march in their ranks with a musket. When the patriots recapture him, nobody believes his explanation, and he is condemned as a deserter with some twenty others.
By noon the heat in the guardroom is unbearable and the men cry out for water. The lieutenant orders water given, but the buckets will not pass through the bars. Then a calm voice asks him to cut the ropes on its owner's wrists. Ruiz bends the iron bars and passes water to his comrades. A small act of pity can bind two strangers for life.
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A ruined family gives shelter and a purpose
The bullets only nick Gaspar Ruiz, and the sergeant slashes his neck as he lies among the dead.
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An earthquake sends the pair into the wider war
On the night of the planned arrest, the general and the young lieutenant enter the dark house.
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A rebel chief and his pale wife rule the south
Ruiz sits in the south as guardian of the frontier.
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The Informer brings a calm anarchist to a dinner table
The second story is told by a collector of Chinese bronzes and porcelain.
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A fake raid tests the group in Hermione Street
X describes the people he finds in the house.
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The Brute describes a ship with a taste for killing
The third story is set in a pub called the Three Crows.
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An Anarchist shows how one drink can ruin a life
The fourth story is told by a butterfly collector who spends two months on a vast cattle estate belonging to a meat-extract company.
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The Duel begins with a quarrel nobody can explain
The longest story opens in Strasbourg in the time of Napoleon.
- 10Begin gratis met lezen
The Duel follows two men through war and peace
As the army marches across Europe, the rivalry travels with it.
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Il Conde meets a gentleman and an adventure he cannot forget
The last story begins in the National Museum in Naples, in front of the bronzes from Pompeii.
Read all 11 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Gaspar Ruiz A huge, obedient peasant soldier, condemned as a deserter, who wants his good name back and the favor of the woman who shelters him.
- General Santierra An old Chilean general who tells the story of his youth, when pity for prisoners tied his fate to a strong man.
- Doña Erminia A ruined Royalist's daughter, proud and bitter, who sees in Gaspar Ruiz a way to strike back at those who destroyed her family.
- Mr. X A quiet, elegant revolutionary writer who tells a collector of bronzes how he hunted a traitor in a London house.
- Feraud A short, hot-tempered Gascon hussar who takes offense easily and spends years seeking satisfaction against a fellow officer.
- D'Hubert A tall, reasonable cavalry officer who wants only a sensible career and peace, but cannot shake off an angry rival.
- Paul the engineer A gentle Parisian mechanic, forced to work for a cattle company on a South American island, who wants only to sleep.
- Il Conde A refined elderly gentleman who lives for comfort on the Gulf of Naples and wants only freedom from pain.
How it ends (spoiler)
Gaspar Ruiz meets his end after carrying a gun on his back, destroyed by his strength while trying to rescue his wife. She dies by leaping into a ravine after leaving her child with the young Santierra, who raises her. In The Duel, D'Hubert wins, spares Feraud and marries Adele. Il Conde leaves Naples forever, sure that the humiliation of the robbery will kill him.
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Vragen over Een zestal verhalen
What is A Set of Six about?
It is a collection of six stories by Joseph Conrad. They cover a rebel in the Chilean wars, a London anarchist cell, a deadly ship, a convict engineer, two Napoleonic duelists and a gentleman in Naples.
Who tells the stories in A Set of Six?
Most have a narrator inside the tale, such as General Santierra, a collector of bronzes, a sailor in a pub or a butterfly hunter. This gives each story the feel of a spoken account.
Is The Duel based on a true story?
Conrad says it grew from a short newspaper paragraph about two officers in Napoleon's army who fought a series of duels. He invented the cause and the characters, and wrote it as historical fiction.
What is the sea story in A Set of Six?
The Brute is the only sea story. A talkative sailor in an English pub tells of the Apse Family, a ship that harms someone on nearly every voyage. Conrad says it drew on a captain's account.
Is A Set of Six easy to read?
Each story stands alone and is built around a clear situation and a lively voice. You can read them one at a time, and the dialogue and scenes keep the pace moving.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
Conrad, Joseph. A Set of Six. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-set-of-six.
Conrad, J. (2026). A set of six. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-set-of-six (Original work published 1908)
Conrad, Joseph. A Set of Six. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-set-of-six.
@book{conrad2026set,
author = {Conrad, Joseph},
title = {A Set of Six},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-set-of-six},
note = {First published 1908}
}
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