Story summary
Samenvatting van De donkere ster
- 8 min. leestijd
- 11 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
A missionary's daughter, a Cossack prince and a stolen bronze devil drift toward the war of 1914.
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De donkere ster in het kort
Samenvatting: 8 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 7 h 20 min5 h 50 min fast, 8 h 45 min slow
- Lengte
- 104.500 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Gemiddeld longer sentences, everyday words
- Voor het eerst verschenen
- 1917by Robert W. Chambers
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Hoelang het duurt om de klassiekers te lezen · Bijgewerkt
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De donkere ster in short
The Dark Star follows one object, a bronze devil in an olive-wood box, and the people it draws together. Rue Carew grows from a poor girl who draws swans into a young artist in Paris. Jim Neeland, who thinks life is a lark, carries the box across an ocean and learns that spies can shoot, poison and bomb.
What De donkere ster is about
What happens when a dead man's wonder box holds the secrets of a coming war? In The Dark Star, a missionary's daughter plays with a bronze devil and a stranger's diary, and years later both draw her into the plots of European embassies.
Robert W. Chambers sets this novel against Europe's slide toward the war of 1914. It follows Ruhannah Carew, a poor girl who draws, Jim Neeland, a cheerful illustrator, Ilse Dumont, a singer who is also a spy, and a Russian princess in Paris. The listener gets a love story, a spy chase across the Atlantic, and Paris in the last days of peace.
Voor wie is het?. This book suits readers who enjoy spy adventure with a love story inside it, anyone drawn to Paris on the eve of the Great War, and fans of quick, witty talk.
The story in 11 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A dark star hangs over many lives
The book opens with a legend. A dark star called Erlik, named for the Mongol Prince of Darkness, is said to rule the birth of children who will be thrown off their ordered lives by a great earthquake of history. Chambers does not argue the point. He shows its effects on children born in the same season.
In Trebizond a baby girl frets in the hot wind. In a New York mill town a boy called Jim shoots a grouse with his father. Ilse Dumont, daughter of a German gamekeeper, promises her dying father to serve the Fatherland. A Mongol missionary adds that a dagger and an image of Erlik pass from nation to nation, and war follows wherever they rest.
These lives are tied together before any of the people know it. The takeaway is that private choices and public wars share one pattern.
- 2Begin gratis met lezen
A child plays with a dead spy's box
The story proper starts in a lamplit sitting room in New York State.
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A poor girl in Brookhollow wants to draw
The scene moves to the Carew house at Brookhollow, beside a millpond.
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A gambler wins a missionary's trust
A summer storm drives a wrecked red runabout into Rue's life.
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A false wedding ends in a public blow
Brandes will not wait for his divorce.
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Paris turns a ruined girl into an artist
Neeland gets Rue's trunk off the liner, and she sails alone for Paris.
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Neeland meets a spy in an empty house
Princess Mistchenka writes that the papers in the box may matter to civilization itself, so Neeland goes to Brookhollow.
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A liner crossing full of poison and bombs
On the Cunarder Volhynia, Neeland keeps the box at his side and studies the passengers.
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The box is stolen at the very door
Neeland reaches Paris by way of a stormy Channel crossing.
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Innocence, honor and loyalty drive the story
The central contrast is between Rue's innocence and the world's cunning.
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A fairy tale told with a spy's tools
Chambers tells the story in a light, quick style that mixes fairy tale with melodrama.
Read all 11 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Ruhannah Carew A poor missionary's daughter from Brookhollow with a gift for drawing, she wants to study art and support her parents.
- Jim Neeland A cheerful young illustrator with Irish ancestry, he fetches a box for a friend and finds adventure.
- Princess Naïa Mistchenka A warm and clever Russian widow in Paris who takes Rue in and quietly serves her country's secret interests.
- Ilse Dumont A singer who goes by Minna Minti and works as a spy, she follows the box with fierce loyalty to her Fatherland.
- Eddie Brandes A New York gambler and promoter who wants a respectable home with Rue and cannot give up his old habits.
- Alak Sengoun A reckless Cossack captain and attaché, called Prince Erlik, who longs for a thousand lances and a cavalry charge.
- Reverend Wilbour Carew A crippled former missionary who keeps a dead German's papers and teaches his daughter to seek evidence for faith.
- Ben Stull Brandes's pale and sour partner, who distrusts every plan and follows him anyway.
How it ends (spoiler)
After a night of gunfire at the Café des Bulgars, Princess Naïa takes the disheveled Ilse Dumont and Neeland into her car. The stolen plans stay with the spy Breslau. That evening, while cavalry rides silently past the window, Jim and Rue Carew have tea together, and the feelings they have hidden come into the open. They kiss in the darkening room as the capital waits for war.
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Vragen over De donkere ster
What is The Dark Star by Robert W. Chambers about?
It follows Ruhannah Carew, a missionary's daughter, and Jim Neeland, an illustrator, as a box of Turkish fort plans and a bronze devil draws them into spy plots on the eve of the First World War.
Who is Erlik and what is the Yellow Devil?
Erlik is the Mongol Prince of Darkness, and also the name given to a dark star that is said to rule the birth of people caught up in war. The Yellow Devil is a bronze figure of Erlik kept in a box.
Who is Scheherazade in The Dark Star?
Scheherazade is the nickname Jim Neeland gives to Ilse Dumont, a spy who is also a singer. He borrows the name of the storyteller of the Thousand and One Nights because of her tales.
When is The Dark Star set?
The story begins in an upstate New York village and moves to New York, an ocean liner and Paris. Its main action takes place in July and early August of 1914, just as war breaks out in Europe.
Is The Dark Star easy to follow?
Yes, in a practical sense. Short chapters, quick dialogue and a lively mix of humor, chases and romance keep the story moving, and each section has its own scene and clear stakes.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
Chambers, Robert W. The Dark Star. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-dark-star.
Chambers, R. W. (2026). The dark star. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-dark-star (Original work published 1917)
Chambers, Robert W. The Dark Star. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-dark-star.
@book{chambers2026dark,
author = {Chambers, Robert W.},
title = {The Dark Star},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-dark-star},
note = {First published 1917}
}
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