12 h 9 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 12 h 9 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if your first great love draws you into a cause you barely understand?
In Marseilles in the 1870s, young Monsieur George longs for experience, love and something worth serving. Mr Mills introduces him to Doña Rita, a wealthy woman whose presence draws admiration and gossip. As George falls under her spell, he enters a circle where private feeling and political loyalty are hard to separate.
Rita supports the Carlist cause, which needs money, arms and passage by sea. George becomes involved in its work as his love deepens. In Joseph Conrad's The Arrow of Gold, the older George recalls this youth with tenderness and doubt, asking how much his younger self can truly see through the dazzle of first love.
What you’ll discover
- First love under pressure Follow George's intense devotion as desire draws him closer to political risks.
- A woman beyond gossip Meet Doña Rita, whose wealth and guarded inner life resist the judgments surrounding her.
- A port of secret loyalties Enter a Marseilles of sailors, exiles and schemers, where introductions open uncertain doors.
- The sea behind the intrigue Sail alongside George and the skilled Dominic Cervoni as the cause demands practical risks.
- Memory touched by doubt Hear an older man revisit youthful certainty with fondness and a more questioning eye.
Who will love it
Readers drawn to sea stories, smugglers and the old port of Marseilles will love this novel, as will those who enjoy enigmatic women, tense talk in lamplit rooms and young men in love.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A masked night in Marseilles starts everything
- Two men tell a stranger her story
- A painter's ward is left alone in the world
- A lunch at the Prado villa tests the newcomer
- The young man becomes a smuggler for her sake
- Rita tells of goats, a boy and a borrowed name
- A grand lady asks him to disappear
- Love leaves him helpless and half mad
- Fear, honesty and the weight of a reputation
- A letter, a dummy and a golden arrow
Who’s who
- Monsieur GeorgeThe young narrator, a sailor and smuggler by choice, who falls headlong for Doña Rita and risks everything for her.
- Doña RitaA former goatherd and the heiress of Henry Allègre, called Madame de Lastaola, who wants honesty and freedom in a world that wants to own her.
- Captain BluntA South Carolina cavalry officer in the Carlist army, sleepless, elegant and proud, who is drawn to Rita yet torn by his scruples.
- MillsA calm, kindly Englishman and shipwreck survivor, a man of books who sets the plot moving and watches over the young man.
- DominicA Mediterranean sailor and old smuggler who runs the little vessel with the narrator and loves Madame Léonore.
- ThereseRita's pious, grasping peasant sister, who keeps the house on the Street of Consuls and wants it for herself.
- RoseRita's silent, dependable maid, who guards her mistress and warns the narrator of trouble.
- Mrs. BluntThe captain's silver-haired mother, a lady of grand manners who lives by her wits and wants a rich marriage for her son.
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The Arrow of Gold
by Joseph Conrad · 1919
In Marseilles, a young gunrunner meets Doña Rita, a goatherd turned heiress, while Captain Blunt looks on.
Medium level10–20 hours to readEnglish
Excellent
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In short
It is Carnival night in Marseilles, and a young sailor with nothing to do sits in a bright café on the Cannebière. A girl dressed as Night sticks out her tongue at him, and two men come in from the cold.
The Arrow of Gold at a glance
- Reading time
- About 7 h 5 min5 h 40 min fast, 8 h 25 min slow
- Length
- 101,300 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1919by Joseph Conrad
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A masked night in Marseilles starts everything
The story opens on the last evening of Carnival, in a café on the Cannebière. The narrator is a young man just back from his second voyage to the West Indies. He feels lonely but not sad, and his friends call him Young Ulysses.
A line of masked dancers rushes in. One of them, a girl in black covered with gold half-moons and dressed as Night, shoots out her tongue at him like a pink dart. She does the same to two men at the door. The young man knows one of them, a broad, fair man named Mills, who arrived shipwrecked. He waves him over.
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 15 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1919
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 7 h 50 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Conrad, Joseph. The Arrow of Gold. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-arrow-of-gold.
Conrad, J. (2026). The arrow of gold. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-arrow-of-gold (Original work published 1919)
Conrad, Joseph. The Arrow of Gold. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-arrow-of-gold.
@book{conrad2026arrow,
author = {Conrad, Joseph},
title = {The Arrow of Gold},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-arrow-of-gold},
note = {First published 1919}
}
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What is The Arrow of Gold about?
It follows a young sailor in 1870s Marseilles who smuggles arms for the Spanish pretender Don Carlos and falls in love with Doña Rita, a mysterious heiress. The book is as much a portrait of her as a tale of the sea.
Who is Doña Rita in The Arrow of Gold?
She is the heiress of the painter Henry Allègre, a goatherd from the Basque hills who became his model and companion. She now calls herself Madame de Lastaola and helps the Carlist cause.
What does the arrow of gold mean?
It is a jeweled gold pin that holds Rita's tawny hair. The narrator teases it as tasteless, yet it haunts his dreams and becomes the bright token that ties him to her.
The author
Joseph Conrad
1857–1924 · Polish-British novelist
Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) was a Polish-British writer born in Berdychiv, then in the Russian Empire and now in Ukraine. He worked at sea before settling in England. He wrote in English. His works include Heart of Darkness (1899), Lord Jim (1900), Nostromo (1904), and The Secret Agent (1907).
More by Joseph Conrad
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