Story summary
Краткое содержание: Red Nails
- Чтение: 8 мин.
- 9 parts
- Аудио скоро
Two fugitives climb a crag to escape a dragon, then walk into a silent city where a fifty-year feud still burns.
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Red Nails — кратко о книге
Краткое содержание: 8 min на чтение
- Время чтения
- Около 2 h 5 min1 h 40 min fast, 2 h 30 min slow
- Длительность
- Слов: 29 5007 chapters
- Страницы
- Страниц: 87132 in large print
- Уровень в библиотеке
- Средний longer sentences, everyday words
- Первая публикация
- 1936by Robert E. Howard
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Сколько времени нужно на чтение классики · Обновлено
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Red Nails in short
Red Nails follows two outlaws who escape one doom and walk into another. Conan and Valeria outwit a dragon with a poisoned spear and flee across a plain to a walled city. Inside, they find a place with no streets, where two clans of Tlazitlan exiles have fought each other for fifty years and are dying out.
What Red Nails is about
Would you climb a rock to escape a dragon, and then walk straight into a city no one has left in fifty years? That is the position of Conan the Cimmerian and Valeria of the Red Brotherhood in Red Nails. A pirate on the run and a barbarian who followed her are cornered on a crag above a forest of monsters, with a silent walled city waiting on the plain.
Robert E. Howard wrote this sword and sorcery novella in the 1930s for a pulp magazine. You get a sealed city of jade and green fire-stones, two clans locked in a feud older than their children, and two heroes who cannot decide whether they are partners or rivals.
Для кого. Readers who love fast adventures, fierce heroes, lost cities and dark magic will enjoy this tale. It also suits pulp fantasy fans and anyone eager to meet Conan at his best.
The story in 9 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A dragon pins two fugitives on a crag
The story opens in a forest so quiet that no bird sings. Valeria, a pirate of the Red Brotherhood, has fled the mercenary camp at Sukhmet after she knifed a Stygian officer who forced his attentions on her. She climbs a flint crag and finds a human skeleton on the ledge with no broken bones. Beyond the treetops she spots a walled city on a plain.
Then Conan arrives. He has followed her for days. Valeria meets his admiration with a drawn sword and sharp words. The quarrel is nearly comic, with a barbarian who will not hurt a woman and a pirate who will not be handled.
The argument stops when horses scream below. A saurian head pushes through the thicket, bigger than a crocodile's, on a spiked neck above a barrel-bellied body. The two climb back up the crag, and the beast rears against the rock like a man. Valeria has fought on burning decks, yet starving on a rock frightens her. Conan sits calmly while he thinks.
When the world corners you, look at what you have in reach before you panic.
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Conan beats the monster with poison and nerve
Conan's escape plan comes from something he sees on the crag itself.
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The dead city has no streets at all
The pair sleep in a ring of cactus on the plain, and Conan keeps watch all night.
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The Burning Skull strikes fear before it strikes steel
While Conan scouts alone, Valeria creeps to a gallery.
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Tecuhltli is a fortress and a cage
Techotl leads the pair through dim chambers toward his clan's quarter.
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A black flower and a silent maid
After the meal, Valeria takes a room and locks every door.
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A night attack ends the war and starts another
Two guards at the great bronze door talk about the future.
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The feud is the true monster of the tale
Under the swordplay, Red Nails is about a feud that has outlived its cause.
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Howard builds speed, color and dread into every scene
Howard tells the story in short, vivid chapters, each with a hook.
Read all 9 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Conan A Cimmerian barbarian and former pirate, quick and clever, who follows Valeria into the forest and wants a ship and the open sea.
- Valeria A fierce Aquilonian pirate of the Red Brotherhood who killed a Stygian officer and wants to live free of any man's protection.
- Techotl A lean Tlazitlan warrior of Tecuhltli who shows kindness to the strangers and wants to bring them to his people.
- Olmec The bearded giant prince of Tecuhltli who hungers to wipe out the rival clan and rule Xuchotl.
- Tascela A beautiful and cold princess of Tecuhltli, whose burning eyes never leave Valeria and who guards a secret.
- Yasala Tascela's silent maid, who creeps into Valeria's room at night with a black flower in her hand.
- Tolkemec A former slave who helped the Tlazitlans take the city and later turned on both clans, now lurking in the catacombs.
How it ends (spoiler)
Conan finds Olmec bound on a torture rack and spares him in return for help. Olmec betrays him on the stair, and Conan kills him in the fall. Tascela is about to sacrifice Valeria when Tolkemec, who has lived twelve years in the catacombs, appears with a wand of red fire. He kills most of the clan before Conan kills him. Valeria stabs Tascela.
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Вопросы о книге Red Nails
What is Red Nails about?
It follows the barbarian Conan and the pirate Valeria as they flee a dragon and enter the lost city of Xuchotl. There they meet two clans locked in a fifty-year feud, ruled by hatred, magic and secrets.
Who are Conan and Valeria in Red Nails?
Conan is a Cimmerian warrior who has been a pirate, mercenary and desert raider. Valeria is an Aquilonian pirate of the Red Brotherhood who has fled a mercenary camp. They begin as rivals and end as allies.
What do the red nails mean in the story?
They are copper nails driven into a black ebony pillar in the throne room of Tecuhltli. Each one marks a dead enemy from the rival clan, and the pillar shows how the feud has become the center of their lives.
When was Red Nails written, and where is it set?
Robert E. Howard wrote it in the 1930s for a pulp magazine. It takes place in his invented Hyborian Age, in a forest and a walled city far south of Stygia, in an unexplored land.
Is Red Nails a good place to start reading Conan?
Yes, it works well as a first Conan tale because it stands alone. The story is a single quest with a clear cast, quick chapters and plenty of action, and it shows what Conan and his world are like.
Как сослаться на это издание
Howard, Robert E. Red Nails. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/red-nails.
Howard, R. E. (2026). Red nails. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/red-nails (Original work published 1936)
Howard, Robert E. Red Nails. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/red-nails.
@book{howard2026red,
author = {Howard, Robert E.},
title = {Red Nails},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/red-nails},
note = {First published 1936}
}
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