The royal road

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

The King's Road ( La Voie royale ) is an early existentialist novel by André Malraux from 1930. It is about two non-conformist adventurers who embark on the “King's Road” to Angkor in the Cambodian jungle . a. with the aim of stealing bas-reliefs from temples.

action

The action takes place at the beginning of the 20th century, at the beginning of the book in a brothel and on the ship between Marseille and Indochina , then mainly in Cambodia, Laos , Siam , and the main characters are the youthful adventurous Claude Vannec and the old, experienced Adventurer Perken , a Dane of German descent. They share their affiliation with the club of the nonconformists and they want to team up to achieve their own goals: the half archaeological, half financial journey on the royal road and the search for the lost adventurer Grabot .

They manage to steal reliefs. However, the adventurers are abandoned by their guide and are at the mercy of the jungle and its dangers. Since they feared adversity in the government-controlled area, they decide to go through the unsubdued area of ​​the Moïs, which is also rich in dangers. But it is also the area in which they suspect Grabot.

The travelers have to deal with hostile vegetation (swamps, giant insects, etc.) and traps. They make a pact with the Stiengs, but when they find the Grabot they enslaved in inhumane conditions and in poor condition, the pact is called into question. Your chances of escape are small, the likelihood of dying in the process or of falling into terrible imprisonment outweighs the odds. With a lot of courage and presence of mind, Perken succeeds in rescuing her from the situation. But he injured himself on a lance.

A festering joint inflammation (at a time before the antibiotics , in a place with no sterile amputation facility ) condemns the old adventurer to death in excruciating pain.

Structure and style

The challenge lies not only superficially in the survival of the dangerous jungle, but also in a metaphysical reflection on people and their destiny. According to the blurb of the DTV paperback edition, the “adventurous expedition” leads into a “gripping inner drama”.

The story is kept in the third person in the past tense and - as usual for adventure novels - has a linear structure. The railway can be seen as a symbol of the regulated world, which Claude is too civilized. Three motifs can be identified: eroticism, death, adventure / nonconformism.

The world described by Malraux is absurd, there is no explanation for the unpleasant closing of the book. The existence of a higher meaningfulness is denied ( aucune pensée divine, aucune récompense future, rien ne pouvait justifier la fin d'une existence humaine ).