Reflecting Conrad's genius for narrative that focuses on the quest for inner truths, "The Arrow of Gold" is an exploration of the dangerous appetites of men and of human vulnerability, as well as a profound meditation on the emotional boundary between people.
During the Carlist war of the early 1870s, a young sailor, the unnamed protagonist, joins the champions of Don Carlos de Bourbon, pretender to the throne of Spain. The Carlists use the eager youth's intense attraction to the sea to persuade him to run perilous enterprises for their cause, ventures he later learns have been financed by the beautiful mistress and heiress of a rich man's fortune. When he falls in love with her, he finds himself moved absolutely by this discovery, despite the fact that she is unable to return his love fully.....
