The Royal Way

The Royal Way / The Way of the Kings ("La Voie Royale", 1930) is an existentialist novel by André Malraux. It is about two nonconformist adventurers who travel on the "Royal Way" to Angkor in the Cambodian jungle. Their intention is to steal precious bas-relief sculptures from the temples.

Plot summary

The locations are, at the beginning of the book, the ship from Marseille to Indochina and a brothel; later it plays out in Cambodia, Laos and Siam. The most important characters are young adventuresome Claude Vannec and an old experienced adventurer named Perken, a Dane with German roots. They relate to each other because of their nonconformism, that lets them collaborate to reach their personal goals: The quest for the reliefs, (for which they are motivated both archeologically and financially) as well as the search for a lost adventurer called Grabot.

They succeed in stealing the reliefs. But they are abandoned by their guide and at the dangerous jungle’s mercy. Because they fear the government, they chose a way through the uncontrolled territory of the Moïs. This region is dangerous, too – but on the other hand Grabot is supposed to be there.

The adventurers have to defeat hostile vegetation and traps (e.g. swamps, giant insects, fleams). A deal is made with the Stiengs, but disintegrates as the adventurers find Grabot horribly enslaved. Now the adventurers are under siege. Perken, in a moment of lucidity and courage, manages to rescue the beleaguered ones.

The price he pays is an injury to his knee, which progresses to ulcerating inflammation of the joint (in a time before the invention of antibiotics, at a place without any opportunity to do a sterile amputation), and he dies slowly in horrible pain.