The Way of the Kings

One of Malraux's most exotic novels, The Way of Kings is a perfect companion to Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness.Claude and Perken meet on a liner heading for Indo-China, and throw in their lots together to form a dual expedition into the perilous Cambodian jungles of the 'Way of the Kings'. Claude, a young Frenchman, is seeking adventure, fame, and money; Perken, an experienced Dutch explorer, is returning to his own little patch of Siam, aiming to recapture his former masculine pride, and appalled by the coming of age and its effects. The two face death at every turn from the seething forest and 'bestial' tribes people, but are driven to leave their stamp on a world on the eve of its demise, in defiance of the advance of the railroad and 'civilisation', and the term of their own fragile lives.