The Walking Drum

The Walking Drum is a novel by seed Louis LAmour. It is a historical novel set in twelfth century Europe and Middle East. The main character of the novel Marthurin Kerbouchard, goes from city to city in search for his take. During the course of his enormous journey, he assumes the role of a slave, sailor, scholar, physician, merchant, alchemist, and lover. He becomes a searcher beetle of knowledge and fortune. He stayed in castles, slave galleys, fought bloody battles to deliverance a princess, and ultimately ends up in the Valley of Assassins in Persia to rescue his father.

Marthurin was forced to leave his birthplace Brittany to escape great power de Tournemine who killed his mother. Having no one to protect him, Marthurin took a passage in a ship only to discover he was a slave thither. But, because of his sailing experience he became a buffer zone and freed the fellow slaves and on reaching the coast made their captives slaves. On reaching Moorish Spain, he started a search for his father. He finds himself in political intrigue, and pretends imprisoned. On escaping, he gets aid from a womanhood Safia who tells him that his father might be alive in the Valley of Assassins in the fortress of Alamut. She found out that his father was captured as a slave by Sinan and told Marthurin it is nearly unattainable to horizontal enter in the valley. Safia and Marthurin had to leave Spain because their lives were threatened. So, they joined a merchant travel which halt at places for fairs. The caravan stopped at Brittany and by now Marthurin was a full heavy(p) man. He took r level offge of his mothers murder and killed Baron de Tournemine. The caravan thusly made their journey to Russia. They had the biggest battle in which all the caravan merchants got killed and Marthurin was seriously injured. On reaching Byzantium dressed in rags, he took a job as a simileteller. By carnal knowledge stories of lands that he had travelled, he earned a few gilded coins. He also learned to be an alchemist, thinking he might get an invitation from Sinan, who was also an alchemist. He did get an invitaion and he entered the valley. He started his journey with an old friend whom he met in Byzantium. When they stopped at an inn he sees a woman from India. Her name was Sundari. He realizes that she is his true love and promises her that if he gets back alive from the valley, he would come to India and marry her. After staying there a few days he finds his father and some(prenominal) escaped by very difficulity. Unfortunately there reunion after(prenominal) so some years was for a gip sequence because Marthurins destination was in India and his father wanted to get back to sea where he will spent his life. So, they split and Marthurin starts his long journey to India.

Although this control is a fiction, it mentions a flowerpot of true segments. The segment about Moorish Spain was a fact. They were Arabs from normality Africa, called Moors, and conquered Spain in 710-712. The book referred to Constantinople and its geographic location. It referred to the city to be the occasion between Europe and Asia. It was protected by eleven gates, and it bring down between the Sea of Marmora and the Golden Horn, separated by Bosphorus from Asia. The book referred to India as Hind and that is what it was called then. It also mentioned all of the Crusades. It talked about Islam and Arab art. It mentioned the Arab libraries and how many manuscripts lie there unknown to the mosques or Moslems. It also mentioned the Muslims craft the Christians and Jews, People of the Book. When Mathurin reaches Constantinople, Manual I was the emperor of the eastern roman print Empire, or the Byzantine Empire. Another character in that chronicle is Manuals cousin Andronicus, who was the enemy of Mathurin and Manual. This is actually a fact and after Manuals death, Andronicus becomes an emperor and the mob turned on him, and he died even though the book didnt really mention this part. The Assasins were members of an Ismaili sect, now an fundamental and honorable sect with many members in Pakistan. The fortress of Alamut is in ruins today in the remote corner of Elburz Mountains in Iran. It was undo by the Mongols. There was not a lot of fiction in this story. Some of the characters were made up.



Also the book mostly shows that Marthurin prefers the religion of Islam better than Christianity. For example, he talked about the pluckliness in Muslim world. Talked about how Christians never used to bath or clean themselves. During bad times he would take the name of Allah and he himself changed his name into ibn-Ibrahim, when he was in Constantinople. When he was in Paris, scholars were not regarded with respect, but when he was in Cordoba, which was a Muslim city, he was given great respect for his intelligence.

This book is something that cant be ad skilful down. One can read this story in devil days, the most. It is filled with so much adventure that the reader just wants to know what happens next. It is very addictive. The period detail and the journey from one place to another were fantastic. It was an occasion where one might even think one has traveled back in time and experienced everything. The best parts of the book are the wonderful descriptions of Muslim Spain and the section inside the Assassins stronghold. This book really deserves a five-star.

The author, Louis LAmour has probably done a lot of research ahead he wrote this book. It has so many vivid descriptions about the lifestyle, the customs, and the style of all the places Marthurin had traveled. The story brings about one adventure, conflict and coquette after another. The storys hero, Marthurin is perhaps too ideal, being a warrior, scholar, theologian, medical checkup specialist, and ladies man, but he does suffer defeats and routs. He al airs finds his way to get back on top and outface his enemies of which he makes many. The story builds steam to the climax and leaves the reader wanting more. The story was left off when Mathurin starts his travel to India to marry Sundari. Unfortunately, there could not be a sequal to this story because Louis LAmour died. But, this book is still worthy reading.

Bibliography:Louis LAmour, The Walking Drum, 1999, USA, Bantam Books, Pub date 31 whitethorn 1999, paperback

If you want to get a full essay, baseball club it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com



If you want to get a full essay, wisit our page: write my paper