Queen of the Black Coast

The most electrifying Conan story Howard ever wrote, and the one that gave fantasy its most unforgettable female character. Conan flees arrest in Argos and stows away aboard a pirate galley, only to be captured by Bêlit, the savage beauty who commands the black ship Tigress. What begins as a clash of wills becomes something neither expects: a love as fierce and brutal as the world they inhabit. Together they raid the coasts of Kush, sail up the mystery-shrouded Zarkheba river, and hunt for treasure in a dead city where something with wings waits in the dark. Howard's prose is pure adrenaline, but beneath the sword-swinging and blood-letting lies a tragedy that still hits hard after ninety years. This is adventure fiction at its most primal, with a romance that earns every ounce of its intensity.
Editions
X-Ray
“I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply. I seek not beyond death. It may be the blackness averred by the Nemedian skeptics, or Crom's realm of ice and cloud, or the snowy plains and vaulted halls of the Nordheimer's Valhalla. I know not, nor do I care. Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. Let teachers and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.””
— Robert E. Howard
“I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.””
— Robert E. Howard
“Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.””
— Robert E. Howard
“Belît sprang before the blacks, beating down their spears. She turned toward Conan, her bosom heaving, her eyes flashing. Fierce fingers of wonder caught at his heart. She was slender, yet formed like a goddess: at once lithe and voluptuous. Her only garment was a broad silken girdle. Her white ivory limbs and the ivory globes of her breasts drove a beat of fierce passion through the Cimmerian's pulse, even in the panting fury of battle. Her rich black hair, black as a Stygian night, fell in rippling burnished clusters down her supple back. Her dark eyes burned on the Cimmerian. She was untamed as a desert wind, supple and dangerous as a she-panther. She came close to him, heedless of his great blade, dripping with blood of her warriors. Her supple thigh brushed against it, so close she came to the tall warrior. Her red lips parted as she stared up into his somber menacing eyes.””
— Robert E. Howard
“I seek not beyond death. It may be the blackness averred by the Nemedian skeptics, or Crom's realm of ice and cloud, or the snowy plains and vaulted halls of the Nordheimer's Valhalla. I know not, nor do I care.Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content.Let teachers and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.””
— Robert E. Howard
“By Crom, though I've spend considerable time among you civilized peoples, your ways are still beyond my comprehension””
— Robert E. Howard
“In this world men struggle and suffer vainly, finding pleasure only in the bright madness of battle””
— Robert E. Howard
Link to this book
Add a free, dofollow link to Lex on your blog, forum, syllabus, or reading list.
<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/queen-of-the-black-coast-9e4b23ba-f3fb-489e-bef2-3db2ce9f1dc2"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read Queen of the Black Coast by Robert E. Howard free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/queen-of-the-black-coast-9e4b23ba-f3fb-489e-bef2-3db2ce9f1dc2)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/queen-of-the-black-coast-9e4b23ba-f3fb-489e-bef2-3db2ce9f1dc2][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read Queen of the Black Coast by Robert E. Howard free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/queen-of-the-black-coast-9e4b23ba-f3fb-489e-bef2-3db2ce9f1dc2Cite this book
Reading this edition for a paper or guide? Copy a citation.
Howard, Robert E.. Queen of the Black Coast. Lex, lex-books.com/book/queen-of-the-black-coast-9e4b23ba-f3fb-489e-bef2-3db2ce9f1dc2.Howard, R. E. (n.d.). Queen of the Black Coast. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/queen-of-the-black-coast-9e4b23ba-f3fb-489e-bef2-3db2ce9f1dc2Howard, Robert E.. Queen of the Black Coast. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/queen-of-the-black-coast-9e4b23ba-f3fb-489e-bef2-3db2ce9f1dc2.
































