“Quartononka, or Adventures in the Far West” Reed in brief
The action takes place in the 1850s. in the United States of America, when slavery prevailed in the South. The narration is from the first person.
The hero – a young rich Englishman named Edward in search of romance comes to the US and stops in New Orleans, where for half a year he leads a carefree, wild life, squandering a large sum of money. By the summer he discovers that he has only 25 dollars left. To save himself from the yellow fever epidemic, he buys a part of that money for a boat to St. Louis, although he does not know what means he will live there.
While waiting for the ship to sail, the hero sees preparations for races, which often for the purposes of advertising are arranged by “first-class” river steamships. Passengers are already betting whether their boat will succeed in overtaking the rival, when suddenly a woman appears on the wharf – a beautiful and rich Creole, who expresses the desire to sail on the boat, but with the condition
Suddenly, “Belle of the West”, on which the hero is floating, the steamer-rival is catching up, and the gambling Creole agrees to the race. As a result, a steam boiler explodes, and the “Beauty of the West” begins to quickly go to the bottom. A resourceful hero turns out to be a lucky possessor of a life-belt, but, seeing the poor position of the Creole, gives the belt to her. Some wretch, wishing to take hold of the belt, hurts the hero in his hand, but he still manages to swim to the shore, where he loses consciousness. The hero comes to himself in the estate of Creole, and in his dimmed consciousness emerges the image of a beautiful woman, but this is not Eugenie.
The hero is courted by a Negro named Scipio, or Zip. From him, the hero learns that as a result of the accident drowned Antoine, the manager of the estate and guardian Mademoiselle Besancon. The second guardian of the girl is the cunning and treacherous
Soon the hero is visited by Dr. Edward Reigart, accompanied by Gayar. The latter insists that the hero sent to the hotel, because his presence on the plantation can give the ground for gossip, but the doctor forbids moving.
After a while, the hero gets to know Aurora, in which he learns his beautiful vision. His heart flashes in love, but he realizes that in the way of this love there will be a lot of difficulties connected with the position of his beloved. Chained to bed, the hero reads a lot, communicates with Zip, keeps a diary. From the Negro, he learns that a new supervisor named Larkin, nicknamed Bill-bandit, arrived at the plantation. He is known for his cruelty towards the Negroes, and he is patronized by Gaillard.
The hero closely communicates with the doctor, who tells that Gayar has a great influence on Eugenie Besancon, and at one time the friendship of the lawyer with her father was more like the relationship of the creditor and the debtor.
Soon, the doctor allows the hero to go out. Using this, Gaillard offers the hero to move to the hotel. Eugénie does not hold him, and he, having borrowed money from the doctor, moves to the nearby town of Brinders.
He often visits the plantation and on secret signs, submitted by Aurora, soon becomes convinced that the quadroonka also loves him. He is deliberately trying to figure out how to free her and connect her fate with her.
One day, driving up to Eugenie’s house, he finds out that the quartet is alone, and hopes to be alone with her, but suddenly hears voices from the house. This Gaillard, taking advantage of the absence of the hostess, secretly entered the plantation. He solicits the love of Aurora.
The girl gives him a decisive rebuff, and he is ready to take it by force, but the hero who rushes into the room drives him away. He makes a proposal to Aurora, and they begin to make plans for her release. Edward expresses the intention to buy back her lover, but she doubts this possibility, hinting that the hostess herself is in love with him.
After leaving the bride, the hero rides through the Negro village, where he witnesses how the negro-bambara Gabriel tortures Scipio. It appears that Zip is punished for daring to raise his hand against Larkin, who tried to abuse his daughter. Edward dismisses Gabriel, but then the overseer appears, in which the hero recognizes the scoundrel who wounded him. He aims at the hero from the pistol, but the hero is saved, hitting him with the handle of the whip on the head.
Returning to the hotel, Edward finds a check for two hundred pounds and decides to immediately settle with Eugene the issue of the purchase of Aurora, but when she learns of the hero’s love for the slave girl, she faints, revealing her true feelings.
To put his mind in order, Edward next day goes to the hunt, where he is bitten by a rattlesnake. He is already ready to say goodbye to life, when he suddenly meets Gabriel in the forest, who was running. The Negro heals the hero and opens his shelter to him, showing the way to him. Returning to the hotel, Edward learns that Gayar, who owned a mortgage for the estate of Eugenie, filed for collection and has already been introduced into the ownership rights. Thus, Eugénie is devastated and forced to go to New Orleans, where, according to rumors, her aunt lives. All negroes from the plantation in the near future should be sold at auction. The next day the hero receives a letter from Eugenie, where she confesses her love and announces her intention to go to the monastery.
Wanting to buy the Aurora, the hero is sent to New Orleans. Once on board the steamer, he becomes a witness to the farewell of lovers and the girl recognizes Aurora. Tortured by jealousy, he tries to forget himself in wine, and after drinking, sits down to play whist, as it later turns out, with the cheaters. From a complete ruin, he rescues a young creole, who introduced himself as Eugène d’Hautville, he shot two shots in the air and thus interrupted the game.
In the hope of obtaining money to participate in the auction, Edward goes to the bank Brown and Co., but the check he has not yet received, and the owner of the bank denies him a loan. Then the hero decides to try his luck at the gambling table, but is completely lost. Trying to support his D’Ovil also loses, although he puts everything at stake, down to an expensive diamond ring. After an unsuccessful game, he promises a hero that he will try to help him.
Despite the lack of money, Edward still goes to the auction. He already despairs to wait for d’Oscil, but at the last moment he appears with three thousand dollars. Edward enters the auction, but the Aurora can not redeem him – someone who is considered a front man of Gayar, pays for her three and a half thousand.
Then the hero decides to steal a quadroonka from the estate of Gayar and for a while hide in Gabriel’s refuge, but he does not succeed: the fugitives are allowed to follow the fugitives. Guyard and Larkin catch the hero, although he fiercely resists, and already going to commit over him the court of Aincha, when the sheriff appears, demanding that Edward appear before the real court.
At the trial Gayar accuses him of trying to rebel the Besançon slaves, in Gabriel’s instigation to escape, in the abduction of Aurora, but then comes D’Ovil who gives the judge a free quarton and a document showing that Gaillard kept the fifty thousand dollars that Eugenie owed Besançon on reaching adulthood, that is, in other words, stole them. It turns out that D’Ovil is a disguised Eugene. Her accusation is supported by the sudden appearance on the court of Antoine, whom everyone considered dead. It turns out that he simply took the opportunity to hide for a while and to follow secretly the machinations of Gayar.
Eugenie Besancon gets back the estate, which, however, does not save her from unrequited love. Dr. Reigart becomes a large landowner and an outstanding Louisiana legislator. Guyard spends five years in prison, and then, according to rumors, returns to France, where his trail is lost. Larkin is also serving time in prison. One of the beaten Edward shulerov killed in a duel, the other turns into a petty crook, the third dies of a tropical fever, and the hero lives peacefully and happily with a beautiful quadroonka.
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