Reception
The use of poetic descriptions throughout the tale is quite strong, and on par with Howard's "The Frost-Giant's Daughter." However, the narrative is often criticized by Howard scholars for not having the flow of the better Conan yarns. Largely, this is because Howard was aiming for an epic feel, something to which the story is eminently suited. Plot-point by plot-point, "Queen of the Black Coast" comes closest of any of the Conan stories to achieving the quality of "legend" as the story is filled with classic moments: the dead Bêlit hanging by her necklace from a yardarm; Bêlit's Viking funeral in a flaming ship as Conan moodily looks on; the ghostly spirit of Bêlit returning to protect her lover. Howard also begins each chapter with excerpts from The Song of Bêlit, a poem presumably written by Hyborian Age minstrels to honor her memory.
Everett F. Bleiler described "Queen of the Black Coast" as "probably the best of the Conan stories, perhaps because it is the only one based on another emotion than lust, greed, or hatred."
Read more about this topic: Queen Of The Black Coast
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“To aim to convert a man by miracles is a profanation of the soul. A true conversion, a true Christ, is now, as always, to be made by the reception of beautiful sentiments.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)