In this novel, the commissioner Ferdinand repays the protagonist for helping him get an education by securing his release from prison and directing him aboard a steamer leaving the country.
A character in this novel warns against confusing businessmen, who buy at ten and sell at twelve, with mathematicians, who are paralyzed by the "beauty of numbers." Patrick French's biography of the author takes its title from this novel's first line, which reads: "The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it." A character in this novel honors his mother, who had been a hotel maid, by forming a Madonna cult around her. For sacrilegiously collecting religious masks, the Belgian priest Father (*) Huismans is murdered in this novel's first section. The protagonist of this novel beats his mistress Yvette, the wife of the European professor Raymond. In this novel, the commissioner Ferdinand repays the protagonist for helping him get an education by securing his release from prison and directing him aboard a steamer leaving the country. For 10 points, name this novel about Salim, a shopkeeper in an African country run by the "Big Man," written by V.S. Naipaul.
A character in this novel warns against confusing businessmen, who buy at ten and sell at twelve, with mathematicians, who are paralyzed by the "beauty of numbers."
A Bend in the River 