20C Authors

major writers, biographical notes, and literary criticism

major writers, biographical notes, and literary criticism

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight

May 12, 2016 by Roy Johnson

tutorial, commentary, study resources, and web links

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight is the first novel that Vladimir Nabokov wrote in English. He began its composition in late 1938 whilst living in Paris, having left his exile in Berlin the year before. Around this time, amidst the diaspora of Russian exiles, he realised that he would probably lose his Russian-speaking audience. He switched to writing in English, which was technically his third language (the second being French, the traditional lingua franca of the Russian aristocracy). The novel was first published by James Laughlin’s newly-founded New Directions press in America in 1941.

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight – commentary

This is one of a number of works in which Nabokov made use – for comic and satirical purpose – of biographical details from his own life. He had already used his Russian background and European exile for the substance of Glory (1932) and The Gift (1937) and he continued to do the same later in his career with the burlesque Pale Fire (1962) and the parodic Look at the Harlequins (1974).

Nabokov inserts all sorts of small details from his own life into the narrative – references to exile from Russia, his interest in butterflies, his personal habits of a cold bath each morning, writing in bed, undergraduate life at Cambridge, and the fact that he had a brother, from whom he was rather distant.

The novel also plays teasingly with the relationship between literature and ‘real life’, it parodies the literary genre of biography at a number of levels, and it is a variant on the theme of ‘the unreliable narrator’ which he had exploited so successfully in his earlier novella The Eye (1930).

The book purports to be a biography of Sebastian Knight, written by his half-brother V. But it is mainly about V’s efforts to gather information – including several passages of quite inconsequential events and detailed accounts of his failure to unearth accurate evidence. Moreover, V’s first person narrative is deliberately self-contradictory. He observes:

As the reader may have noticed, I have tried to put into this book as little of myself as possible.

Quite the opposite is the case. His ‘biography’ is a ragback of personal anecdotes and memoirs from his own childhood, plus scenes he imagines from his half-brother’s life, extracts from Sebastian Knight’s own books, and episodes that have no bearing on Sebastian Knight at all.

As a biography, it omits huge sections of Sebastian Knight’s childhood and youth; it fails to give any account of important figures in his life (such as Clare Bishop and the Russian lover); it misinterprets his artistic achievement; ignores the fact of his boorish behaviour; and ends on a note of grotesque bathos when the narrator offers a gripping account of a journey across France that reveals nothing whatever about the subject of his study.

The narrator rejects other people’s opinions and memories of Sebastian Knight if they do not agree with his own; he burns two packets of private correspondence which would (we assume) have revealed important details of Knight’s relationships with the two important women in his adult life; and he fails to interview people who knew him well.

Running through the whole work is a petulant rant against a rival biographer Mr Goodman, whose publication The Tragedy of Sebastian Knight he excoriates as a worthless sham. We have no way of knowing if this is true or not, because he does not quote from it.

We note in addition that as preparation for the biography, the narrator takes a correspondence course in creative writing. Nabokov is deliberately creating an unreliable and an untalented narrator – which would be an interesting literary strategy if he made any coherent or persuasive use of it. But his intention seems to be only to tease and amuse. This is certainly a novel which paved the way for his overwhelmingly successful use of these tricksy devices in later works such as Lolita and Pale Fire, but The Real Life of Sebastian Knight remains a lightweight rehearsal for these later triumphs.

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight – study resources

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight – Penguin Classics – Amazon US

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight – GradeSaver Notes – Amazon UK

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight – GradeSaver Notes – Amazon US

The Cambridge Companion to Nabokov Amazon UK

Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years – Biography: Vol 1 – Amazon UK

Vladimir Nabokov: American Years – Biography: Vol 2 – Amazon UK

Zembla – the official Nabokov web site

The Paris Review – Interview with Vladimir Nabokov

Nabokov’s first English editions – Bob Nelson’s collection

Vladimir Nabokov at Wikipedia – biographical notes, links

Vladimir Nabokov at Mantex – tutorials, web links, study materials

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight – summaries

1 Following the death of the writer Sebastian Knight, a biography is being written by V, his un-named half-brother. The chapter deals with the two marriages of their father, and his death in a duel fought over the honour of Sebastian’s mother, his first wife.

2 The narrator recalls childhood memories of Knight; he quotes from Knight’s memoirs; and he criticises another biographer for factual inaccuracies. He also visits their old Swiss governess, but finds her memories defective.

3 Sebastian, the narrator, and his mother escape from the revolution into Finland. From there, Sebastian goes to Cambridge, whilst the narrator and his mother go to Paris. The narrator recalls Sebastian’s youthful escapade with a ‘modernist’ poet, and his two visits to Paris as an Anglophile undergraduate.

4 The narrator prepares to write the biography by taking a correspondence course in authorship. After Sebastian’s death the narrator visits his rooms in London and goes through the mundane contents of his desk, uncovering vague evidence of a Russian lover..

5 Sebastian’s life as a student at Cambridge. He feels isolated and becomes introspective. He is poor at games, lives eccentrically, and graduates with a first class degree in English Literature.

6 The narrator visits Mr Goodman, Sebastian’s ‘assistant’ and literary agent. Goodman claims to be a close friend of Sebastian’s and tries to dissuade the narrator from writing his biography – because he has just written one of his own.

7 The narrator criticises Goodman’s biography, The Tragedy of Sebastian Knight, as a rag-bag of feeble anecdotes which he calls The Farce of Mr Goodman. He quotes passages from Sebastian Knight’s autobiographical work Lost Property as evidence of his rich, individualistic inner life.

8 The narrator meets Sebastian with Clare Bishop in Paris, then he appeals to Helen Pratt for information. He makes two attempts to interview Clare Bishop, but is put off by her husband.

9 Sebastian writes and re-writes his first two novels, living with Clare Bishop as typist, then they go on holiday to Germany where a doctor in Berlin diagnoses him with heart disease.

10 The narrator offers enthusiastic accounts of Sebastian’s early two novels. The first is a pathetic jumble of detective story cliches; the second is a ridiculous exploration of all possible causes of a coincidental meeting.

11 Sebastian ignores his own literary success; he behaves boorishly towards Clare and their friend Sheldon; and he insults his half-brother when they meet in Paris.

12 Sebastian leaves Clare and disappears abroad for some time, possibly with a Russian lover. On return he is forced to employ Goodman to look after his chaotic literary affairs. He has his portrait painted by Roy Carswell.

13 The narrator travels to the German hotel where Sebastian stayed, in search of the identity of his Russian lover. The manager refuses to give him any information, but a man he meets on a train agrees to act as a private detective.

14 The man produces four possible names. The first turns out to be a false lead, but it does produce contact with an old friend who reveals that Sebastian was not popular at school.

15 The narrator calls on one Russian contact in Paris, but the woman is not there. Her husband recounts his earlier Bohemian existence with his first wife.

16 At another address the woman is also absent, but her friend Mme Lecerf flirts with V and gives an account of a flighty young woman who might be Sebastian’s former lover.

17 The narrator travels to Mme Lecerf’s house to meet her friend. She continues to flirt, and V finally concludes that she is impersonating her friend, and he leaves.

18 The narrator paraphrases Sebastian Knight’s final work, The Doubtful Asphodel – but does so using poetic images and cod-philosophising about ‘the meaning of Life’.

19 The last months of Sebastian’s life following the disappearance of his Russian lover. The narrator receives a letter from him, saying he is in a sanatorium. He delays the arrangements for departure, then receives a telegram saying the case is hopeless.

20 The narrator gives a vivid and protracted account of his overnight rail journey to Paris, then a taxi ride to the sanatorium. He keeps a bedside vigil whilst Sebastian is sleeping – then discovers it is the wrong patient. His brother died the day before.

Sebastian Knight’s publications

The Prismatic Bezel (1925)

Success (1927)

Lost Property

The Funny Mountain

Albinos in Black

The Doubtful Asphodel (1936)

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight – characters

Sebastian Knight	a young Anglo-Russian novelist
V	his un-named younger half-brother and biographer
Clare Bishop	Sebastian Knight’s lover in London
Helen Pratt	Knight’s friend in London
Mr Goodman	Knight’s biographer and literary agent
P.G. Sheldon	a poet and friend of Sebastian and Clare
Roy Carswell	artist who paints Knight’s portrait

Vladimir Nabokov – web links

Vladimir Nabokov at Mantex
Biographical notes, book reviews, tutorials, study guides, videos, web links, and essays on the Complete Short Stories.

Vladimir Nabokov at Wikipedia
Biographical notes, list of major works, bibliography, and web links

Lolita USA
A ‘geographical scrutiny’ of Humbert and Lolita’s journey across America. Essay and photographic study by Dieter E. Zimmer.

Vladimir Nabokov Writings – First Appearance
An illustrated collection of first editions in English. Photographs with bibliographical notes compiled by Bob Nelson

Vladimir Nabokov at the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations for the cinema and television – in various languages. Full details of directors and actors, plot, box office, trivia, continuity errors, and quiz.

Zembla
Biography, timeline, photographs, eTexts, sound clips, butterflies, literary criticism, online journal, scholarly essays, and an online annotated version of Ada – housed at Pennsylvania State University Library.

Nabokov Museum
A major collection housed in Nabokov’s old family home (now a museum) in St. Petersburg. – biography, photos, family home, videos in English and Russian.

The Cambridge Companion to Nabokov Vladimir Nabokov held the unique distinction of being one of the most important writers of the twentieth century in two separate languages, Russian and English. This volume offers a concise and informative introduction into the author’s fascinating creative world. Specially commissioned essays by distinguished scholars illuminate numerous facets of the writer’s legacy, from his early contributions as a poet and short-story writer to his dazzling achievements as one of the most original novelists of the twentieth century. Topics receiving fresh coverage include Nabokov’s narrative strategies, the evolution of his world-view, and his relationship to the literary and cultural currents of his day. The volume also contains valuable supplementary material such as a chronology of the writer’s life and a guide to further critical reading. Buy the book here

More on Vladimir Nabokov
More on literary studies
Nabokov’s Complete Short Stories

The Reef

September 4, 2011 by Roy Johnson

tutorial, commentary, study resources, and web links

The Reef (1913) is amongst the finest of Edith Wharton’s lesser-known works. She is best known for The House of Mirth (1905) and The Age of Innocence (1920), but in fact she was a prolific novelist and produced a lot more work which deserves attention. The Reef deals with three topics with which she was intimately acquainted at the period of its composition – unhappy marriage, divorce, and the discovery of sensual pleasures. She had been conducting an affair with journalist W. Morton Fullerton for a number of years, and her own marriage to Edward ‘Teddy’ Wharton had just come to an end.

Edith Wharton

It is also set in a location she knew well – a country chateau in rural France (one of which she was to set up for herself not long afterwards). The novel offers amongst its other features a beautiful evocation of elegant living on a grand scale in the upper echelons of society. However, contemporary readers might find it surprising to realise that almost all the main characters are in fact American expatriates.

The Reef – critical commentary

Sexual ambiguity

It’s not at all clear if the brief relationship Darrow has with Sophy Viner in Paris becomes sexually intimate or not – though there are strong hints in chapter XXVI that he has exhausted the wish to entertain her with sight-seeing.

But in the light of the upper-class mores of that time, this ambiguity is immaterial – because for a young woman to spend several days in close proximity with an eligible bachelor, sharing the same hotel, would be enough to sully her reputation,

What is clear to the reader (but never becomes so to Anna) is that by the end of the Parisian ‘adventure’, Darrow has become bored with Sophy. He likes her; he feels sorry for her; but he has ceased to find her interesting.

Edith Wharton creates a deeply felt and very moving account of Anna’s retrospective jealousy, as she torments herself with thoughts of Darrow’s liaison. Contemporary readers are likely to reflect however that she herself had been married for some time, and the idea that a thirty-seven year old bachelor should come without any previous sexual experience is somewhat Utopian on her part.

Themes

The same contemporary readers are very likely to find the ending of the novel disappointing because it appears to be so inconclusive. And it is certainly true that Edith Wharton drags out the “Will she? Won’t she?” uncertainty over Anna’s decision regarding Darrow beyond its natural point of elasticity. But if the theme of the novel is regarded as the discovery and expression of emotional life, then it follows a natural progression.

Anna rejected Darrow and married another man for the sake of convention – a man whose purpose in life was collecting snuff boxes. As a widow, recognising that her marriage was not satisfactory, she wonders if she will ever feel deeply about anything or anybody again. It is this that piques her when she discovers the truth about Sophy and Darrow.

She realises that Sophy has fallen deeply in love with Darrow – and is also prepared to make a huge sacrifice because of it. [This is not unlike Gabriel Conroy’s realization at the end of James Joyce’s The Dead (written a few years later) that someone else has loved his wife more intensely than he ever has.] Anna recognises that someone else, who she correctly perceives as a rival, feels this passion, and two things happen.

First she immediately begins to place greater value on Darrow, who she has treated rather coldly up to this point. She immediately reviews all his good qualities and thinks how well suited they are. Second, she immediately feel passionately jealous of Sophy. Did Darrow take her to the same restaurant? Was she ever in this room with him? All the torments of conventional sexual jealousy are awakened in her.

As the novel closes she may be uncertain and conflicted over her decisions regarding Darrow, but one thing is certain: she is experiencing a more intense emotional life. She has been exposed to passion via proxy, and it has triggered something and awakened the life of feeling that was potential within her.

The Reef – study resources

The Reef – Oxford World Classics – Amazon UK

The Reef – Oxford World Classics – Amazon US

The Reef – Everyman’s Library – Amazon UK

The Reef – Everyman’s Library – Amazon US

The Reef – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

The Reef – Penguin Classics – Amazon US

The Reef – Virago Modern Classics – Amazon UK

The Reef – Virago Modern Classics – Amazon US

The Reef – Kindle eBook edition

The Reef (Passion’s Way) – DVD film version – Amazon UK

The Complete Works of Edith Wharton – Kindle eBook edition

The Reef – eBook formats at Project Gutenberg

The Reef – audioBook version at Project Gutenberg

The Reef – audioBook version at LibriVox

A Historical Guide to Edith Wharton – Amazon UK

The Cambridge Introduction to Edith Wharton – Amazon UK

The Reef – plot summary

George Darrow is an American diplomat living in London. He has recently made contact with Anna Leith, a woman he was once in love with but who passed him up to marry another man. Now that the husband has died, Darrow hopes to re-ignite the relationship, even though he has some reservations about her lack of emotional generosity. He is on his way to join her in France when he receives a telegram asking him to delay his arrival until the end of the month. On the boat train he meets and befriends Sophy Viner, a young American woman who is down on her luck but who has an obvious appetite for life. Feeling compassionate towards her, he shares a life-enhancing stay in Paris with her for a few days.

Five months later he joins Anna at Givré, her country chateau where they meet to plan their future. Anna wants to help her stepson Owen, who wants to marry someone who does not meet with the approval of his grandmother, the dowager Marquise de Chantelle. Darrow plans to marry Anna and take her on his next diplomatic assignment to South America. However, it turns out that Anna has hired a governess for her daughter Effie — none other than Sophy Viner. Darrow feels acutely embarrassed by the situation, and Sophy pleads with him not to say anything that will threaten her employment.

Darrow reveals to Anna that he knew Sophy slightly in the past, and Anna quizzes him closely about just how much he knows about her. It transpires that this questioning is out of concern for Owen, because he has become engaged to Sophy. The Marquise disapproves of the match, and Darrow too does not think it wise.

The Marquise summons Adelaide Painter, an old family friend to give advice and support. But she rather unexpectedly supports the proposed match. The Marquise eventually gives way, and all objections are removed. There is nothing to prevent the marriage, after which Darrow and Anna can also marry and lead their new life together.

However, Sophy suddenly announces that she wishes to break off the engagement to Owen. He immediately reveals that he suspects Darrow of having undue influence over Sophy. This leads to a series of interviews between the principal characters in which they all try to work out what is going on.

Sophy reveals to Darrow that she is leaving because she has been in love with him since their meeting in Paris. Anna gradually works out the truth of the link between Darrow and Sophy. He explains that the relationship was merely a fleeting encounter, but Anna cannot countenance such matters. She feels that this revelation destroys their relationship.

But in the days that follow there are a number of reconciliations and further tensions. Anna knows that she and Darrow are well suited, but she cannot get over her jealousy of Sophy, and she torments herself with thoughts of the time Darrow spent with her.

Eventually, Owen leaves to go touring in Spain; Sophy rejoins her former employer and goes to India; and Anna tries to convince herself that she should break off her engagement to Darrow, but fails to do so.

Edith Wharton’s 42-room house — The Mount

Principal characters

George Darrow	an American diplomat living in London (37)
Anna Leith (nee Summers)	an American widow living in France
Sophy Viner	a young American woman
Fraser Leith	Anna’s former husband
Owen Leith	Anna’s stepson (23)
Effie Leith	Anna’s daughter (9)
Marquise de Chantelle	Anna’s mother-in-law (60)
Adelaide Painter	an American friend of the Marquise
The Farlows	friends of Sophy’s who never appear
Mrs Murrett	Sophy’s previous louche employer

Film adaptation

Directed by Robert Allan Ackerman (1999)

Other works by Edith Wharton

The Age of Innocence (1920) is Edith Wharton’s most famous novel, written immediately after the end of the First World War. It’s a brilliantly realized anatomy of New York society in the 1870s. Newland Archer is charming, tactful, and enlightened. He accepts society’s standards and abides by its rules, but he also recognizes its limitations. His engagement to the impeccable May Welland assures him of a safe and conventional future – until the arrival of May’s cousin Ellen Olenska puts all his plans in jeopardy. Independent, free-thinking, and scandalously separated from her husband, Ellen forces Archer to question the values and assumptions of his narrow world. As their love for each other grows, Archer has to decide where his ultimate loyalty lies.
Buy the book at Amazon UK
Buy the book at Amazon US

The Custom of the Country (1913) is Edith Wharton’s satiric anatomy of American society in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the career of Undine Spragg, recently arrived in New York from the midwest and determined to conquer high society. Glamorous, selfish, mercenary and manipulative, her principal assets are her striking beauty, her tenacity, and her father’s money. With her sights set on an advantageous marriage, Undine pursues her schemes in a world of shifting values, where triumph is swiftly followed by disillusion. This is a study of modern ambition and materialism written a hundred years before its time.
Buy the book at Amazon UK
Buy the book at Amazon US

The House of Mirth (1905) is the story of Lily Bart, who is beautiful, poor, and still unmarried at twenty-nine. In her search for a husband with money and position she betrays her own heart and sows the seeds of the tragedy that finally overwhelms her. The book is a disturbing analysis of the stifling limitations imposed upon women of Wharton’s generation. In telling the story of Lily Bart, who must marry to survive, Wharton recasts the age-old themes of family, marriage, and money in ways that transform the traditional novel of manners into an arresting modern document of cultural anthropology.
Buy the book at Amazon UK
Buy the book at Amazon US

Edith Wharton – web links

Edith Wharton at Mantex
Biographical notes, study guides to the major novels, tutorials on the shorter fiction, bibliographies, critiques of the shorter fiction, and web links.

Edith Wharton at Gutenberg
Free eTexts of the major novels and collections of stories in a variety of digital formats – also includes travel writing and interior design.

Edith Wharton at Wikipedia
Full details of novels, stories, and travel writing, adaptations for television and the cinema, plus web links to related sites.

The Edith Wharton Society
Old but comprehensive collection of free eTexts of the major novels, stories, and travel writing, linking archives at University of Virginia and Washington State University.

The Mount: Edith Wharton’s Home
Aggressively commercial site devoted to exploiting The Mount – the house and estate designed by Edith Wharton. Plan your wedding reception here.

Edith Wharton at Fantastic Fiction
A compilation which purports to be a complete bibliography, arranged as novels, collections, non-fiction, anthologies, short stories, letters, and commentaries – but is largely links to book-selling sites, which however contain some hidden gems.

Edith Wharton’s manuscripts
Archive of Wharton holdings at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

More on Edith Wharton
More on the novella
More on literary studies
More on short stories

The Rescue

October 23, 2014 by Roy Johnson

tutorial, commentary, study resources, and web links

The Rescue was first published by J.M.Dent & Sons in 1920. It forms one part of The Lingard Trilogy, of which the other two are Conrad’s first novels, Almayer’s Folly (1895) and An Outcast of the Islands (1896). All of them feature Tom Lingard, an independent and adventurous sea captain. Although it was the last in the series to be published, The Rescue: A Romance of the Shallows deals with events which pre-date the earlier stories. The sequence is what might be called a ‘trilogy in reverse’. Conrad began writing the novel in 1897, but a year later put it to one side, uncertain how to continue the narrative. He took up the work again twenty years later in 1918.

first edition – J.M.Dent & Sons 1920

The Rescue – critical commentary

The strengths

It is strange that after the tremendous achievements of his ‘middle period’ — from Lord Jim and Nostromo to Under Western Eyes — Conrad should fall back into the sub-standard ‘adventure story’ pattern of Almayer’s Folly and An Outcast of the Islands – although The Rescue is entirely consistent with the other two parts of the ‘Lingard Trilogy’ in being over-long, politically confusing, and full of clumsy, unconvincing plot devices.

The main strengths of the novel are in the characterisation of the central figure captain Tom Lingard, and the powerful but doomed romantic liaison he forms with Edith Travers. Lingard is of course something of a stock figure of boy’s adventure stories – the tough, fearless, and heroically moral character who is limited only by his lack of sophistication.

Lingard left his Devonshire roots when still a teenager and has lived as a seaman and an ‘adventurer’, eventually building up the capital to buy his beloved brig, the Lightning. But his roving bachelor life has not prepared him to cope with the experience he undergoes when the Lightning meets the Hermit.

When Lingard comes into contact with the beautiful Edith Travers, he cannot understand his own feelings or his reaction to her. It is Conrad’s triumph to present a narrative in which Lingard cannot understand why he wants to look at and talk to this seemingly remote women – when it is quite obvious to the reader that he is falling in love with her. He does not have the emotional vocabulary to deal with the experience.

She is in a similar position – having immured herself in a carapace of unfeeling rectitude as a response to her loveless marriage to Martin Travers. She takes a critical, distant attitude to everyone (except d’Alcacer) but feels herself melting before the power of Lingard’s emotional honesty, his frankness, and his positive attitude to life.

She tries to control her own reactions, but realises that he represents an elemental life force. The two would-be lovers also trust and understand each other at a level which does not need articulation and cannot be explained to outsiders. This is a very romantic notion – which is intensified since the relationship is unconsummated and doomed to failure.

The weaknesses

The Rescue has many of the story elements of his earlier novels. These include the fearless and upright young seaman; the friendship with a native prince; the relationship with a native girl; the setting of the Malay Archipelago; and lots of named characters who have no real significance in the story. But apart from the relationship between Lingard and Mrs Travers (discussed above) Conrad does not explore any new themes with these subjects.

There are a number of other irritating weaknesses in the novel. Despite all the lengthy and elaborate scene-setting, topographical description, and atmosphere-creation, it’s very hard to conceptualise the events and where they are taking place. The same is true of the rival native factions who are fighting for power. We are not provided with any persuasive reasons why they are in conflict with each other; they are difficult to tell apart; and they are simply not so convincing as his European characters. (It has to be said that the same is true of the two other novels in this trilogy, Almayer’s Folly and An Outcast of the Islands.)

At a very trivial level – but surprisingly for one so technically conscious of maritime issues as Conrad – the Travers run aground sailing in what he describes as a yacht. It continues to be described as a yacht for almost the entire novel – but then in the last few pages is suddenly referred to as a schooner. Now whilst it is true that a schooner may serve as a yacht (‘a recreational ship’) he also just as suddenly gives it a name – the Hermit. This has the unfortunate effect of suggesting that he was not he was not concentrating or had not fully conceptualised the materials of the book

Narrative chronology

Conrad is famous for the manner in which he radically re-organised the chronology of events in his narratives. In Lord Jim for instance the crucial initiating episode when Jim (and the rest of the crew) abandon the Patna is not described in detail at the start of the tale where it belongs: it is constructed retrospectively from a number of different sources as the novel progresses – that is, as a series of flash backs. The technical term for this device is analepsis.

Very often this strategy can intensify dramatic tension in the story, or it can be used to withhold information from the reader so as to create mystery or a ‘double perspective’ in which an event already encountered needs to be seen in a different light. Conrad also uses this device quite frequently to create dramatic irony.

Sometimes he uses the opposite device – prolepsis, or the flash forward. At some point in the story we are told what happens later, and are left wondering what happened in the ‘gap’, the connection between the two parts, or how the later even came about.

But it has to be said that the reasons for using these devices are not always made plain or are simply not convincing. The Rescue contains just such a case in point. The most unnecessary flash forward occurs at the end of Part IV in which considerable time and effort has been expended to build up dramatic tension describing Lingard’s attempt to rescue the two men (d’Alcacer and Travers) who have been captured by the local natives.

Yet for no discernible reason, Part V begins with the two men safely back on board the Emma, and the explanation of how Lingard negotiated their release is delayed until much later. Dramatic tension is thrown away with no dramatic gain.

Narrative chain

Conrad is also fond of constructing his narratives from a number of different sources or narrators. In The Rescue he chooses an omnipotent third person narrative mode – with no outer narrator such as Marlow who recounts much of Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness. But he still chooses a number of different sources by having characters such as Jaffir (the messenger) transmit lengthy accounts of events which have happened elsewhere to another character (Lingard).

Because events are happening in a number of different locations, Conrad also resorts to the clumsy and fairly unconvincing device of people writing long letters to each other – even though the two principal locations (the brig and the yacht) are positioned quite close to each other. The letters are doubly unpersuasive since they are written in the form of dramatic fictional narratives rather than personal correspondence, and they are clearly Conrad continuing his account of events under another guise.

The Rescue – study resources

The Rescue – CreateSpace editions – Amazon UK

The Rescue – CreateSpace editions – Amazon US

The Complete Works of Joseph Conrad – Kindle eBook

The Rescue – eBook versions at Project Gutenberg

The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad – Amazon UK

Routledge Guide to Joseph Conrad – Amazon UK

Oxford Reader’s Companion to Conrad – Amazon UK

Joseph Conrad: A Biography – Amazon UK

Notes on Life and Letters – Amazon UK

Joseph Conrad – biographical notes

The Rescue – plot summary

Part I. The Man and the Brig

Young Tom Lingard is the owner and captain of a sailing ship, the Lightning which lies becalmed at night, somewhere in the Malayan archipelago. With his chief mate Shaw he discusses the problems that women can cause. Suddenly they are approached by a search party in a boat seeking help for a yacht which has become stranded on mudflats on a nearby island.

Carter, the commander of the boat is interrogated in rather a hostile and suspicious manner which leaves him puzzled, but his boat is put in tow. When they reach the island Lingard handles his brig skillfully, but it transpires that he was heading for the island himself. He fires a warning shot into the interior, then joins the stricken yacht.

Part II. The Shore of Refuge

The story backtracks to explain how Lingard first came into contact with the Wajo leader Hassim, and their instant bond of friendship. Lingard goes to visit Hassim, but is warned off by Jaffir, who reports that Hassim is now a fugitive in a civil war. But Lingard takes a long boat on shore to rescue him, and the sortie is a success.

Lingard begins trading in arms and saving money to help Hassim in the re-conquest of Wajo. He is followed around by Jorgenson, an old sea-captain whose life has been ruined. When Lingard explains his plans to Jorgenson, the older man warns him against taking action, and offers his own life as an example of failure. But in the end, with no future prospects, he agrees to join in the venture, along with his prematurely aged native wife.

Lingard has previously visited local chief Belarab to ask for help, and offers him guns in exchange for manpower. Lingard feels that since he has saved Hassim’s life, he is tied to him in some mysterious way. He buys the old schooner Emma and runs it aground close to Belarab to use as a weapons store, placing Jorgenson in charge.

Part III. The Capture

When Lingard arrives on the stricken yacht he is met with hostility from its owner Mr Travers, who thinks he is a vulgar adventurer, intent on profiting from salvaging the yacht. Lingard sees the yacht and its passengers as merely annoying obstacles who have come between him and his plans.

The passenger d’Alcacer is in flight from Europe following the early death of his wife and is friendly with the owner’s enigmatic wife Edith Travers. Whilst Lingard and Travers trade insults with each other, d’Alcacer takes an instant liking to Lingard and tries to mediate. But the dispute is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Hassim and his sister Immada.

Mrs Travers is fascinated by Immada’s attractiveness, but the girl and her brother reproach Lingard for recently neglecting them, and leave with him when the interview comes to a fruitless conclusion.

On her own after dinner on the yacht, Mrs Travers reflects upon the failure of her romantic dreams. Suddenly, Lingard rows up alongside to talk to her, telling her he feels completely detached from his British roots and more at home with the Malaysians.

He wants her to help him by pretending to be frightened on the yacht, so that they will have no alternative but to accept Lingard’s offer to house them on the brig. He tells her the whole background story, which touches her romantic sentiments. She feels existentially elated by his frankness and emotional honesty. She is preparing herself to act on his behalf when she is told that her husband and d’Alcacer have been kidnapped whilst walking along the shore.

Back on the brig, Lingard reads a letter he has received from Jorgenson describing disquiet amongst the natives who want to attack the stranded yacht. The letter warns of a threat from rival local leader Tengga to seize the arms stored on the Emma.

The letter goes on to describe the arrival of Sherif Daman, who also wants the arms for the recapture of Wajo. Lingard receives Carter on board as emissary from the yacht. Carter cannot understand Lingard’s or Mrs Travers’ motivation in the affair. Then chief mate Shaw protests against Lingard’s plans – because he appears to be siding against fellow white men on the yacht.

Part IV. The Gift of the Shallows

Lingard nevertheless goes ahead, and takes Mrs Travers from the yacht onto the brig. He is overawed by her attractiveness and the knowledge that she understands him. He appears to be falling in love with her, but is not aware of it himself. She asks him to rescue d’Alcacer and her husband.

Hassim arrives on the brig with his sister and reports on his visit to the camp where the two prisoners are being held. Lingard decides to recapture the prisoners single-handedly, and he puts Carter in charge of the brig. Immada protests that he is putting himself at risk, whereupon Mrs Travers declares that she will go with him, much to the consternation of Carter, whilst Shaw is outraged at being left with no clear orders.

When Lingard and Mrs Travers reach the Emma Jorgenson is truculent and hostile . Lingard questions Mrs Travers somewhat jealously about d’Alcacer, whilst she in her turn thinks that Lingard is enamoured of Immada, by who they are joined on board with Hassim.

Part V. The Point of Honour and the Point of Passion

Travers has been rescued and Mrs Travers has adopted native dress on board the Emma. Travers delivers an embittered and pompous lecture to his wife, criticising her behaviour. They argue about Lingard, about whom Travers is arrogant and snobbish.

Travers and d’Alcacer have been released temporarily into Lingard’s care. Mrs Travers has had further heart-to-heart conversations with Lingard, and is deeply impressed by his character and his personality. She too appears to be falling in love, but doesn’t want to admit it to herself. She would like to share what she knows about Lingard with d’Alcacer, who she regards as a good friend – but she doesn’t.

The story backtracks to describe Lingard’s arrival at Daman’s stockade to negotiate the temporary release of Travers and d’Alcacer. The manoeuvre is successful because of Lingard’s high prestige in the locality.

On board the Emma Lingard and Mrs Travers exchange confidences about their earlier lives until they are joined by d’Alcacer, who has been observing their growing intimacy. After dinner d’Alcacer quizzes Mrs Travers about Lingard, who he calls ‘the Man of Fate’. They wonder what will happen to them, and d’Alcacer guesses that Lingard will be heart-broken over Mrs Travers. He asks her to give him a sign if she thinks they are about to die.

Lingard calls Mrs Travers into his room where they interrogate each other and verbally admit their mutual attraction. Lingard has received a letter from Carter saying that (with good intentions) he has attacked some of the natives from on board the Lightning – which automatically puts Lingard’s plans into jeopardy.

Lingard has despatched Jaffir to find Hassim and Immada, and Jaffir has suggested that the only solution to the problem will be to return the two prisoners to Daman. Lingard and Mrs Travers agree that this must be done quickly. She gives d’Alcacer the warning signal he has requested.

d’Alcacer braces himself philosophically for what he thinks will be certain death, whilst realising that Mr Travers is ill with some sort of fever. When it is time for them to go, Travers claims that his wife is in the grip of some sort of fashionable craze, but it is he himself who is clearly delirious. After a heated departure from Mrs Travers, Lingard takes the two men on shore to deliver them up.

Part VI. The Claim of Life and the Toll of Death

On board the Emma, Mrs Travers regrets the quarrelsome way she and Lingard parted. Jorgenson meanwhile appears to be making fuses for some sort of explosions. As signs of fighting start up on shore, Mrs Travers wants to join Lingard.

Hassim abandons negotiations with Belarab and is heading back to the Emma when he is intercepted by Tengga’s fighters. Jaffir runs to the ship with Hassim’s ring and reports to Jorgenson. Mrs Travers is then persuaded to take the ring as a signal to Lingard..

Mrs Travers is rowed onto shore and reaches the stockade bearing a torch, where Lingard is there to receive her. Because she distrusts Jorgenson and does not realise the significance of the ring, she does not pass on to Lingard the message it represents.

Lingard, d’Alcacer, and Mrs Travers talk to each other in turn around a fire. The Spaniard is mainly concerned with the possibility of being murdered the next day, whilst Lingard thinks Mrs Travers could not help herself but join him. She accepts his devotion and tells him nothing, so as not to disturb him. Meanwhile an envoy from Tengga fails to persuade Jorgenson to leave the Emma.

Two days later, following an explosion of some kind, Lingard is on the Lightning where Carter relates rescuing Jaffir. Lingard recalls in flashback awakening alongside Mrs Travers and being summoned to see Belarab.

Belarab has been informed through spies of all elements of Daman’s and Tengga’s machinations. In the morning mists there appear to be attacks imminent, but when a flotilla of canoes surrounds the Emma, Jorgenson blows up the ship, whereupon Belarab releases the prisoners.

Jaffir’s story continues with his escape from the Emma. He tells Lingard about the ring, then dies. Lingard takes Carter as mate on the Lightning then invites Mrs Travers by letter to meet him on shore.

Next morning d’Alcacer rows Mrs Travers out where she meets Lingard. She wants to confess about the undelivered ring, but he already knows the truth and tells her it would not have made any difference. She departs, returns to the yacht, and throws the ring into the sea. The yacht and the Lightning depart in opposite directions.

The Rescue – principal characters

Tom Lingard	young captain of the brig Lightning
Shaw	fat first mate on the Lightning
Haji Wasub	boatswain on the Lightning
Carter	young mate on the yacht Hermit
Hassim	nephew of a native chief
Immada	his sister, a princess
Daman	leader of the Illanuns
Jorgenson	experienced but discredited ex-captain
Belarab	local native chief
Martin Travers	arrogant owner of the yacht Hermit
Edith Travers	his beautiful and romantic wife
d’Alcacer	recently widowed former Spanish embassy attache
Tengga	native would-be chief

The Rescue – glossary

brig	large sailing ship used for war or commerce
calash	light carriage with collapsible top
cuddy	a small cabin on a ship
gharry	an eastern horse-drawn carriage
kris	an asymmetrical dagger with a wavy blade
pangeran	the son of a ruler
parang	a big Malayan knife or machete
peon	a low-ranking soldier or worker
prau	long narrow sailing boat
sampan	a flat-bottomed wooden Chinese boat
sarong	large length of fabric wrapped around the waist
serang	the boatswain of a Lascar or East Indian crew

Joseph Conrad – video biography

The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad offers a series of essays by leading Conrad scholars aimed at both students and the general reader. There’s a chronology and overview of Conrad’s life, then chapters that explore significant issues in his major writings, and deal in depth with individual works. These are followed by discussions of the special nature of Conrad’s narrative techniques, his complex relationships with late-Victorian imperialism and with literary Modernism, and his influence on other writers and artists. Each essay provides guidance to further reading, and a concluding chapter surveys the body of Conrad criticism.
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Joseph Conrad’s writing table

Other writing by Joseph Conrad

Lord Jim (1900) is the earliest of Conrad’s big and serious novels, and it explores one of his favourite subjects – cowardice and moral redemption. Jim is a ship’s captain who in youthful ignorance commits the worst offence – abandoning his ship. He spends the remainder of his adult life in shameful obscurity in the South Seas, trying to re-build his confidence and his character. What makes the novel fascinating is not only the tragic but redemptive outcome, but the manner in which it is told. The narrator Marlowe recounts the events in a time scheme which shifts between past and present in an amazingly complex manner. This is one of the features which makes Conrad (born in the nineteenth century) considered one of the fathers of twentieth century modernism.
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Heart of Darkness (1902) is a tightly controlled novella which has assumed classic status as an account of the process of Imperialism. It documents the search for a mysterious Kurtz, who has ‘gone too far’ in his exploitation of Africans in the ivory trade. The reader is plunged deeper and deeper into the ‘horrors’ of what happened when Europeans invaded the continent. This might well go down in literary history as Conrad’s finest and most insightful achievement, and it is based on his own experiences as a sea captain. This volume also contains ‘An Outpost of Progress’ – the magnificent study in shabby cowardice which prefigures ‘Heart of Darkness’.
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Joseph Conrad web links

Joseph Conrad at Mantex
Biography, tutorials, book reviews, study guides, videos, web links.

Joseph Conrad – his greatest novels and novellas
Brief notes introducing his major works in recommended editions.

Joseph Conrad at Project Gutenberg
A major collection of free eTexts in a variety of formats.

Joseph Conrad at Wikipedia
Biography, major works, literary career, style, politics, and further reading.

Joseph Conrad at the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations for the cinema and television – in various languages. Full details of directors and actors, production notes, box office, trivia, and quizzes.

Works by Joseph Conrad
Large online database of free HTML texts, digital scans, and eText versions of novels, stories, and occasional writings.

The Joseph Conrad Society (UK)
Conradian journal, reviews. and scholarly resources.

The Joseph Conrad Society of America
American-based – recent publications, journal, awards, conferences.

Hyper-Concordance of Conrad’s works
Locate a word or phrase – in the context of the novel or story.

More on Joseph Conrad
Twentieth century literature
More on Joseph Conrad tales

The Road to Santiago

January 19, 2015 by Roy Johnson

tutorial, commentary, study resources, plot, and web links

The Road to Santiago (El camino de Santiago) was written in 1948 but first appeared in the collection Guerra del Tiempo published in Havana, Cuba, in 1963. The Santiago in question is Santiago de Compostella, the capital of Galicia in north western Spain, a city named after Saint James, which has been a traditional destination for Catholic pilgrims since the ninth century.

The Road to Santiago – critical commentary

Carpentier has claimed that the inspiration for the story was initially sparked by his identification of a European individual named Juan in Cuba’s public records – that is, the novelty or apparent incongruity of discovering a Flemish name in a Caribbean setting.

Upon finding, in an old list of residents of Havana in the sixteenth century, the name of Juan of Amberes, ‘who played the drum when a ship was sighted’, it occurred to me that it would be amusing to write an imaginary biography of this character who left no further trace of his existence

But in fact it is quite clear that the story is less to do with the biography of an individual, and much more to do with the historical conditions involved in the process of colonisation and European expansion in Latin America. Carpentier emphasises very critically the miserable conditions which obtained in the West Indies, and he mocks the myths of ‘streets paved with gold’ that were pedalled as part of the expansionist ideology.

However, his critical vision also includes the European religious intolerance (the Spanish Inquisition, for instance) which was a factor in driving some people to seek salvation elsewhere.

Historical background

Santiago is the Spanish name for what is known in English as Saint James, whose symbol was the scallop shell (or ‘cockle shell’). Pilgrims to his shrine often wore that symbol attached to their hats or clothes. The French for a scallop is coquille St. Jacques, which gives its name to that dish.

The legend is that St. James preached the gospel in Spain as well as in the Holy Land, and that after his martyrdom his disciples carried his body by sea to Spain, for burial at Santiago de Compostella – now the site of pilgrimage. The Way of St. James is a network of routes that cross Western Europe and arrive at Santiago through Northern Spain. However, unless one believes in the existence of miracles, James’ presence in Spain is not logically possible – but the myth persists.

Cultural echoes

The most obvious literary connection in this story is with Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719), another narrative which explores the process of colonial exploration and expansion – and one based upon the real-life adventures of Alexander Selkirk who survived four years voluntarily stranded on an island in the south Pacific Ocean.

Crusoe endures all sorts of terrible hardships on his island, as does Juan when he escapes to the other side of Cuba, but he eventually meets other people when they visit his island. Crusoe does not acquire concubines, but he does have a Negro slave (‘Friday’) and very conveniently finds a ship stranded on a coral reef just off shore which is his principal means of survival.

Carpentier keeps these literary echoes light, but it is interesting to note the congruence of the two narratives. In fact, just as Juan goes back to further expeditionary adventures at the end of the story with the second Juan the Pilgrim, so Crusoe went on to further travels after the success of his first Pacific adventure. Seventeen years’ isolation did not deter him from making further ‘explorations’, as Defoe was keen to record in his Further Adventures.

The Road to Santiago – study resources

The Road to Santiago is one of five stories contained in the collection The War of Time. The other four stories are Right of Sanctuary (1967), Journey Back to the Source (1944), Like the Night (1947), and The Wise Men (1967).

The Road to Santiago – at Amazon UK – (text in English)

El camino de Santiago – at Amazon UK – (Text in Spanish)

The Road to Santiago – at Amazon US – (Text in English)

El camino de Santiago – at Amazon US – (Text in Spanish)

The Road to Santiago – plot summary

Part 1. In sixteenth century Antwerp, soldier and drummer Juan sees potted orange trees being unloaded from a ship. He thinks the exotic nature of the goods suggest an imported gift for a nobleman’s mistress. He also notices a diseased rat leaving the ship and swimming ashore.

Part 2. The ship has brought the plague from its stopover in Las Palmas. Infected and desperately ill, Juan regrets his soldier’s life, has visions in his delirium, and on recovery vows to go on a holy pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella.

Part 3. He becomes devout, embraces poverty, and walks through northern France, joining other pilgrims on the journey south. When they reach Bayonne he shakes off the remnants of his fever, feels restored in spirits, and starts drinking wine again.

Part 4. Arriving in Burgos he is distracted by the pleasures and entertainments of the great Fair. A huckster West Indian relates marvellous tales of wealth and plenty to be had in the New World. Juan finds reasons to believe these tall tales.

Part 5. Juan abandons his pilgrimage and his appearance of poverty, embracing instead the rumours of an easy life and instant riches pedalled by the West Indian. He travels to Seville and joins an expeditionary fleet which eventually reaches Cuba.

Part 6. In Havana Juan discovers nothing but poverty, degradation, and political corruption. There is no gold at all, and after killing someone in an argument he is forced to escape to the other side of the island, where he is captured by a Calvinist and his slave Golomon who are in flight from religious persecution.

Part 7. The Calvinist relates tales of brutal conflicts, but his slave Golomon has access to escaped female slaves, two of whom become Juan’s concubines.

Part 8. Juan falls ill again, feels homesick, and develops cravings for European food and wine. The Calvinist and Golomon have their own separate yearnings for ‘home’. Juan develops a fever, but on recovery discovers a ship stranded on a nearby reef.

Part 9. They sail back to Europe on the ship, and on arriving at the Canary Isles are met with suspicion and threatened with religious persecution. Juan is released, but other are taken away to be burned alive in the auto-da-fe of the Inquisition.

Part 10. Juan returns to Burgos and re-enacts the life of the West Indian who first set him on his journey of adventure. He meets a pilgrim called Juan from Flanders and tells him all about the wondrous phenomena of the New World. Juan the new pilgrim dismisses these claims and insists that new sources of ‘gold’ have been discovered. The ‘old’ Juan argues that the lawlessness of the colonies creates new opportunities for acquiring wealth for those who are enterprising.

Part 11. The two Juans continue their journey south, and with savage religious persecution in the background, they reach Seville and embark on another expeditionary force to the New World.

Alejo Carpentier

Alejo Carpentier – other works

The Lost Steps (1953) is a story told twice. A disillusioned north-American musicologist flees his empty existence in New York City. He takes a journey with his mistress to one of the few remaining areas of the world not yet touched by civilization – the upper reaches of a great South American river (which we take to be the Amazon). The novel describes his search, his adventures, the revival of his creative powers, and the remarkable decision he makes about his life in a village that seems to be truly outside history. This novel offers a wonderful evocations of Latin America from the founder of ‘Magical Realism’.
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The Chase is set in Havana of 1956 where Batista’s tyrannical rule serves as the backdrop for the story of two young men whose lives become intertwined with the prostitute, Estrella. An anonymous man flees a team of shadowy, relentless political assassins, and ultimately takes refuge in a public auditorium during a performance of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. This story is particularly interesting because of its multiple, disjointed types of narration and its polyphonic structure. It also has the tight thematic unities of the classic novella form.
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Alejo Carpentier web links

Carpentier at Wikipedia
Background, biography, magical realism, major works, literary style, further reading

Carpentier at Amazon UK
Novels, criticism, and interviews – in Spanish and English

The Kingdom of this World
Lecture by Rod Marsh – University of Cambridge

Carpentier at Internet Movie Database
Films and TV movies made from his novels

Carpentier in Depth
Spanish video documentary and interview with Carpentier (1977)

More on Alejo Carpentier
More on the novella
More on literary studies
More on short stories

The Secret Agent

February 12, 2010 by Roy Johnson

tutorial, commentary, study resources, and web links

The Secret Agent (1907) is a short novel and a masterpiece of sustained irony. It is based on the real incident of a bomb attack on the Greenwich Observatory in 1888 and features a cast of wonderfully grotesque characters: Verloc the lazy double agent, Inspector Heat of Scotland Yard, and the Professor – an anarchist who wanders through the novel with bombs strapped round his waist and the detonator in his hand.

Joseph Conrad

The English government and police are subject to sustained criticism, and the novel bristles with some wonderfully orchestrated effects of dramatic irony – all set in the murky atmosphere of late Victorian London. Here Conrad prefigures all the ambiguities which surround two-faced international relations, duplicitous State realpolitik, and terrorist outrage which still beset us a hundred years later. The sub-title of the novel is ‘A Simple Tale’ – which itself is deeply ironic, because the story is anything but simple.

The Secret Agent – critical commentary

Conrad is celebrated for his use of irony, and he lays it on very thick indeed inThe Secret Agent. In fact he employs several types of irony throughout the novel, much of it for grim effect.

comic irony
narrative irony
situational irony
dramatic irony
tragic irony

Comic irony

This occurs where there an obviously funny disparity between something intended and the result. For instance the ‘terrorists’ who group themselves around Verloc are all hopelessly inadequate beings who have very little political effect. But Conrad depicts them as comic grotesques. Michaelis is almost obscenely overweight, and he has lost the power of consecutive thought whilst in prison. The Professor is a small shabby figure who lives in abject poverty and does nothing except walk round London with an explosive device strapped to his body. Ossipon is a failed medical student who pathetically sponges off shop girls, and by the end of the novel is ‘ready to receive the leather yoke of the sandwich board’. Karl Yundt is a pathetic old man with a whispy beard who appears to do nothing of any consequence.

These are comic caricatures – and all of them are light years away from their declared aim of overthrowing society. They are all well known to government authorities and under regular supervision by the police force they profess to scorn. Moreover, they are being led by a man who betrays them – Verloc, a double agent.

Admittedly, it is a grim form of comedy – but that is very much Joseph Conrad, and many critics have observed that this is one of his more pessimistic novels.

Narrative irony

This occurs when the narrator says something about the narrative or a character which the reader knows is not true. Conrad’s characterization of Verloc uses this device all the way through the novel. We the readers know that Verloc is an overweight, lazy, incompetent, self-indulgent failure. But Conrad in his third person omniscient narrative mode gives an account of Verloc which is couched in positive terms. Conrad achieves this effect by slipping into Verloc’s own point of view – an indirect form of narrative.

He was tired. The last particle of nervous force had been expended in the wonders and agonies of this day full of surprising failures coming at the end of a harrassing month of scheming and insomnia. He was tired. A man isn’t made of stone. Hang everything! Mr Verloc reposed characteristically, clad in his outdoor garments. One side of his open overcoat was lying partly on the ground. Mr Verloc wallowed on his back. But he longed for a more perfect rest – for sleep – for a few hours of delicious forgetfulness. That would come later. Provisionally he rested. And he thought: “I wish she would give over this damned nonsense. It’s exasperating.”

Here are two (maybe three) forms of irony active at the same time. The narrative gives us Verloc’s point of view: “A man isn’t made of stone”. We know however that he is lazy, self-indulgent, and vulgar. (He spends most of his time indoor dressed for the street.) He wishes for a ‘more perfect rest’ – and he is shortly going to get it when Winnie murders him with the carving knife. And what he calls “damned nonsense” is the fact that he has just killed her beloved brother with the bomb.

Situational irony

This occurs where there is a disparity between intention and result. It could be argued that the scenes in the home of the lady protector of Michaelis offer examples of these. The guests include Michaelis, who the police regard as a dangerous terrorist; the police themselves, in the form of the Assistant Commissioner, who is supposed to be tracking down the anarchists; and Mr Vladimir from the Russian embassy, who has instigated the bomb plot in the first place.

So – the characters who are supposed to be at the opposite ends of society are in fact mingling socially. The intention is to preserve the power of the ruling class and its appearance of solidity. The result is that it deals with its own enemies. Our own society has provided plenty of similar examples – from Lord Profumo mixing with Russian spies and prostitutes at Cliveden in 1963, to Tony Blair cozying up to Muammar Gaddafi and Rupert Murdoch.

Some people might argue that these are examples of dramatic irony: but in fact all the characters in the un-named lady’s house know what is going on in these scenes. They keep up a polite diplomatic front of being sociable, even though some of them are sworn enemies.

Dramatic irony

This occurs when the reader knows something that a character does not. There is a superb example of this at the end of the novel when Winnie is fleeing the scene of her crime and she bumps into Ossipon. Her state of distress leads him to believe that it is caused by the bomb explosion at Greenwich, which he believes has resulted in Verloc’s death. He is only too keen to take advantage of an attractive woman in her bereaved state.

What he does not realise is that her distress is caused by the death of Verloc – but because she has just murdered him. We as readers know that, but Ossipon does not – and when he discovers Verloc’s body with the meat cleaver sticking out of it, he vomits all over the floor. This is another example of what might be called double irony (see below).

Tragic irony

This is a form of dramatic irony which occurs when a character’s actions lead to tragic consequences, contrary to the characters desire or intentions. For instance in the dramatic finale to the novel Winnie wishes to escape from the scene of her crime. She entrusts herself and all the money she has got into the hands of Ossipon. But unknown to her he is a persistent user of women, and even worse, he has categorised her as a ‘degenerate … of a murdering type’ likely to cause him trouble. So he steals her money and abandons her – which leads to her suicide.

In fact it could be argued that there is a sort of double irony operating here – because although Ossipon’s belief in Lombroso’s crackpot theories of phrenology are obviously not shared by Conrad, it is in fact true that Winnie has been a dangerous woman with a knife, and she has committed a murder.

The Secret Agent – study resources

The Secret Agent – Oxford World’s Classics – Amazon UK

The Secret Agent – Oxford World’s Classics – Amazon US

The Secret Agent – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

The Secret Agent – Penguin Classics – Amazon US

The Secret Agent – Modern Library – Amazon UK

The Secret Agent – Modern Library – Amazon US

The Secret Agent – Master Guide (Palgrave) – Amazon UK

The Secret Agent – 1996 film adaptation on DVD – Amazon UK

Sabotage – Hitchcok’s 1936 film adaptation – Amazon UK

The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad – Amazon UK

Joseph Conrad: A Biography – Amazon UK

Notes on Life and Letters – Amazon UK

Joseph Conrad – biographical notes

The Secret Agent – eBook versions at Project Gutenberg

The Secret Agent – audioBook at LibriVox

The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad – Amazon UK

Routledge Guide to Joseph Conrad – Amazon UK

Oxford Reader’s Companion to Conrad – Amazon UK

The Joseph Conrad Society

Joseph Conrad at Wikipedia – biographical notes, links

Joseph Conrad at Mantex – tutorials, web links, study resources

The Secret Agent – plot summary

The novel is set in London in 1886. Adolf Verloc runs a shop which sells pornographic material, stationery, and contraceptives. This is a cover for his activity as a secret agent. He lives there with his young wife Winnie, his ailing mother-in-law, and his young brother-in-law, Stevie. The boy has a mental disability which causes him to be very excitable. Verloc’s wife looks after Stevie, treating him more as a son than as a brother. Verloc’s contacts are a group of anarchists of which Comrade Ossipon, Michaelis, Carl Yundt, and ‘The Professor’ are the most prominent. Although largely ineffectual as terrorists, their actions are known to the police. The group produce anarchist literature in the form of pamphlets entitled FP, an abbreviation for The Future of the Proletariat.

Verloc is summoned to a foreign embassy in Knightsbridge (strongly implied to be Russian) where he is employed as a secret agent. Mr. Vladimir, the First Secretary in the embassy reproaches him for filing reports which they regard as useless. He instructs him to carry out some bomb outrage as an agent provocateur to provoke the English establishment into authoritarian repression of what they regard as wishy-washy liberals. He suggests the destruction of Greenwich Observatory as an attack on rationality and science.

Verloc later meets his friends, who discuss politics and law, and the theories of various forms of resistance to the State. Stevie, Verloc’s young brother-in-law, overhears the conversation, which greatly disturbs him.

Comrade Ossipon later meets The Professor, who describes the nature of the bomb which he carries in his coat at all times: it allows him to press a button which will blow him up in twenty seconds, and those nearest to him. After The Professor leaves the meeting, he stumbles into Chief Inspector Heat. He is a policeman working on the case regarding a recent explosion at Greenwich, where one man was killed. Heat informs The Professor that he is not a suspect in the case, but that he is being monitored because of his terrorist inclinations and anarchist background.

Knowing that Michaelis has recently moved to the countryside to write his memoirs, the Chief Inspector informs the Assistant Commissioner that he has a contact, Verloc, who may be able to assist in the case. The Assistant Commissioner later speaks to his superior, Sir Ethelred, about his intentions to solve the case alone, rather than relying on the effort of Chief Inspector Heat.

On Verloc’s return from a business trip to the continent, his wife tells him of the high regard that Stevie has for him and she implores her husband to spend more time with Stevie. Verloc eventually agrees to go for a walk with Stevie. After this walk, Mrs. Verloc notes that her husband’s relationship with her brother has improved. Verloc then tells his wife that he has taken Stevie to go and visit Michaelis, and that Stevie would stay with him in the countryside for a few days.

As Verloc is talking to his wife about the possibility of emigrating to the continent, he is paid a visit by the Assistant Commissioner. Shortly thereafter, Chief Inspector Heat arrives in order to speak with Verloc, without knowing that the Assistant Commissioner had left with Verloc earlier that evening. The Chief Inspector tells Mrs. Verloc that he had recovered an overcoat at the scene of the bombing which had the shop’s address written on a label. Mrs. Verloc confirms that it was Stevie’s overcoat, and that she had written the address. On Verloc’s return, he realises that his wife knows her brother has been killed by Verloc’s bomb, and confesses what truly happened. A stunned Mrs. Verloc gradually goes mad, ultimately attacking her husband with a knife, stabbing him to death.

After the murder, Mrs. Verloc flees her home, where she chances upon Comrade Ossipon, and begs him to help her. Ossipon assists her, but also confesses his romantic feelings for her. Planning on running away with her, he aids her in taking a boat to the continent. However, her instability and the revelation of her murder increasingly worries him, and he abandons her. He later discovers she disappeared, leaving behind her wedding ring, presumably drowned.

The Secret Agent – film version

Sylvia Sydney and Oscar Homulka star in Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation, which he re-named Sabotage. This was possibly to distinguish it from his other film Secret Agent which was released in the same year – 1936.

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1936 adaptation Sabotage

See reviews of the film at the Internet Movie Database

Principal characters

Adolf Verloc	Anglo-French shopkeeper, anarchist, and double agent (40+)
Winnie Verloc	his young wife
–	Winnie’s mother – an old woman who wears a black wig
Stevie	Winnie’s mentally-retarded young brother
Chief Inspector Heat	detective working on the Greenwich bombing attack
The Assistant Comissioner	in charge of the Special Crime Department
Annie	the assistant Commissioner’s wife, who is a friend of Michaelis’s patroness
A distinguished lady	upper-class patroness of Michaelis
Sir Ethelred	Secretary for State (Home Secretary) to whom the Commissioner reports
‘Toodles’	Sir Ethelred’s (unpaid) private secretary
Privy Councillor Wurmt	attache at a foreign embassy (Russia)
Mr Vladimir	First Secretary at a foreign embassy (Russia)
Baron Scott-Wartheim	Verloc’s former employer at the embassy
Alexander Ossipon aka ‘Tom’ and ‘The Doctor’	anarchist, former medical student (no degree) who writes propoaganda leaflets
Karl Yundt	old anarchist
The Professor	former teach of chemistry who carries a live bomb at all times
Michaelis	fat, ex-prisoner, vulgar-Marxist
Mrs Neale	Winnie’s cleaner

Joseph Conrad – biography

The Complete Critical Guide to Joseph Conrad is a good introduction to Conrad criticism. It includes a potted biography, an outline of the stories and novels, and pointers towards the main critical writings – from the early comments by his contemporaries to critics of the present day. Also includes a thorough bibliography which covers biography, criticism in books and articles, plus pointers towards specialist Conrad journals. These guides are very popular. Recommended.

Other novels by Joseph Conrad

Oxford World Classics offers the best editions of Conrad’s work. They are largely based on the most accurate versions of the texts; and they feature introductory essays, a biography, explanatory notes, textual variants, a bibliography of further reading, and in some cases missing or deleted chapters. They are also terrifically good value.

Nostromo (1904) is Conrad’s ‘big’ political novel – into which he packs all of his major subjects and themes. It is set in the imaginary Latin-American country of Costaguana – and features a stolen hoard of silver, desperate acts of courage, characters trembling on the brink of moral panic. The political background encompasses nationalist revolution and the Imperialism of foreign intervention. Silver is the pivot of the whole story – revealing the courage of some and the corruption and destruction of others. Conrad’s narration is as usual complex and oblique. He begins half way through the events of the revolution, and proceeds by way of flashbacks and glimpses into the future.
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Joseph Conrad web links

Joseph Conrad at Mantex
Biography, tutorials, book reviews, study guides, videos, web links.

Joseph Conrad – his greatest novels and novellas
Brief notes introducing his major works in recommended editions.

Joseph Conrad at Project Gutenberg
A major collection of free eTexts in a variety of formats.

Joseph Conrad at Wikipedia
Biography, major works, literary career, style, politics, and further reading.

Works by Joseph Conrad
Large online database of free HTML texts, digital scans, and eText versions of novels, stories, and occasional writings.

The Joseph Conrad Society (UK)
Conradian journal, reviews. and scholarly resources.

The Joseph Conrad Society of America
American-based – recent publications, journal, awards, conferences.

Hyper-Concordance of Conrad’s works
Locate a word or phrase – in the context of the novel or story.

More on Joseph Conrad
Twentieth century literature
More on Joseph Conrad tales

The Secret Sharer

October 26, 2011 by Roy Johnson

tutorial, commentary, study resources, and web links

The Secret Sharer (1910) is a popular and much-anthologized work by Conrad. It’s quite short, yet it presents an enigmatic narrative and the story has been interpreted in a number of different ways. Like many of Conrad’s other stories, it combines elements of his own experience as a seaman with events recorded as part of naval history. The story is set in the Malayan Archipelago (The Gulf of Siam or Thailand to be exact) which features in a similar work, The Shadow-Line, written a few years later.

Joseph Conrad

The Secret Sharer – critical commentary

The double

There is a literary tradition of stories which deal with a theme known as ‘the double’. These are narratives featuring a character who feels the presence of, thinks he percieves, or sometimes even sees another character who has the same appearance or name as himself. The second character might succeed in society where the first character fails, or the second might perform some anti-social act for which the first character is blamed. Examples include Edgar Alan Poe’s Wiliam Wilson, Fyodor Dostoyevski’s The Double, and Vladimir Nabokov’s The Eye. For a further explanation this, see our tutorial on The Double.

Very often these stories are first person narratives in which it becomes clear to the reader that the second character does not actually exist, but is a projection of the narrator’s imagination – an ‘alternative’ personality, or ‘another self’ representing a fear or a wish-fulfilment.

The Secret Sharer is explicitly packed with the features of this theme. The unnamed narrator and Leggatt are of similar age. Both of them went to the elite sailor’s training school on the Conway. They are both bare footed when they meet. The captain gives Leggatt his own sleeping suit to wear, so that they look the same, and he puts him into his own bed. The captain immediately (and throughout the tale) refers to Leggatt as his ‘double’ and ‘secret self’. Leggatt was chief mate on the Sephora – and presumably the captain had previously been a mate before promotion to captain.

The two men echo each other’s gestures. The captain feels that they are both ‘strangers on board’. Leggatt is a stranger because he comes from another ship, the captain because he has so recently taken up his command. The captain refers to Leggatt as if he is looking in a mirror.

The story therefore seems to be variation on the double theme – and it is often discussed in such terms, particularly because none of the rest of the crew actually see Leggatt, and all information about him comes from the narrator, the captain.

This is a seductive interpretation, but it contains one major flaw. The fact is that other people in the story know that Leggatt exists. The captain of the Sephora, Archbold, comes looking for his chief mate who has escaped from the ship. So Leggatt is not a projection of the captain’s imagination, or an id to his ego. He actually exists.

There must therefore be some other means of interpreting the story, or providing an explanation for the events of the narrative.

There but for the grace of God …

Conrad often creates stories in which someone is presented with a moral dilemma or an existential crisis. This experience might also involve confronting ethically complex situations or other characters who have dared to cross the line between good and evil.

In Heart of Darkness for instance the narrator Marlowe is given the task of tracking down Kurtz, a man who has gone beyond acceptable limits in establishing his imperialist empire. Yet Marlowe, before he even meets Kurtz, is pre-disposed to admire his audacity. He asks his readers to empathise and imagine what courage it takes to break the rules of civilized society. Similar situations occur in Lord Jim and The Shadow-Line.

In The Secret Sharer we therefore have a situation where the young captain is confronted by another man of a similar age and provenance who has become embroiled in an ethically complex situation. Leggatt acts with the very best motive of saving the Sephora during a storm, and he is confronted by a weak captain and a malicious crew mate. He saves the ship, but kills his crew mate in doing so. In terms of maritime law he is guilty of a capital crime. This is an example of a good motive with a bad outcome.

But the young sea captain is entirely tolerant of Leggatt and his situation. He makes no criticism and acts instinctively to protect him from detection and capture. It’s as if he realises that he himself might have acted in a similar manner if he had been confronted by the same situation.

One can argue that the young captain acts out of class loyalty. Both he and Leggatt have come from the same training college, and the captain feels an instinct to protect his own kind. This is an interpretation which will not be popular with Conrad devotees, because it is an elitist position. And it is made even worse by the fact that at the end of the story the young captain does not appear to have learned anything.

The captain puts his own ship and the entire crew in great peril just for the sake of saving one individual from justice – something his maritime code of ethics would never condone. And yet the spirit of the narrative and Conrad’s attitude to the captain suggests a positive outcome to the story. The captain succeeds in steering clear of Koh-ring, and he feels that he has a closer relationship with the vessel he commands. This is a bad motive with a good outcome.

Interestingly, Leggatt saves the crew of the Sephora by his act of ‘setting’ a reefed foresail, but kills an individual in doing so. The young captain on the other hand does the opposite. He saves an individual (Leggatt) but puts his own crew in great danger by sailing so close to the Koh-ring island.

The Secret Sharer – study resources

The Secret Sharer – Oxford World Classics – Amazon UK

The Secret Sharer – Oxford World Classics – Amazon US

The Secret Sharer – Kindle eBook

The Secret Sharer – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

The Secret Sharer – Penguin Classics – Amazon US

The Secret Sharer – Dover Thrift – Amazon UK

The Secret Sharer – Dover Thrift – Amazon US

The Secret Sharer – eBook versions at Project Gutenberg [FREE]

Joseph Conrad: A Biography – Amazon UK

The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad – Amazon UK

Routledge Guide to Joseph Conrad – Amazon UK

Oxford Reader’s Companion to Conrad – Amazon UK

Notes on Life and Letters – Amazon UK

Joseph Conrad – biographical notes

The Secret Sharer – plot summary

Part I. A young seaman has his first command to take a sailing ship from the Gulf of Siam (Thailand) back to England. Whilst becalmed during the night at the start of the voyage he takes on board Leggatt, another senior seaman who has escaped from a nearby ship. the Sephora, after killing a malicious fellow seaman during a storm. The young captain sympathises with Leggatt’s plight and conceals him in his cabin. Leggatt gives a reasonable explanation for his actions (which saved his ship) and the young captain continues to give him refuge.

Part II. When the captain of the Sephora comes searching for his escaped prisoner, he gives his own account of events. The crew of the young captain’s ship find his behaviour increasingly strange, but he continues to protect Leggatt. Both of them are graduates of the same training school, and the captain regards Leggatt as his ‘double’ or ‘alternative self’. After a number of number of near scrapes in being detected, Leggatt asks to be put off the ship when it nears some islands. He is willing to take his chance to make an escape. The captain takes a grave risk by sailing perilously close to an island, but in the end Leggatt slips away undetected and the captain sails on, feeling that he now has complete control of his ship.

Joseph Conrad – video biography

Principal characters

I	the narrator, an unnamed young mariner
–	the chief mate with ‘terrible whiskers’
–	the young second mate
Leggatt	the chief mate of the Sephora
Archbold	the captain of the Sephora

The Secret Sharer – first book edition

First edition – J.M.Dent & Sons 1912

Critical studies

Ted Billy, A Wilderness of Words: Closure and Disclosure in Conrad’s Short Fiction, Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1997.

Gary Geddes, Conrad’s Later Novels, Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1980.

Stephen K. Land, Conrad and the Paradox of Plot, London: Macmillan Press, 1984.

F.R.Leavis, ‘The Shadow-Line’, in Anna Karenina and Other Essays, London: Chatto and Windus, 1967.

Joseph Conrad’s writing table

Other novels by Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad web links

Joseph Conrad at Mantex
Biography, tutorials, book reviews, study guides, videos, web links.

Joseph Conrad – his greatest novels and novellas
Brief notes introducing his major works in recommended editions.

Joseph Conrad at Project Gutenberg
A major collection of free eTexts in a variety of formats.

Joseph Conrad at Wikipedia
Biography, major works, literary career, style, politics, and further reading.

Works by Joseph Conrad
Large online database of free HTML texts, digital scans, and eText versions of novels, stories, and occasional writings.

The Joseph Conrad Society (UK)
Conradian journal, reviews. and scholarly resources.

The Joseph Conrad Society of America
American-based – recent publications, journal, awards, conferences.

Hyper-Concordance of Conrad’s works
Locate a word or phrase – in the context of the novel or story.

More on Joseph Conrad
Twentieth century literature
More on Joseph Conrad tales

The Shadow Line

October 18, 2011 by Roy Johnson

tutorial, commentary, study resources, and web links

The Shadow Line: A Confession (1917) is one of a number of Conrad’s works which draw upon his own experiences as a seaman during his third visit to the far East in 1887-1888. He signed up as mate on the Vidar, which traded in the islands of Malaysia, but just like the young man in this story he signed off and was then given his first (and only) command of his own ship. He travelled from Singapore to Bangkok to take over as captain of the Otago, then took the ship to Sydney, calling in en route at Singapore to pick up medical supplies.

Joseph Conrad

The fact that these elements are reflected in the story should not lead readers to suppose that the finished work is merely a biographical record. The relationship between biography and fiction is a complex issue, and it should be remembered that not only do writers transform personal experience to give it artistic shape and force, but there is no direct and simple relationship between a personal experience and its depiction in fictional form.

The Shadow Line – critical commentary

Narrative structure

The main elements of the narrative are arranged in a very simple pattern. The story begins in Singapore as the young captain secures his first command. He travels to Bangkok to join his ship, and sails back to where he came from, in Singapore. This structure echoes the main thematic development of the novella – his change from a state of youth and immaturity to that of an older and wiser man who has been hardened by the grim experiences of his journey.

Conrad is renowned for the complexity of his novels and stories – particularly the radically fractured time schemes of his narratives. But the structure and the sequence of events in The Shadow-Line are relatively straightforward. Events are related by a single first-person narrator, the young sea captain, and he delivers them in the same sequence that they occur, with no flashes forward or backward.

The only element of ‘back story’ is provided by the chief mate’s account of his conflict with the previous captain, and the only part of the text which is not either dialogue or first person narrative is two brief extracts from the young captain’s diary. In fact it’s difficult to understand why Conrad bothered including these two short passages, because they continue to recount events in the same sequence and in a similar manner.

Steam and Sail

At the start of the tale, the young sailor’s position as mate on the steam ship is comfortable and he is successful in it – carrying the approval of his captain (Kent). Yet he leaves the ship, for reasons he cannot explain. The experienced seamen with whom he discusses the issue put it down to his youthful impetuosity.

Yet when he takes up his command of the sailing ship he is in raptures with the ship itself which he thinks of as ‘she’ and himself as a lover. He also conceives of himself as the latest in a long honourable tradition of previous captains. (This is powerfully ironic in the light of the previous captain and his actions.)

But there are immediate problems connected with the type of vessel. The sailing ship requires a great number of men on deck, co-operating with each other to manage the sails and navigation. These are exactly what the captain does not have, because the crew are down with malaria. He is therefore forced to manage the ship himself, assisted by two crew who are both ill.

In the end he succeeds – so in one sense it is the older traditions of the sea and the earlier form of maritime technology which provide him with the gruelling experience that forms his character. He learns the value of co-operative working methods.

Youth and experience

At the start of the narrative, the young seaman is competent, but he displays the impetuosity and naivety of youth. He gives up his job without any good reason, and has no alternative career prospects. He fails to recognise that Captain Giles has recommended him to the Harbour Master, and his mood switches rapidly from despair to elation on learning of his new appointment. He also disregards the medical advice he is given, and sets sail without the services of a chief mate.

In his favour is the fact that his essential soundness is recognised by Captain Kent, his previous commander, the experienced Captain Giles, and the Harbour Master who gives him his position. He survives under the pressure of the ship’s misfortunes, and he has the good luck not to contract malaria like the rest of his crew.

Once back in Singapore, he realises that he has learned a severe lesson, he feels older (though only two or three weeks have passed) and at the end of the story he is intending to start out to complete his journey the very next day.

Novel, novella, story?

The narrative is one hundred pages – approximately 30,000 words – which means it could be considered a short novel or a long short story. But it has the classic characteristics of the novella. It is concerned essentially with a single experience in the life of one character, but the event it deals with is of a magnitude that makes it more than a passing episode. That is, it deals with a universal issue, not a particular event (no matter how revealing).

The captain’s experiences test his courage to the limit; he learns a very severe lesson; and he ultimately triumphs against adversity in a way which takes him from youth to manhood. These are large-scale issues, much bigger than the smaller (though revealing) incidents which would characterize the short story.

All the drama is concentrated into one topic and one location – the captain’s command and his problems on board the ship. Even his interactions with others are reduced essentially to just the saintly cook and the deranged chief mate. This sharpness of dramatic focus reinforces the especially compacted nature of the novella as a literary genre.

The title

Readers might be forgiven for thinking that the title refers to a shipping company – but Conrad uses the term ‘shadow-line’ two or three times throught the novella in a mataphoric sense.

time, too, goes on – till one perceives ahead a shadow-line warning one that the region of early youth, too, must be left behind

The line is therefore a zone of transition between two states of being – youthfulness and maturity – which is the pricipal issue of the novella as a whole. When the young captain’s morale is at its lowest point he communes with himself in a diary, reflecting on the difference between his current despair and the youthful enthusiasm with which he began his voyage fifteen days earlier:

It seems to me that all my life before that momentous day is infinitely remote, a fading memory of light-hearted youth, something on the other side of a shadow

The Shadow Line – study resources

The Shadow-Line – Oxford World Classics – Amazon UK

The Shadow-Line – Oxford World Classics – Amazon US

The Shadow-Line – Kindle eBook (annotated)

The Shadow-Line – Penguin Classics – Amazon UK

The Shadow-Line – Penguin Classics – Amazon US

The Shadow-Line – Wordsworth Classics – Amazon UK

The Shadow-Line – Wordsworth Classics – Amazon US

The Shadow Line – eBook versions at Project Gutenberg

Joseph Conrad: A Biography – Amazon UK

The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad – Amazon UK

Routledge Guide to Joseph Conrad – Amazon UK

Oxford Reader’s Companion to Conrad – Amazon UK

Notes on Life and Letters – Amazon UK

Joseph Conrad – biographical notes

The Shadow-Line – plot summary

A young, inexperienced, but competent seaman suddenly gives up his successful position as mate on a steamship. Whilst he is on shore in Singapore an older and experienced sea captain recommends him to the harbour master, as a result of which he is given command of a sailing ship whose captain has died at sea. He travels to Bangkok to take charge of the ship and feels that he is joining an illustrious brotherhood of distinguished former commanders. However, he learns from the chief mate that the previous captain was dissolute and neglected his duties, The chief mate was forced to take charge of the ship, and the captain cursed the ship and all its crew before dying.

The new young captain is delayed in Bangkok by a combination of official procedures and the chief mate’s illness. He seeks medical advice, but impatient to be underway with his new commission, he disregards the warnings and sets sail in unfavourable conditions. The journey progresses very slowly because of a lack of wind, and the ship becomes becalmed in the Gulf of Siam. Meanwhile all the crew are infected with malaria, and the chief mate appears to be dying. The mate believes that an evil influence from the previous captain is casting a jinx on the ship.

The young captain then suddenly discovers that the supplies of quinine he has been using to treat his crew have been stolen and sold by the previous captain, who has re-filled the bottles with useless stuff. The captain is supported in all his attempts to keep going by the ship’s cook, who has a bad heart.

The chief mate recovers slightly, but the ship makes no progress. The captain in despair decides to abandon the voyage and return to Singapore. En route the ship encounters a tropical thunderstorm, and the captain has to maintain the safety of the ship with the help of only two or three sick crew members. The chief mate goes through a phase of near madness in which he believes that they are battling against evil forces of the former captain, who he personally buried at sea in the same part of the Gulf.

Finally, the ship reaches Singapore, the crew are taken off to hospital, and the cook requests to be discharged from his duties. The captain recruits a replacement crew and is planning to resume his voyage the very next day, feeling older and wiser.

Biography

Principal characters

I	the narrator, an unnamed young mariner
Hamilton	a non-paying loafer and snob
Captain Giles	an experienced retired navigator
Chief Steward	custodian of the Officers’ Sailors’ Home
Captain Kent	commander of the narrator’s previous ship
Captain Ellis	harbour master in Singapore
R	gay shipping master in harbour office
Burns	chief mate
Doctor	medical chief in Bangkok
Ransome	the cook with a bad heart
Gambril	a grizzled sailor
Frenchy	sailor with a Mr Punch face

The Shadow Line – publication

first edition, J.M.Dent 1917

Critical studies

Ted Billy, A Wilderness of Words: Closure and Disclosure in Conrad’s Short Fiction, Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1997.

Gary Geddes, Conrad’s Later Novels, Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1980.

Stephen K. Land, Conrad and the Paradox of Plot, London: Macmillan Press, 1984.

F.R.Leavis, ‘The Shadow-Line’, in Anna Karenina and Other Essays, London: Chatto and Windus, 1967.

Joseph Conrad’s writing table

Other novels by Joseph Conrad

Under Western Eyes (1911) is the story of Razumov, a reluctant ‘revolutionary’. He is in fact a coward who is mistaken for a radical hero and cannot escape from the existential trap into which this puts him. This is Conrad’s searing critique of Russian ‘revolutionaries’ who put his own Polish family into exile and jeopardy. The ‘Western Eyes’ are those of an Englishman who reads and comments on Razumov’s journal – thereby creating another chance for Conrad to recount the events from a very complex perspective. Razumov achieves partial redemption as a result of his relationship with a good woman, but the ending, with faint echoes of Dostoyevski, is tragic for all concerned.
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Chance is the first of Conrad’s novels to achieve a wide commercial success, and one of the few to have a happy ending. It tells the story of Flora de Barral, the abandoned daughter of a bankrupt tycoon, and her long struggle to find happiness and dignity. He takes his techniques of weaving complex narratives to a challenging level here. His narrator Marlow is piecing together the story from a mixture of personal experience and conversations with other characters in the novel. At times it is difficult to remember who is saying what to whom. This is a work for advanced Conrad fans only. Make sure you have read some of the earlier works first, before tackling this one.
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Joseph Conrad web links

Joseph Conrad at Mantex
Biography, tutorials, book reviews, study guides, videos, web links.

Joseph Conrad – his greatest novels and novellas

Joseph Conrad – a collection of web links

Joseph Conrad at Project Gutenberg
A major collection of free eTexts in a variety of formats.

Joseph Conrad at Wikipedia
Biography, major works, literary career, style, politics, further reading, and web links.

Joseph Conrad at the Internet Movie Database
Adaptations of his work for the cinema and television – in various languages.

Works by Joseph Conrad
HTML texts, digital scans, and eText versions.

The Joseph Conrad Society (UK)
Conradian journal, reviews. and scholarly resources.

Hyper-Concordance of Conrad’s works
Locate a word or phrase – in context

More on Joseph Conrad
Twentieth century literature
More on Joseph Conrad tales

The Spanish Labyrinth

September 10, 2011 by Roy Johnson

political and historical origins of the Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Labyrinth is an important historical study in which a liberal humanist tries to understand why a catastrophic civil war took place in Spain between 1936 and 1939. Gerald Brenan was an auto-didactic but a very passionate historian with an enduring love for the country in which he made his home from 1919 until the war broke out – and to which he returned, living just outside Malaga from 1953 until his death in Alhaurín el Grande in 1987. He is buried in the English cemetery in Malaga.

This account was written whilst the war was taking place, first published in 1943 then revised in 1950 with no changes to its central conclusion that the civil war had set Spain back fifty years. The end of the Franco regime didn’t come about until the mid 1970s, so that was not a bad analysis and prediction. The Spanish Labyrinth is not a history of the war but an account of its origins. Brenan explains complex issues such as the Catalonian separatist movement which resulted in a repository of political radicalism focussed in Barcelona – the principal centre of Spain’s manufacturing industry and one of the most important cities during the war.

The first part of his account looks at the complex history of the relation between the Church and the Liberals. He sees the Catholic Church’s principal mistake as its failure to understand the French revolution and its antipathy to education. The church had historically been a supporter of the underdog against the state, but it was gradually poisoned by its proximity to power and became a force of reaction. Hence the anti-clerical violence during the war.

Brenan’s narrative trajectory is then interrupted by a detailed examination of the ‘Agrarian question’ in each of the main regions of Spain. This is followed by an in-depth account of the political philosophy of Mikhail Bukharin in order to explain why anarchism took such a powerful hold in Spain.

The central portion of the book is his analysis of Anarcho-Syndicalism in Spain – how it differed from other varieties in Europe, how it was a form of Utopian desire to return to a golden age of communal life in the pueblo, and why it ultimately failed.

Sometimes his historical narrative actually seems to be going backwards. No sooner do we arrive at the birth of the new Republic in 1931 than there is a historical detour going back to land divisions and sheep rearing in the thirteenth century.

The story really gets under way with strikes, bomb outrages, police informers, agents provocateurs, and military repression in the post 1918 period. King Alfonso XIII perpetrated reactionary disasters, and the net result of this was a seizure of power in 1923 by Primo de Rivera. His eccentric dictatorship lasted six years.

Elections in 1931 produced a Constituent Cortes which was composed of Anarch-Syndicalists, Socialists, and Republicans. Its first tasks were the establishment of a constitution, a solution to the agrarian question and Catalonian separatism, and the separation of Church and State. All of these issues proved too difficult to implement properly.

This was partly due to the fact that these were turbulent years There were military uprisings, strikes, the burning of churches, and a period of Dictatorship had left the economy in ruins. The more vigorously the government cracked down on disruptions, the more it fuelled the wrath of the anti-Republicans. And all these events were taking place against the backdrop of a World economic crisis. When new elections were held in 1933, all parties of the left suffered heavy defeats.

It is a very sad story of political squabbling, especially in retrospect with the knowledge what it all led to. Elections were still being rigged and votes bought; parties were being formed, split, and re-constituted like amoebas; and all the time the forces of reaction were growing stronger.

Brenan ends with an overview of political developments during the war. (For a comprehensive account of the war, see Anthony Beevor’s The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939, George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia, and Sir Raymond Carr’s The Spanish Tragedy). Brenan’s argument is that the war was won by Franco because of foreign intervention from his fellow fascists in Germany and Italy.

But it was also lost by the Republicans because of duplicity by Stalin, who was supposed to be offering support, but who used the war as a means of settling political scores with the Trotskyists and myriad opponents he saw from his paranoid hold on power. It might also be noted that within five months of the war’s ending, he had signed the Hitler-Stalin pact with his former ‘enemy’ as his entree to the Second World War. It is no wonder that Victor Serge, in his wonderful novel documenting this period, called these Unforgiving Years.

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Gerald Brenan, The Spanish Labyrinth, New York: Cambridge University Press, new edition 1990, pp.404, ISBN: 0521398274

More on Gerald Brenan
More on the Bloomsbury Group
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The Talented Mr Ripley

October 30, 2017 by Roy Johnson

tutorial, study guide, commentary, further reading, web links

The Talented Mr Ripley (1955) is the first of a series of crime thrillers by Patricia Highsmith featuring the character Tom Ripley. He is an ambitious young American who has come from an undistinguished background, but who has a taste for the good quality things in life, which are not within his means. The talents mentioned in the title turn out to include forgery, deception, mimicry, lying, and murder – from which he miraculously escapes detection.

There are five novels in the series, which have become known collectively as The Ripliad. They are self-contained and can be enjoyed separately – but a knowledge of their chronological development adds a great deal of depth to their meaning – particularly the ironic contrasts between Ripley’s refined social tastes and his shocking exploits.

The Talented Mr Ripley – commentary

Genre and morality

Patricia Highsmith’s novels are often categorised as mystery thrillers or detective stories. Yet the Ripley series in particular contain very little mystery and virtually no detection. That’s because we know who commits the crimes – Ripley himself. The only element of suspense in the narrative is the question ‘will he be found out?’ – to which the answer is ‘Amazingly – no’.

Highsmith is exploring a rather bleak, pessimistic, sometimes misanthropic view of the world in which virtue is not necessarily rewarded and mischief is not always punished. It also has to be said that this view is shot through with elements of black humour – another sign of the times in which she wrote.

The plot

Before she became a full time novelist, Patricia Highsmith wrote the stories for comic books (1942-1948). These have the virtue of being fast-moving tales with clearly defined characters and lots of dramatic twists. This background undoubtedly had an influence on her work as a novelist.

She is also a product of the age of existentialism. – ideas she had already explored in her dramatic and very successful first novel Strangers on a Train (1950) – the text of which is even more complex and psychologically searching than the famous film adaptation made by Alfred Hitchcock.

It is her fascination with aberrant and psychologically disturbed characters that give her stories such impact. In this there is clearly the influence of Dostoyevski – a founding father to the existentialists.

Tom Ripley is a vivid character not just because he commits murders and evades detection, but because he is ruthlessly honest about himself, and scathingly critical of everybody else as well. He knows that Dickie Greenleaf is a mediocre person, a talentless painter, and a spoiled playboy. Yet he is attracted to Greenleaf; indeed he wants to become him. He wears his clothes and jewellery, imitates his voice and his writing, and is happiest when living as him.

The homo-erotic element in this relationship is unmistakable – especially in Tom’s glorification of Dickie’s physical beauty and his disparagement of Marge, who he likens to the leader of a Girl Guide group. What is even more complex and interesting in thiis psychological farrago is that this study of male desire was created by not only a female author, but one who was avowedly homosexual in her own tastes and practices.

Tom’s character

Tom originally thought he might become an actor. His deprived background left him feeling he had no central identity to define a real self, so he thought that imitating someone else might provide him with an acceptable substitute. The events of The Talented Mr Ripley present a study of Tom’s identifying with someone else, to the extent that he wishes to become that person – Dickie Greenleaf.

He does not set out with malicious intentions. Fortune puts the opportunity in his way via Dickie’s father’s request that he try to persuade Dickie to come back from Europe. There is a clear echo of Henry James’ The Ambassadors here, which Patricia Highsmith signals quite clearly in the narrative.

In one sense Tom Ripley does become Dickie Greenleaf. He forges Dickie’s will and inherits his wealth, then he retires to live in a grand French house, with a playboy existence – pottering amongst his plants and painting when the mood takes him. So he replicates the lifestyle of Dickie’s which he so coveted. He also has a glamorous wife (with a rich father) to whom he is rather unconvincingly devoted.

The Talented Mr Ripley – film adaptations

There have been two major film adaptations of the novel. The first was made in 1960 by French director Rene Clement and is called Pleine Soleil, also known as Purple Noon. It stars Alain Delon as Ripley in what was his first major film.

The second was made by British director Anthony Minghella in 1999, starring Mat Damon as Ripley and Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf. This version is beautifully photographed (by John Seale) and received several nominations and film awards

Minghella’s version takes some minor liberties with the story line and introduces new characters and plot complications. Minghella rather unnecessarily creates a second lead female (Meredith Logue, played by Cate Blanchett) and adds a third murder when Ripley kills Peter Smith-Kingsley (Jack Davenport) during the boat trip to Greece. But on the whole his film is amazingly faithful to the original text in terms of rhythm, tone, locations, and atmosphere.

The Talented Mr Ripley – study resources

The Talented Mr Ripley – Penguin – Amazon UK

The Talented Mr Ripley – Penguin – Amazon US

The Talented Mr Ripley – Kindle – Amazon UK

The Talented Mr Ripley – Kindle – Amazon US

The Talented Mr Ripley – DVD film – Amazon UK

The Talented Mr Ripley – DVD film – Amazon US

Pleine Soleil – DVD film – Amazon UK

Pleine Soleil – DVD film – Amazon US

The complete Ripliad

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955)

Ripley Under Ground (1970)

Ripley’s Game (1974)

The Boy Who Followed Ripley (1980)

Ripley Under Water (1991)

Patricia Highsmith

The Talented Mr Ripley – plot summary

Tom Ripley is a young man living on the edge of legality in New York City. He is collecting cheques from people by issuing false income tax demands. He meets shipbuilder Herbert Greenleaf who asks for help in recovering his son Richard, who has gone to live in Italy. Tom has dinner at the Greenleaf house, where he lies about his academic record.

Crossing to Europe on board ship Tom reflects on his unhappy childhood and blames his Aunt Dottie for not making his life easier. In the (ficticious) town of Mongibello in Italy Tom locates Dickie and Marge Sherwood on the beach. They invite him back for lunch, after which he is sick.

When they meet again Tom explains his mission on behalf of Mr Greenleaf. Dickie invites Tom to live temporarily in his house. Tom finds Dickie commonplace but attractive. They go for lunch in Naples, then on to Rome for the night.

There is talk of travelling together, but Marge disapproves of their irresponsible behaviour. Dickie claims Marge is just a friend, but Tom spies and sees him kissing her. This puts Tom into a jealous rage. He dresses in Dickie’s clothes and imagines strangling Marge. Dickie suddenly appears in the room and there is an embarrassing scene.

Tom and Dickie argue about a proposed trip to Paris. Tom feels he is being squeezed out, and will be left alone at Christmas. They go to Cannes and San Remo, where Tom begins to hate Dickie because of his cold remoteness. When they go out on a boat Tom kills Dickie, steals his wallet, and scuttles the boat.

Tom returns to Mongibello and tells Marge that Dickie is stayIng in Rome for the winter. He steals Dickie’s clothes and makes arrangements to sell Dickie’s house and boat. He goes to Rome, where he writes a goodbye letter to Marge in Dickie’s name.

He goes to Paris at Christmas and enjoys living in someone else’s persona – shedding his own.. He spends the rest of winter in Rome, avoiding giving anyone his address. . However, a fleeting mistake brings Dickie’s friend Freddy Miles to the apartment. Knowing his deception will be exposed, Tom murders Freddy.

He dumps Freddy’s body on the Appian Way then prepares to leave for Majorca. But the body is found and the police arrive to question him. The scuttled boat is also found. Tom feels threatened by people trying to contact him.

The police return to say they think Tom Ripley is dead because of blood in the boat. Then Marge arrives, but he lies to her, gives her the slip, and goes instead to Palermo, Sicily.

In Palermo a letter arrives from Marge for Dickie. She is giving up on the relationship and going back to America. Tom receives notice from the bank that they suspect the signatures on Dickie’s cheques might be forgeries.

When he receives a letter from the police demanding his presence in Rome, he decides reluctantly to revert to being Tom Ripley. The police are also searching for Ripley, but when he presents himself to them he is easily able to convince them of his innocence.

He establishes himself in grand style in Venice, and is visited by Marge. She questions him closely about his time apparently spent with Dickie. Speculation continues about Dickie’s whereabouts. Herbert Greenleaf arrives to check on the latest news. Tom gives him an edited version.

Suddenly, Marge finds Dickie’s rings. Tom lies his way out of the tight corner, and fantasises about killing her. Private detective McCarron arrives to question Tom and Marge closely. Some days later Tom posts Mr Greenleaf a copy of Dickie’s will that he has forged.

Tom is preparing to go to Greece when Dickie’s luggage is found in the American Express office in Venice. Tom sails to Greece, all the time thinking he is about to be arrested. But on arrival in Athens a letter from Mr Greenleaf confirms that he accepts the terms of the will: Dickie’s entire inheritance is left to Tom.

The Talented Mr Ripley – characters

Herbert Greenleaf	a rich and successful shipbuilder
Masie Greenleaf	his wife, who is dying from lukemia
Richard (‘Dickie’) Greenleaf	his son, a self-indulgent playboy and amateur painter
Marge Sherwood	Dickie’s American girlfriend, a would-be writer
Tom Ripley	a confidence man
Freddie Miles	an American playboy friend of Dickie

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Twentieth century literature
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The Tongue Set Free

May 23, 2012 by Roy Johnson

Ruschuk – Manchester – Vienna – Zurich

The Tongue Set Free is the first volume of Elias Canetti’s memoirs. Although he is best known (though not widely) for his novel Auto-da-Fe (1935) he was a prolific writer in a number of literary genres. Crowds and Power (1960) is a sociological study of human behaviour in masses; Voices of Marrakesh (1968) is a collection of travel essays; Kafka’s Other Trial (1969) is a combination of literary criticism and a study of Kafka’s troubled relationship with his lover Felice Bauer. Canetti’s memoirs document the social and cultural life of Europe as well as his own intellectual development in the first half of the twentieth century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1981.

His story constitutes an extraordinarily rich pan-European cultural history. He was raised in a Sephardic Jewish family of Spanish origin in Bulgaria, speaking Ladino, but with parents who spoke to each other in German. As a child he was taken to live in Manchester where English quickly became his adoptive language. On the early death of his father he was then taken to Switzerland where his mother drilled him in German, in preparation for school in Vienna, where he also learned to read Hebrew.

Living in Zurich, his neighbours include Busoni, and his mother points out Lenin in a caf&eacute. As a matter of fact James Joyce and Tristran Tzara were there at the same time, but they were less well known.

There are three central links joining together the short chapters of reminiscence: the passionate and intense relationship with his mother; his love of words and languages; and his insatiable appetite for learning and knowledge.

His father died very suddenly when quite young, and left an obviously attractive wife with one elder and two younger sons to be raised. She put Elias, the eldest, under tremendous pressure to replace his father as an intellectual companion, and he took to the role very enthusiastically.

She drilled him relentlessly to learn German, the language of love she had shared with her husband. She discussed books and ideas with her son. He became jealous whenever suitors came in sight – and drove them away. She told him that she had sacrificed her life to raise him, and expected total devotion in return. She even imposed a total prohibition on all knowledge of sexual matters.

He piles on page after page of admiration for his mother’s charm, intelligence, passionate devotion to literature, and her firm opposition to the war. It’s a well known psychological scenario – and a wonder he didn’t become homosexual – though there are hints of misogyny creeping through by the end of this first volume. Women are associated with bad smells – apart from his mother of course – and his negative attitude to women emerges despite all his efforts to conceal it in the second and third volume of this autobiography. .

His love of books and learning are unstoppable, and he has the grace to reveal that it made him into a somewhat priggish know-it-all at school, where he was subject to anti-Semitic prejudice.

The latter part of this first volume ends in a catalogue of character sketches of his ever-changing schoolmasters, who very typically range from petty martinets to the sort of Dead Poets Society and Jean Brodie favourites who treat their students as ‘equals’ – and end up being fired.

What comes through most admirably is a strong sense of internationalism. He knows his ancestors came from Spain; he was born in Bulgaria, but he also lived in Manchester, Vienna, and Zurich, with loyalties during the first world war (largely directed by his mother) towards those who had suffered most.

The struggle between him and his mother reaches a tremendous emotional climax when after encouraging his every cultural interest, she suddenly decides to jerk him out of what she sees as his complacent intellectualism, cosseted in the Zurich gymnasium, and drag him unwillingly to an inflation-struck Germany where he would have to live amongst people who were suffering, and learn to face ‘real life’. This takes him to Frankfurt – where the story is continued in the second volume of these remarkable memoirs..

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Elias Canetti – biographies

Volume One of the memoirs — The Tongue Set Free

Volume Two of the memoirs — The Torch in My Ear

Volume Three of the memoirs — The Play of the Eyes

Volume Four of the memoirs — Party in the Blitz

Elias Canetti, The Tongue Set Free, London: Granta Publications, 2011, pp.268, ISBN: 1847083560

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political and historical origins of the Spanish Civil War

tutorial, study guide, commentary, further reading, web links

The Talented Mr Ripley – commentary

The Talented Mr Ripley – film adaptations

The Talented Mr Ripley – study resources

The complete Ripliad

The Talented Mr Ripley – plot summary

The Talented Mr Ripley – characters

Ruschuk – Manchester – Vienna – Zurich

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