The Nigger of the "Narcissus"
LC Class PR6005.O57 | | |
Preceded by | An Outcast of the Islands | |
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Followed by | Heart of Darkness | |
Text | The Nigger of the "Narcissus" at Wikisource |
The Nigger of the "Narcissus": A Tale of the Forecastle[a] (sometimes subtitled A Tale of the Sea), first published in the United States as The Children of the Sea, is an 1897 novella by Polish-British novelist Joseph Conrad. The central character is an Afro-Caribbean man who is ill at sea while aboard the trading ship Narcissus heading towards London. Due to the offensiveness of the word nigger in the title, it was renamed The Children of the Sea: A Tale of the Forecastle for the 1897 US edition.
Because of the novella's superb quality compared to Conrad's earlier works, some critics have described it as marking the start of Conrad's major or middle period;[2][3] others have placed it as the best work of his early period.
Preface
Conrad's preface to the novel, regarded as a manifesto of literary impressionism,[4] is considered one of his most significant pieces of nonfiction writing.[5] It begins with the line: "A work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line".[6]
Plot
The
The voyage resumes but eventually drifts into the
As the ship passes the Azores and Wait nears death, Donkin discreetly plunders Wait's personal belongings from his sea chest. Wait eventually succumbs and dies—the first proof that he was genuinely ill. This occurs within sight of land, as Singleton had predicted, and a strong wind returns immediately after Wait's body is committed to the sea. The Narcissus soon arrives in England.
History
The work, written in 1896 and partly based on Conrad's experiences of a voyage from
In the United States, the novel was first published under the title The Children of the Sea: A Tale of the Forecastle. The original had proven controversial in England, with one reviewer calling it "the ugliest conceivable title";[8] American reviewers were mixed, with one praising the new title for "superior refinement" and another arguing it "insulted the public by imputing prudery to the American reader."[9]
In 2009, WordBridge Publishing published a new edition with the censored title The N-Word of the Narcissus, which completely excised the word "nigger" from the text.[10] According to the publisher, the offensive word may have led readers to avoid the book, and thus by getting rid of it the work was made more accessible to modern readers.[11]
Analysis
The novel has been seen as an allegory about isolation and solidarity,[12] with the ship's company serving as a microcosm of a social group. Conrad appears to suggest that humanitarian sympathies are, at their core, feelings of self-interest[3] and that a heightened sensitivity to suffering can be detrimental to the management of human society.[12]
In 2006, in his critical study of Conrad, John G. Peters said of the work:[13]
The unfortunately titled The "Nigger" of the Narcissus (titled The Children of the Sea in the first American edition) is Conrad's best work of his early period. In fact, were it not for the book's title, it undoubtedly would be read more often than it is currently. At one time, it was one of Conrad's most frequently read books. In part because of its brevity, in part because of its adventure qualities, and in part because of its literary qualities, the novel used to attract a good deal of attention."
See also
- Expurgation
- Joseph Conrad's bibliography
- Nautical terms
Notes
- ^ The forecastle is the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters, or the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast.
References
- ^ www.bibliopolis.com. "THE CHILDREN OF THE SEA by Joseph Conrad on Sumner & Stillman". Sumner & Stillman. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
- ^ Jenny Stringer, ed., The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Literature in English
- ^ ISBN 0-7493-1894-5)
- ISBN 1-85326-336-2)
- ISBN 0-313-29289-2
- ^ Preface, The Nigger of the "Narcissus" and Other Stories (Digireads, 2010), p. 120
- ^ Peter D. McDonald, British Literary Culture and Publishing Practice, 1880-1914 (2002), p. 28
- JSTOR 24669418.
- JSTOR 20874005.
- ^ "The N-Word of the Narcissus by Joseph Conrad". www.powells.com. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
- ISBN 978-9076660110.
- ^ JSTOR 460979
- ISBN 978-0-521-54867-0)
Further reading
- Jacques Berthoud (1978), Joseph Conrad: The Major Phase, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-29273-5
- Peter Villiers (2006), Joseph Conrad: Master Mariner, Seafarer Books, ISBN 0954706293
External links
- Media related to The Nigger of the Narcissus at Wikimedia Commons
- Works related to The Nigger of the "Narcissus" at Wikisource
- The Nigger of the "Narcissus" at Project Gutenberg (plain text and HTML)
- The Nigger of the "Narcissus" at Internet Archive and Google Books (scanned books original editions color illustrated)
- The Nigger of the Narcissus public domain audiobook at LibriVox