Three Sea Stories

by Joseph Conrad

Book Overview

Editedand with an Introduction by Dr Keith Carabine, Chairperson of the Joseph Conrad Society of Great Britain. As these three specially commissioned stories amply demonstrate, Conrad is our greatest... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1853267430
• ISBN13: 9781853267437
• Release Date: December 1999
• Publisher: Wordsworth Editions
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

The unexpected influences of the hour

These stories give an eminent picture of Conrad's craftsmanship in building short tales and in brushing a vitally true portrait of live on the sea. For him, `the sea is the only world that counted' and ships `the test of manliness, of courage and fidelity - and of love.' `Typhoon' relates the brutal battle between a ship (and its crew) against the combined forces of raging winds and water. The violent struggle for survival sharpens the already strained relations between friends and foes within the crew and the passengers (Chinese coolies). In `Falk: A Reminiscence', the storyteller becomes a match-maker between a German girl and a `cannibal'. Cannibalism was forced on him by the cruel sea, which has `no respect for decency. An elemental force is ruthlessly frank.' In `The Shadow Line' (`warning one that the region of early youth must be left behind'), the storyteller relates his first job as a captain: `a ship, spellbound, unable to live, to get into the world (till I came), like an enchanted princess.' The journey becomes a nightmare with a sick crew, no medicines and no wind. After the voyage, `well I am no longer a youngster.' In these stories, the elemental forces of nature are combined with professional and emotional frontal collisions between crew members at all levels and even with jealous bureaucrats. `Human nature is, I fear, not very nice right trough. There are ugly spots in it.' Not to be missed.