The nigger of the "Narcissus": An authoritative text, backgrounds and sources, reviews and criticism (Norton critical editions) - Hardcover

CONRAD, J

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 039304517X ISBN 13: 9780393045178

Publisher: WW Norton & Co, 1979

Synopsis

The Nigger of the Narcissus

"From that evening when James Wait joined the ship - late for the muster of the crew - to the moment when he left us in the open sea, shrouded in sailcloth, through the open port, I had much to do with him. He was in my watch. A negro in a British forecastle is a lonely being. He has no chums. Yet James Wait, afraid of death and making her his accomplice was an impostor of some character - mastering our compassion, scornful of our sentimentalism, triumphing over our suspicions. But in the book he is nothing; he is merely the centre of the ship's collective psychology and the pivot of the action. Yet he, who in the family circle and amongst my friends is familiarly referred to as the Nigger, remains very precious to me."

"The Nigger of the Narcissus" has a beautiful glossy cover and a blank page for the dedication.

About this title

From the Publisher

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From the Back Cover

Joseph Conrad's account of the voyage of a sailing-ship from Bombay harbour to the Port of London combines uniquely the skills of the master mariner with the power of the master novelist. It evokes in intense and exact detail what it felt like to negotiate the great wind belts of two oceans. But is is also Conrad's first major exploration of the psychology of service-of the pressure on a group of seamen 'brought to the test...of the moral problems of conduct' by their encounter with elemental nature and with the secret terrors and evasions of two of their comrades.

Edition details

• Publisher: WW Norton & Co
• Publication date: 1979
• ISBN 10: 039304517X
• ISBN 13: 9780393045178
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 370