jimi
Well-known member
What a great short story, wonderful description of the storm and brilliant pen portrait of the captain, well recommended.
Typhoon - Joseph Conrad
- Thread starter jimi
- Start date
Ships_Cat
New member
Thanks for that Jimi, spent last night getting half way through it (the typhoon has started). Very enjoyable and a great recommendation.
Had only read Lord Jim before which I enjoyed but I find his writing pretty intense and descriptive but easily handled in Typhoon. From memory I think English was not Conrad's first language yet became a great novelist in that language.
John
Had only read Lord Jim before which I enjoyed but I find his writing pretty intense and descriptive but easily handled in Typhoon. From memory I think English was not Conrad's first language yet became a great novelist in that language.
John
jhr
Well-known member
[ QUOTE ]
From memory I think English was not Conrad's first language
[/ QUOTE ] He was Polish - his surname was originally Korzeniowski .
Something at the back of my mind, from my undergraduate days, is telling me that he wrote the books in French and then translated them into English. A brilliant stylist, anyway.
From memory I think English was not Conrad's first language
[/ QUOTE ] He was Polish - his surname was originally Korzeniowski .
Something at the back of my mind, from my undergraduate days, is telling me that he wrote the books in French and then translated them into English. A brilliant stylist, anyway.
Mirelle
N/A
He was also a yachtsman, though he very seldom mentioned it in his work. Here is one of the two exceptions that I know of:
"The NELLIE, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest. The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the river, the only thing for it was to come to and wait for the turn of the tide.
"The sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of an interminable waterway. In the offing the sea and the sky were welded together without a joint, and in the luminous space the tanned sails of the barges drifting up with the tide seemed to stand still in red clusters of canvas sharply peaked, with gleams of varnished sprits. A haze rested on the low shores that ran out to sea in vanishing flatness. The air was dark above Gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth.
"The Director of Companies was our captain and our host. We four affectionately watched his back as he stood in the bows looking to seaward. On the whole river there was nothing that looked half so nautical. He resembled a pilot, which to a seaman is trustworthiness personified. It was difficult to realize his work was not out there in the luminous estuary, but behind him, within the brooding gloom.
"Between us there was, as I have already said somewhere, the bond of the sea. Besides holding our hearts together through long periods of separation, it had the effect of making us tolerant of each other's yarns -- and even convictions. The Lawyer -- the best of old fellows -- had, because of his many years and many virtues, the only cushion on deck, and was lying on the only rug. The Accountant had brought out already a box of dominoes, and was toying architecturally with the bones. Marlow sat cross-legged right aft, leaning against the mizzen-mast. He had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back, an ascetic aspect, and, with his arms dropped, the palms of hands outwards, resembled an idol. The director, satisfied the anchor had good hold, made his way aft and sat down amongst us. We exchanged a few words lazily. Afterwards there was silence on board the yacht. For some reason or other we did not begin that game of dominoes. We felt meditative, and fit for nothing but placid staring. The day was ending in a serenity of still and exquisite brilliance. The water shone pacifically; the sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity of unstained light; the very mist on the Essex marsh was like a gauzy and radiant fabric, hung from the wooded rises inland, and draping the low shores in diaphanous folds. Only the gloom to the west, brooding over the upper reaches, became more sombre every minute, as if angered by the approach of the sun...."
(from "Apolcalypse Now - the book of the film")
"The NELLIE, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest. The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the river, the only thing for it was to come to and wait for the turn of the tide.
"The sea-reach of the Thames stretched before us like the beginning of an interminable waterway. In the offing the sea and the sky were welded together without a joint, and in the luminous space the tanned sails of the barges drifting up with the tide seemed to stand still in red clusters of canvas sharply peaked, with gleams of varnished sprits. A haze rested on the low shores that ran out to sea in vanishing flatness. The air was dark above Gravesend, and farther back still seemed condensed into a mournful gloom, brooding motionless over the biggest, and the greatest, town on earth.
"The Director of Companies was our captain and our host. We four affectionately watched his back as he stood in the bows looking to seaward. On the whole river there was nothing that looked half so nautical. He resembled a pilot, which to a seaman is trustworthiness personified. It was difficult to realize his work was not out there in the luminous estuary, but behind him, within the brooding gloom.
"Between us there was, as I have already said somewhere, the bond of the sea. Besides holding our hearts together through long periods of separation, it had the effect of making us tolerant of each other's yarns -- and even convictions. The Lawyer -- the best of old fellows -- had, because of his many years and many virtues, the only cushion on deck, and was lying on the only rug. The Accountant had brought out already a box of dominoes, and was toying architecturally with the bones. Marlow sat cross-legged right aft, leaning against the mizzen-mast. He had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back, an ascetic aspect, and, with his arms dropped, the palms of hands outwards, resembled an idol. The director, satisfied the anchor had good hold, made his way aft and sat down amongst us. We exchanged a few words lazily. Afterwards there was silence on board the yacht. For some reason or other we did not begin that game of dominoes. We felt meditative, and fit for nothing but placid staring. The day was ending in a serenity of still and exquisite brilliance. The water shone pacifically; the sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity of unstained light; the very mist on the Essex marsh was like a gauzy and radiant fabric, hung from the wooded rises inland, and draping the low shores in diaphanous folds. Only the gloom to the west, brooding over the upper reaches, became more sombre every minute, as if angered by the approach of the sun...."
(from "Apolcalypse Now - the book of the film")
Ships_Cat
New member
"Heart of Darkness"? - looks interesting and a shortish read. Have downloaded a copy and put it on my reading list - Thanks.
John
John
Mirelle
N/A
A wonderful book - and incidentally the opening page once contained a memorable misprint.
"...gleams of varnished sprits" was originally "corrected" by a publisher's proof reader who knew nothing of the sea to "...gleams of vanished spirits"! The very eminent literary critic I.A. Richards put it right, it some years after Conrad's death.
May I also recommend "Nostromo"? A long one but a great one.
Two more good short ones - "The Shadow Line" and "Falk".
Oh, what the hell - ALL of Conrad! FR Leavis said he was Britain's greatest novelist and who am I to disagree!
"...gleams of varnished sprits" was originally "corrected" by a publisher's proof reader who knew nothing of the sea to "...gleams of vanished spirits"! The very eminent literary critic I.A. Richards put it right, it some years after Conrad's death.
May I also recommend "Nostromo"? A long one but a great one.
Two more good short ones - "The Shadow Line" and "Falk".
Oh, what the hell - ALL of Conrad! FR Leavis said he was Britain's greatest novelist and who am I to disagree!
Ships_Cat
New member
Already had Nostromo on my ever growing reading list and have now downloaded the others you mentioned. Gulp, great encouragement to live to 100 years 'cos I might need to in order to get to the end of my list /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif.
If anyone is a fan of ebooks then many of Conrad's are free at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/Clist.html already formated for MSReader and Palm - "Mirror of the Sea" is not there and that is a good read.
Most (all?) others are free on Project Gutenburg at http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/c but normally only in text or HTML format (Microsoft have a little plugin on their site which converts MSWord files to MSReader .lit files if wanted - so load text or HTML in MSWord and convert). Also on Gutenburg many are available as audio files for lazy eyed ones.
John
If anyone is a fan of ebooks then many of Conrad's are free at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/Clist.html already formated for MSReader and Palm - "Mirror of the Sea" is not there and that is a good read.
Most (all?) others are free on Project Gutenburg at http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/c but normally only in text or HTML format (Microsoft have a little plugin on their site which converts MSWord files to MSReader .lit files if wanted - so load text or HTML in MSWord and convert). Also on Gutenburg many are available as audio files for lazy eyed ones.
John
AndrewB
Well-known member
[ QUOTE ]
He was also a yachtsman, though he very seldom mentioned it in his work.
[/ QUOTE ]In his autobiography "Mirror of the Sea", he does describe himself as "a man who had but little to do with pleasure sailing (though all sailing is a pleasure), and certainly nothing whatever with racing ..."
Not that this stops him from a longish rant about racing with a couple of memorable conclusions ...
"To penalize a yacht in proportion to the fineness of her performance is unfair to the craft and to her men. It is unfair to the perfection of her form and to the skill of her servants. For we men are, in fact, the servants of our creations. We remain in everlasting bondage to the productions of our brain and to the work of our hands."
"In her handling a ship will not put up with a mere pretender, as, for instance, the public will do with Mr. X, the popular statesman, Mr. Y, the popular scientist, or Mr. Z, the popular--what shall we say?--anything from a teacher of high morality to a bagman--who have won their little race. But I would like (though not accustomed to betting) to wager a large sum that not one of the few first-rate skippers of racing yachts has ever been a humbug."
Yes, I agree with you that he has to be rated as one of the finest English novelists. But only on the basis of his sea yarns. His other stories, such as "Nostromo" and "Under Western Eyes", I found tedious.
He was also a yachtsman, though he very seldom mentioned it in his work.
[/ QUOTE ]In his autobiography "Mirror of the Sea", he does describe himself as "a man who had but little to do with pleasure sailing (though all sailing is a pleasure), and certainly nothing whatever with racing ..."
Not that this stops him from a longish rant about racing with a couple of memorable conclusions ...
"To penalize a yacht in proportion to the fineness of her performance is unfair to the craft and to her men. It is unfair to the perfection of her form and to the skill of her servants. For we men are, in fact, the servants of our creations. We remain in everlasting bondage to the productions of our brain and to the work of our hands."
"In her handling a ship will not put up with a mere pretender, as, for instance, the public will do with Mr. X, the popular statesman, Mr. Y, the popular scientist, or Mr. Z, the popular--what shall we say?--anything from a teacher of high morality to a bagman--who have won their little race. But I would like (though not accustomed to betting) to wager a large sum that not one of the few first-rate skippers of racing yachts has ever been a humbug."
Yes, I agree with you that he has to be rated as one of the finest English novelists. But only on the basis of his sea yarns. His other stories, such as "Nostromo" and "Under Western Eyes", I found tedious.
townes
New member
For those of you who might be interested, Apocalypse Now was based on Heart of Darkness (as you'd all know) and another book 'Dispatches' by an Australian journalist Michael Herr. Dispatches was a collection of his reports from Vietnam during the war. I have no idea if it is still in print.
