There was no glossary in the vintage edition I read, but I didn't stop to look up the nautical terms, having a guess instead. So, the action aboard the ship remained a little muddy for me, and there is a lot of action in this short book. But a couple of things are clear from reading this:

Conrad is intimately familiar with shipboard life, and he covers it in gritty realistic detail.
Despite the realism, Conrad announces in the preface his intention is to make art, so while trying to follow the action I was also reading for possible allegories, particularly with the title character James Wait, set apart both by the color of his skin and his behavior. On that note, late in the book the narrator turns inward a bit, saying,
"here could be no greater criminals than we, who by our lies conspired to send the soul of a poor ignorant black man to everlasting perdition."
Is this the statement of an author of the time who believes in the "civilizing" force of colonialism, or simply a statement of this one character in a sea story?

The prose style is certainly of the time, if on the modernist edge of the Victorian era, and my one fault with the narration is that Conrad is sometimes unclear if the narrator is a member of the crew (it becomes clear by the end, he is.) If one hasn't read Conrad before, I would go straight to Heart of Darkness, but this was worth the investment.

"The were the everlasting children of the mysterious sea. Their successors are the grown-up children of a discontented earth. They are less naughty, but less innocent; less profane, but perhaps also less believing; and if they had learned how to speak they have also learned how to whine."
- Joseph Conrad, The Children of the Sea

"All work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line."
- Joseph Conrad, Introduction to The Children of the Sea



IN a book whose very title suggests it is rigged with the weight of race and racism, bigotry and brutality, it is strange to discover the book is really not especially about race. While the main character in The N____ of Narcissus IS black, the book's narrative (after the beginning) doesn't hardly deal with that. Race is practically the least interesting, least compelling THING about James Wait. It is hard to figure out how to talk about the book. I have no card. Nobody who isn't black has a card, so do I avoid the title. Use the alternate title (The Children of the Sea)? Do I only use N______? Do I bow to Kanye and use broke broke?

The disastrously named book is, however, fundamentally about humanity. Like most of Conrad's books, the sea provides a rhythm and a boat provides the setting for exploring the way men interact. Looking at the way men deal with life and death and the contradictions we feel towards those we love and those we hate is a taut canvas for Conrad to sew what was probably the beginning of his best period of writing. This novella was followed immediately by such masterpieces as: [b:Heart of Darkness|4900|Heart of Darkness|Joseph Conrad|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1392799983l/4900._SX50_.jpg|2877220], [b:Lord Jim|12194|Lord Jim|Joseph Conrad|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1372366969l/12194._SY75_.jpg|2578988], [b:Typhoon|3537012|Typhoon|Joseph Conrad|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1312065477l/3537012._SX50_.jpg|2423598], etc.

The other gem from this book is Conrad's bold introduction, which is considered one of the best "manifestos of literary impressionism". If you don't like fiction, the short introduction, all by itself, is almost worth the price of admission.