Why my interest in Conrad ? Over the years I have done considerable traveling. Three or four of those trips were to Indonesia, where some of his stories are at least partially set. If Conrad writes about the fragrance of spices in the air in Malaya, I have smelled those same fragrances in other locations, in Sumatra, in Bali, in Tanah Toraja, and elsewhere. Much of Conrad's work is permeated with a sense of "otherness." I have felt this same otherness in many locations, and recognize it as a substrata upon which many of stories rest.
Conrad's most interesting and successful works usually have the sea as their setting. Either that or the presence of the sea seems not far away and by that presence influences the plot and action. I am thinking of Lord Jim, Youth, The Nigger of the Narcissis, Typhoon, Almayer's Folly, An Outpost of Progress, and The Lagoon among others.
Heart of Darkness must not be omitted from any list of Conrad's greatest works. The affinity I feel for this short novel may also come from my travels, for I have made three visits to West Africa.
Conrad's works appeal to me his stylistic brilliance. Here was a man who began life speaking only Polish, and who mastered the English language and became one of the great English prose stylists of the late nineteenth and early twentiest centuries. His novels and short stories abound with passages that demonstrate this brilliance. But if I must point to one entire work that exemplifies it, this is Heart of Darkness. I'll comment more about that when I reach that work, but I think it's prose sparkles with brilliance.
I may well not complete this Conrad project within a year or two. I'll take my time. My interests are varied and my curiosity often takes me simultaneously into three or four different books. Only one at a time will be Conrad's.
Come join me in this project. As we go along, please add your own comments. Shall we begin with Conrad's first published novel, Almayer's Folly? He began writing it in 1889 and it was published in 1895.
Chapter 1
"Kaspar ! Makan !"
The well-known shrill voice startled Almayer from his dream of splendid future into the unpleasant realities of the present hour. An unpleasant voice, too. He had heard it for many years, and with every year he liked it less. No matter; there would be an end to all this soon.
And so we start . . .
