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Joseph Conrad: Nigger of the Narcissus (US: Children of the Sea)
Conrad really did sail in a ship called the Narcissus – in 1884 from Bombay to Dunkirk. The crew of the fictional Narcissus are drawn from the real one. Conrad’s unfortunate (in hindsight) title might have helped keep this story (it is more a long story than a novel) from greater success. The eponymous black man is James Wait (Jimmy), one of the crew of the Narcissus. He does not fit in with the rest of the crew and quarrels with them. He does not do his share of the work. Eventually he is taken sick, though the rest of the crew is not convinced. The ship is hit by the storm – not the last storm Conrad’s characters will have to undergo. Conrad’s description of men at the mercy of the elements is as fine here as it is in his later works. After the storm, Jimmy’s illness drags on. He is accused by the captain of faking but remains ill and, eventually, dies, despite the care of”Belfast”, a crewman from that town.
Conrad is concerned with showing us the relationships between men thrown together as the crew of a ship is thrown together, with no way of escaping from one another. We see how they cope with adversity – the storm – and how they cope with one of their number who does not fit in. In a compact story – around 125 pages – Conrad gives us a wonderful picture of this group and the strange man, James Wait, who does not want to fit in.
The Preface to this story is famous for outlining Conrad’s artistic credo. A work that aspires, however, humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line, is the opening line of this preface. The task of the artist, says Conrad, is to make you hear, make you feel – it is, before all, to make you see.
Publishing history
First published in 1897 by Heinemann (appeared in serial form in the New Review and the version available to the general public only appeared in book form in 1898)