The nigger from the Narcissus
Der Nigger von der Narcissus (English original title The Nigger of the 'Narcissus': A Tale of the Sea ) is a story by Joseph Conrad from 1897. Some critics consider it the best story from Conrad's early work .
The plot revolves around a ship's crew who care for a terminally ill colored sailor and at the same time have to defy the adversities of the sea. In addition, a riot tries to turn the crew against the captain .
Although the narrative is a fictional story, Conrad incorporated some autobiographical elements from his past as a sailor.
action
On the sea voyage from Bombay to London, the eponymous “ nigger ” James Wait falls ill with fatal tuberculosis . Driven by their guilty conscience, the team takes care of the sick person, who nevertheless makes serious reproaches.
In front of the Cape of Good Hope, the ship gets caught in a heavy storm and lies on its side. Despite the danger of overturning, the captain decides not to cut the masts, which the rebel and newcomer on board Donkin resent in particular. Led by the young sailor Belfast, part of the crew decides to free James Wait from the cabin in which he is locked. But instead of thanking him for rescuing him, Wait accuses the team of having taken too long to rescue him.
When the storm finally passed, the crew managed to straighten the ship and sail on. However, since most of the supplies have gone overboard, the food has to be rationed heavily, which puts a strain on the relationship between the crew and the captain.
In a conversation with Wait, Donkin expresses his suspicion that Wait is only simulating and thus wants to avoid work on board. Wait responds to this and only pretends to simulate. His motives for this remain unclear.
When the captain arrives, Wait says he is on the mend and expresses the desire to work on board again. From this, however, the captain concludes that Wait was only simulating and forbids him to be seen on deck.
Donkin gets the crew to stand behind Wait and instigates a riot that night, during which a heavy object is hurled in the captain's direction. However, since the pilotless ship turns unfavorably into the wind, the crew is forced to submit to the orders of the captain again in order to avoid another catastrophe.
As a result of these events, the crew gives up their plan and surrenders to the captain for the rest of the journey. The rebel Donkin sees himself more and more isolated within the team.
James Wait dies in sight of the Azores and is buried at sea. The ship finally arrives in London without further incident . The next day the sailors get their wages paid and part.
Narrative perspective
The entire plot is narrated by a first-person narrator . However, it is still not a personal narrative situation , since the first-person narrator also seems to be informed about events in which he is not even present. How he found out about it is not reported. It is therefore a first-person narrator with the elements of an authorial narrator .
In addition, the first-person narrator hardly takes part in the plot. It becomes clear that he is one of the sailors, but his own actions on the ship are not reported.
It is only after arriving in London that the narrator reports about himself as an acting person.
Thus, the narrator appears like a chronicler, who has experienced everything and is informed about everything, but does not have a decisive influence on the plot.
background
The story contains some autobiographical aspects from the life of Joseph Conrad. It is known, for example, that Conrad hired a sailing ship named Narcissus in 1884. On the journey from Bombay to Dunkerque , the colored sailor Joseph Barron died, who probably inspired Conrad to create the figure of Jimmy Waits. The characters Donkin, Belfast and Archie are also probably based on crew members of the Narcissus.
In 1885 Conrad finally sailed on the sailing ship Tilkhurst . On board was the seaman William Cumming, who had sustained a head injury from a fight on land. Because of this injury, he fell into delirium at sea and was cared for by the crew. These events were believed to be the model for the care of the sick Jimmy Waits in the narrative.
Edition history
First published in New York was Dodd, Mead and Company in 1897; However, the publisher insisted on changing the title to The Children of the Sea: A Tale of the Forecastle , not out of censorship against the nigger word, but because books about black people had little prospect of selling in America at the time, as the publisher said . In London, the story of the publishing house was William Heinemann initially until December 1897 as a continuation of the of the stapling August William Ernest Henley , published The New Review published before it was published by the same publisher in book form 1898th The critical edition in English is the Norton Critical Edition , which is based on the Heinemann edition.
In Germany, the first edition was obtained in 1913 in the translation by Ernst W. Freißler from Albert Langen Verlag , Munich, who published books by Conrad from 1912 to 1914. The title is The Nigger From Narcissus. A second edition was published in 1927 by S. Fischer Verlag , Berlin, which published Conrad's works from 1926 to 1939, which had been taken over by A. Langen Verlag.
The Zurich Haffmans Verlag published the work in its 12-part Joseph Conrad Werk edition in 1994 in a new translation by Wolfgang Krege under the title Der Bimbo von der "Narcissus" .
A special feature of the editions is the word- censored version published by WordBridge in 2009 under the title The N-word of the Narcissus .
Expenses (selection)
- Stories I. The nigger of the "Narcissus" - youth - heart of darkness . Edition Maritim, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 978-389225-553-6 . (Translator: Lore Krüger and others).
- The nigger from the "Narcissus" . Aufbauverlag, Berlin / Weimar 1977. (Translator: Lore Krüger ).
- The nigger of the "Narcissus" . An authoritative text, backgrounds and sources, reviews and criticism. Edited by Robert Kimbrough. Norton, New York 1979, ISBN 0-393-04517-X . ( A Norton critical edition ). - Critical edition.
- The Nigger of the 'Narcissus' and Other Stories . Penguin, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-141-44170-2 . ( Penguin classics ). - Paperback edition.
Audio books
- Joseph Conrad: The nigger from Narcissus. Speaker: Charles Brauer. Maraudible 2007, 4 CD (288 min.)
literature
- John A. Palmer (Ed.): Twentieth century interpretation of the nigger of the Narcissus. A collection of critical essays. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs 1969.
- James W. Parins, Todd K. Bender: A concordance to Conrad's "The nigger of the narcissus". Garland, New York 1981.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ John Gerard Peters: The Cambridge introduction to Joseph Conrad. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2006, p. 45, ISBN 978-0-521-54867-0 .
- ↑ The Narcissus was, as the autobiographer Jerry Allen found, a sailing ship built in 1876 weighing 1215 tons. Source: Jerry Allen: Joseph Conrad, the years at sea. Hammer, Wuppertal-Barmen 1969. (Original title: The sea years of Joseph Conrad. Translator: Christine Köller, Gerda Pagorsky. With bibliography and bibliography pp. 437–454).
- ↑ Antiquarian bookshop catalog Sumner and Stillman ( Memento of the original from January 4, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ Overview of the continuation editions from Conrad First , English, accessed on February 29, 2012.
- ^ Leonard Orr: A Joseph Conrad Companion . Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn. 1999, p. 49f.
- ^ Frank Förster: The literary reception of Joseph Conrad in the German-speaking area. 2nd Edition. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-86583-060-9 . ( Preview in Google Book Search ).
- ↑ Review on hoerbuch-kritiken.de ( Memento of the original from January 13, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
