Game of chance

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Game of chance. A story in 2 parts (English Chance ) is a novel by the English writer Joseph Conrad . It was published in 1913. With this book he achieved his international breakthrough and financial security. For almost twenty years, Conrad was dependent on patrons in addition to his income from the more world-literary novels and stories that he had previously published.

The story

The novel is divided into two parts, as the subtitle suggests. The special thing about it is the refined narration. Conrad unfolds his point of view technique already known from Lord Jim to the highest perfection . Captain Marlow (known from Heart of Darkness , Lord Jim and Youth ) describes - from the perspective of a casual holiday acquaintance - the fate of Flora de Barral. It is up to the reader to establish the connections between the events. When the heroine meets Captain Roderick Anthony, the reader hopes that the two - despite all the concerns of those around them - can be happy together.

From all the events of the first part, however, the inner conflict of the novel and the “theme of the unrestrained rule of chance in people's lives” only develop in the second part.

action

Part 1 : The father of the young Flora de Barral is the notorious financial fraudster Smith de Barral. When he goes bankrupt, he has to go to the debt prison. Flora is socially isolated and plays with the idea of ​​killing herself. However, when she meets the lonely and withdrawn captain Roderick Anthony, who gives her a lot of love and attention, her life seems to take a positive turn again. Conservative middle-class relatives raise concerns when Flora decides to follow Captain Anthony to London and eventually to his ship "Ferndale". But both Flora and Captain Anthony proudly ignore all warnings and take Flora's father with them.

Part 2 : Here too, Marlow is the narrator. He describes the events from the memories of Charles Powell, the youngest ship's officer. Only now does the novel's inner conflict arise. Small misunderstandings, which often seemed a bit strange on land, grow into tragic conflicts. Flora cannot break free of her prehistory. The ship's crew eyed Flora suspiciously, believing that Captain Anthony betrayed his ship because Flora hexed him. Flora's father regards his daughter as personal property, which does not help to ease the situation. Over all the conflicts, Flora and Roderick Anthony almost lose sight of the "chance" of their love - until a nocturnal accident opens their eyes. Old Barral tried to poison Captain Anthony. But Roderick Anthony survived - and Flora's father judged himself. Only now can Flora and Roderick fully acknowledge each other.

German translations

The novel was published by Verlag S. Fischer in 1926 together with three other works as the beginning of the first complete edition in the translation by Ernst Wolfgang Freissler . In 1984 he completed the second complete edition of Conrad's works in new translations (here by Fritz Lorch). In 1974, a transmission by Lore Krüger was published by Aufbau-Verlag in the GDR .

expenditure

  • Joseph Conrad: Game of Chance. A story in 2 parts . S. Fischer, Frankfurt / Main 1984, ISBN 3-10-011325-X .
  • Joseph Conrad: Game of Chance . Aufbau-Taschenbuchverlag, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-7466-0083-9 .
  • Joseph Conrad: Opportunity. A tale in two parts . OUP, Oxford 2002, ISBN 0-19-280174-0 .

literature

  • Anthony Fothergill: Secret sharers. Joseph Conrad's cultural reception in Germany . Lang Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 2006, ISBN 3-03-910271-0 .
  • Renate Wiggershaus (ed.): Joseph Conrads life and work in text and pictures . Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 2007, ISBN 978-3-458-34996-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Helmut Winter, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, August 1, 1984