The nigger of the Narcisus

CONRAD, Joseph (Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski) (1857-1924), was born of Polish parents in the Russian-dominated Ukraine. His father political opinions caused the family to be exiled to Volagda, in northern Russia, where Conrad´s mother died when he was 7. His father also died after their return to Poland, and Conrad went to live with his uncle, Tadeusz Bobrowski, who had an enormous influence in his life. From an early age he began the career as a sailor, and in 1874 he went to Marseilles. In 1886 he became a British subject and a master mariner. In 1894, after twenty years at sea, he settled in England and devoted himself to writing in English, his third language. Towards the end of his literary career, Conrad was well established as one of the leading Modernists; a decline of interest in the 1930s was followed by increasing scholarly and critical attention. Today, Conrad is placed among the very great novelists in English language.

“The Nigger of the Narcissus” (1897). James Wait, is a West Indian black sailor on board the merchant ship Narcissus sailing from Bombay to London. Wait, suffering from tuberculosis, becomes ill during the voyage, and his plight arouses the humanitarian sympathies of many of the crew, five of whom rescue him from his deck cabin during a storm, placing their own lives and the ship at risk. However, the ship's master Captain Alistoun and an old sailor named Singleton remain concerned primarily with their duties to the ship and appear indifferent to Wait's condition.