Nostromo (Wordsworth Classics) Paperback – 5 Dec. 1996

Conrad-brilliant

great

A different take on the cowboy genre. This time it is Joseph Conrad himself who is the anti-hero presiding over the death of idealism by a silver mine. This is a world where geographic features are as much characters in the story as the people themselves and no one is larger than life than 'our man' Nostromo. Nostromo - a corporate gunslinger - who keeps selling out until there's nothing left. Conrad takes the reader into a dark tunnel, but there's no light at the end of it.

Leavis considered it one of Conrad's two masterpieces. Not sure I can agree or whether I am being conned by the reputation when I read this. I am not averse to reading long sentences or involved syntax. I've tackled Proust and Gibbon with enjoyment. Here I am not sure whether the pay-off is worth the effort. It really does feel sometimes like the dry coinage of a ship's technical manual that has not been sufficiently transmuted into art. It might be worth all the effort of getting through the dense verbiage (rather like a S.American jungle in fact - was the claustrophobic grip intended? hmm, a clever critic's reading, but I suspect that's attributing more art than Conrad intended) if one really cared about the characters,the country or their destiny. The Secret Agent is a much better novel imho - shorter, punchier, decent plot, well-developed characters, atmospheric in a dark, Londonish way, tending to melodrama, but still you get drawn in to reading to the end. Nostromo is a slog, one of those novels beloved of "academics" who feel it ought to be great by virtue of its very tediousness.

Great

As described, well packaged and promptly sent. A classic of story telling.

Failed to get past the first 100 pages. It jumped and ebbed and flowed so much I felt uncomfortable. His pros were good, but the stucture of the story baffled me. Books really should not be this hard work! There is a really good story in there, but this novel certainly does not deliver it to the reader. Maybe I will have another attempt when I am retired and have more time.

Remarkable