Titles: Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad
Publication Years: 1899 and 1910
Plot: Heart of Darkness centers around Marlow, an introspective sailor, and his journey up the Congo River to meet Kurtz, reputed to be an idealistic man of great abilities. Marlow takes a job as a riverboat captain with the Company, a Belgian concern organized to trade in the Congo. The Secret Sharer is about a young man who sets out on his first voyage as captain, aboard a vessel and among a crew that are equally unfamiliar to him. A mysterious night-swimmer climbs aboard, and, in keeping the presence of this fugitive a secret, the skipper risks both his captaincy and the safety of his ship. A test of nerve in the Gulf of Siam ensues.
Miscellaneous: Many consider this to be the most analysed work of literature in high school and universities. It wasn’t a big success during Conrad’s lifetime. It wasn’t until the 1960s that it became a standard assignment in English courses.
We have 3 readers for our first group. I asked them what drew them to the book club, and they are all seeking mental stimuli, as well as an outlet–something to break up their regular routine during their stint in prison. Eager and energetic, I can tell this is going to be a great group and we are going to uncover nuance and details to illuminate the texts this semester.
In our first official meeting, we discussed two works from Joseph Conrad. We read and talked about one of the most famous works of literature of all time, Heart of Darkness, as well as a lesser-known work of Conrad’s, The Secret Sharer. The first thing the group brought up is the difference in style between these two works. They wondered if The Secret Sharer was written after Heard of Darkness (it was). They remarked that the story of Secret itself gripped them more than the plot of Heart, even though Heart has a lot more to unpack.
We talked about what the captain in Secret might gain from hiding Legatt, the stowaway on board. This lead into a discussion of whether Legatt might be a real person or if he is a figment of the captain’s imagination. One reader wisely noted that his is a story told from memory, and the captain might be filling in blanks from his memory. How reliable is this narrator? Another reading mentioned since Legatt is naked in the beginning, this portrays him as a blank canvass, so to speak, for the captain to project himself on. With the descriptions of the naked Legatt, the readers (all of whom are gay) said they suspected Conrad was gay himself. This evolved into a conversation regarding how each reader brings their experiences, lenses, and worldviews to each book they read and how this effects our experiences.
With Heart, the group was going back-and-forth on whether or not the novel is anti-imperialist, straight up racist, or just merely observing norms and culture of the time. They were repulsed with the way natives are described and treated in the novel. They were quick to remember the novel is a framed narrative, meaning Charlie Marlow is telling the narrator a story who is in turn relaying it to the reader. So there is some buffer between the story and the reader. The realist style and language made it a bit of a slog for some of the readers, but one reader has read it quite a few times and said it gets richer and richer with each reading.
We rounded out the discussion by talking about the psyche of the main characters, their sense of isolation, and how their surroundings impact their state of mind. Every main character is a sailor, which makes sense as Conrad spent a lot of time as a sailor. Conrad writes about how the ship is the home and the sea is the country. Even with this notion in mind, Marlow and the captain from Secret feel uneasy as they are out on the water, not knowing what is beyond the waters and shores where they are traveling. The further they get into their respective journeys, they start to lose their sense of the world and question who they are and why they do what they do.
It was a great discussion and bodes well for next week’s reading of J.G. Ballard’s The Drowned World. Feel free to leave any comments on Joseph Conrad and his writings in the comments.
I also try to provide some supplemental reading materials in the form of papers, essays, and Q&As. Here is a 1977 essay by Chinua Achebe on Heart of Darkness.
Until next time,
E.
You can purchase Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer from these places:
- Indiebound
- W. W. Norton
- Amazon
- Audible (read by Kenneth Branagh!)