What I once wrote of Henry James might be said of Joseph Conrad: "He is exquisitely16 aware of the presence of others." And this awareness17 is illustrated18 in Under Western Eyes and Nostromo—the latter that astonishing rehabilitation19 of the humming life on a South American seaboard. For Nostromo nothing is lost save honour; he goes to his death loving insensately; for Razumov his honour endures till the pressure put upon it by his love for Haldin's sister cracks it, and cracks, too, his reason. For once the novelist seems cruel to the pathological point—I mean in the punishment of Razumov by the hideous20 spy. I hope this does not betray parvitude of view-point. I am not thin-skinned, and Under Western Eyes is my favourite novel, but the closing section is lacerating music for the nerves. And what a chapter!—that thunder-storm driving down the valley of the Rh?ne, the haggard, haunted face of the Russian student forced, despite his convictions, to become an informer and a supposed anarchist21 (curious students will find the first hint of the leitmotiv of this monumental book in An Anarchist—A Set of Six; as Gaspar Ruiz may be looked on as a pendant to Nostromo). Under Western Eyes is a masterpiece of irony22, observation, and pity. I once described it as being as powerful as Dosto?evsky and as well written as Turgenieff. The [Pg 10] truth is that it is Conrad at his best, although I know that I may seem to slight the Eastern tales. It has the colour and shape and gait of the marvellous stories of Dosto?evsky and Turgenieff—with an absolutely original motive23, and more modern. A magical canvas!
Its type of narrative is in the later style of the writer. The events are related by an English teacher of languages in Geneva, based on the diary of Razumov. It is a favourite device of Conrad's which might be described as, structurally24 progressing from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous25. His novel, Chance, is a specific instance of his intricate and elliptical method. Several personages of the story relate in almost fugal manner, the heroine appearing to us in flashes as if reflected by some revolving26 mirror. It is a difficult and elusive27 method, but it presents us with many facets28 of character and is swift and secular29. If Flaubert in Sentimental30 Education originated a novel structure in fiction, Conrad may claim the same honour; his edifice31, in its contrapuntal presentation of character and chapter suspensions, is new, tantalisingly, bewilderingly, refreshingly32, new. The colour is toned down, is more sober than the prose of the Eastern stories. Sometimes he employs the personal pronoun, and with what piquancy33 as well as poignancy34 may be noted35 in the volume Youth. This contains three tales, the first, which gives the title-key, has been called the finest short [Pg 11] story in English, although it is difficult to discriminate36. What could be more thrilling, with a well-nigh supernatural thrill (and the colouring of Baudelairian cruelty and blood-lust) than The Heart of Darkness, or what more pathetic—a pathos37 which recalls Balzac's Père Goriot and Turgenieff's A Lear of the Steppe, withal still more pity-breeding—than The End of the Tether? This volume alone should place Conrad among the immortals38.
That he must have had a "long foreground" we find after studying the man. Sailing a ship is no sinecure39, and for Conrad a ship is something with human attributes. Like a woman, it must be lived with to be understood, and it has its ways and whims40 and has to be petted or humoured, as in The Brute—that monstrous41 personification of the treacherous42 sea's victim. Like all true artists, Conrad never preaches. His moral is in suffusion43, and who runs may read. We recognise his emotional calibre, which is of a dramatic intensity44, though never over-emphasising the morbid45. Of his intellectual grasp there is no question. He possesses pathos, passion, sincerity46, and humour. Wide knowledge of mankind and nature he has, and in the field of moral power we need but ask if he is a Yes-Sayer or a No-Sayer, as the Nietzschians have it. He says Yes! to the universe and of the eternal verities47 he is cognisant. For him there is no "other side of good and evil." No writers of fiction, save the [Pg 12] very greatest, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Dosto?evsky, or Turgenieff, have so exposed the soul of man under the stress of sorrow, passion, anger, or as swimming, a midget, in the immensities of sky, or burrowing48, a fugitive49, in suffocating50 virgin51 forests. The soul and the sea—they are the beloved provinces of this sailor and psychologue. But he also recognises the relativity of things. The ineluctable vastness and sadness of life oppress him. In Karain we read: "Nothing could happen to him unless what happens to all—failure and death." His heroes are failures, as are heroes in all great poetry and fiction, and their failure is recorded with muffled52 irony. The fundamental pessimism53 of the Slavic temperament54 must be reckoned with. But this pessimism is implied, and life has its large as well as its "little ironies55." In Chance, which describes the hypertrophy of a dolorous56 soul, he writes:
"It was one of those dewy, starry57 nights, oppressing our spirit, crushing our pride, by the brilliant evidence of the awful loneliness, of the hopeless, obscure magnificence of our globe lost in the splendid revelation of a glittering, soulless universe.... Daylight is friendly to man toiling58 under a sun which warms his heart; and cloudy, soft nights are more kindly59 to our littleness."
To match that one must go to Thomas Hardy60, to the eloquent61 passage describing the terrors of infinite space in Two on a Tower. However, [Pg 13] Conrad is not often given to such Hamlet-like moods. The shock and recoil62 of circumstances, the fatalities63 of chance, and the vagaries64 of human conduct intrigue65 his intention more than the night side of the soul. Yet, how well he has observed the paralysis66 of will caused by fear. In An Outpost of Progress is the following: "Fear always remains67. A man may destroy everything within himself, love and hate and belief, and even doubt; but as he clings to life he cannot destroy fear: the fear, subtle, indestructible, and terrible that pervades68 his being, that lurks69 in his heart; that watches on his lips the struggle of his last breath...."
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1 plentiful | |
adj.富裕的,丰富的 | |
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2 tinged | |
v.(使)发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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3 puissant | |
adj.强有力的 | |
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4 yarns | |
n.纱( yarn的名词复数 );纱线;奇闻漫谈;旅行轶事 | |
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5 yarning | |
vi.讲故事(yarn的现在分词形式) | |
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6 warehouses | |
仓库,货栈( warehouse的名词复数 ) | |
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7 nuance | |
n.(意义、意见、颜色)细微差别 | |
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8 iniquitous | |
adj.不公正的;邪恶的;高得出奇的 | |
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9 contrives | |
(不顾困难地)促成某事( contrive的第三人称单数 ); 巧妙地策划,精巧地制造(如机器); 设法做到 | |
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10 decomposition | |
n. 分解, 腐烂, 崩溃 | |
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11 duel | |
n./v.决斗;(双方的)斗争 | |
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12 tragic | |
adj.悲剧的,悲剧性的,悲惨的 | |
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13 mosaic | |
n./adj.镶嵌细工的,镶嵌工艺品的,嵌花式的 | |
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14 fatuity | |
n.愚蠢,愚昧 | |
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15 narrative | |
n.叙述,故事;adj.叙事的,故事体的 | |
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16 exquisitely | |
adv.精致地;强烈地;剧烈地;异常地 | |
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17 awareness | |
n.意识,觉悟,懂事,明智 | |
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18 illustrated | |
adj. 有插图的,列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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19 rehabilitation | |
n.康复,悔过自新,修复,复兴,复职,复位 | |
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20 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
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21 anarchist | |
n.无政府主义者 | |
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22 irony | |
n.反语,冷嘲;具有讽刺意味的事,嘲弄 | |
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23 motive | |
n.动机,目的;adv.发动的,运动的 | |
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24 structurally | |
在结构上 | |
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25 heterogeneous | |
adj.庞杂的;异类的 | |
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26 revolving | |
adj.旋转的,轮转式的;循环的v.(使)旋转( revolve的现在分词 );细想 | |
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27 elusive | |
adj.难以表达(捉摸)的;令人困惑的;逃避的 | |
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28 facets | |
n.(宝石或首饰的)小平面( facet的名词复数 );(事物的)面;方面 | |
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29 secular | |
n.牧师,凡人;adj.世俗的,现世的,不朽的 | |
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30 sentimental | |
adj.多愁善感的,感伤的 | |
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31 edifice | |
n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿,教室) | |
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32 refreshingly | |
adv.清爽地,有精神地 | |
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33 piquancy | |
n.辛辣,辣味,痛快 | |
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34 poignancy | |
n.辛酸事,尖锐 | |
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35 noted | |
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
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36 discriminate | |
v.区别,辨别,区分;有区别地对待 | |
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37 pathos | |
n.哀婉,悲怆 | |
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38 immortals | |
不朽的人物( immortal的名词复数 ); 永生不朽者 | |
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39 sinecure | |
n.闲差事,挂名职务 | |
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40 WHIMS | |
虚妄,禅病 | |
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41 monstrous | |
adj.巨大的;恐怖的;可耻的,丢脸的 | |
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42 treacherous | |
adj.不可靠的,有暗藏的危险的;adj.背叛的,背信弃义的 | |
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43 suffusion | |
n.充满 | |
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44 intensity | |
n.强烈,剧烈;强度;烈度 | |
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45 morbid | |
adj.病的;致病的;病态的;可怕的 | |
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46 sincerity | |
n.真诚,诚意;真实 | |
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47 verities | |
n.真实( verity的名词复数 );事实;真理;真实的陈述 | |
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48 burrowing | |
v.挖掘(洞穴),挖洞( burrow的现在分词 );翻寻 | |
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49 fugitive | |
adj.逃亡的,易逝的;n.逃犯,逃亡者 | |
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50 suffocating | |
a.使人窒息的 | |
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51 virgin | |
n.处女,未婚女子;adj.未经使用的;未经开发的 | |
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52 muffled | |
adj.(声音)被隔的;听不太清的;(衣服)裹严的;蒙住的v.压抑,捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 );用厚厚的衣帽包着(自己) | |
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53 pessimism | |
n.悲观者,悲观主义者,厌世者 | |
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54 temperament | |
n.气质,性格,性情 | |
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55 ironies | |
n.反语( irony的名词复数 );冷嘲;具有讽刺意味的事;嘲弄 | |
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56 dolorous | |
adj.悲伤的;忧愁的 | |
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57 starry | |
adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的 | |
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58 toiling | |
长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 ); 艰难缓慢地移动,跋涉 | |
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59 kindly | |
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地 | |
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60 hardy | |
adj.勇敢的,果断的,吃苦的;耐寒的 | |
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61 eloquent | |
adj.雄辩的,口才流利的;明白显示出的 | |
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62 recoil | |
vi.退却,退缩,畏缩 | |
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63 fatalities | |
n.恶性事故( fatality的名词复数 );死亡;致命性;命运 | |
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64 vagaries | |
n.奇想( vagary的名词复数 );异想天开;异常行为;难以预测的情况 | |
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65 intrigue | |
vt.激起兴趣,迷住;vi.耍阴谋;n.阴谋,密谋 | |
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66 paralysis | |
n.麻痹(症);瘫痪(症) | |
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67 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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68 pervades | |
v.遍及,弥漫( pervade的第三人称单数 ) | |
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69 lurks | |
n.潜在,潜伏;(lurk的复数形式)vi.潜伏,埋伏(lurk的第三人称单数形式) | |
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