Nostromo (Oxford World's Classics)

Nostromo is one of the greatest novels of the early modernist period of the twentieth century. It is a landmark in English fiction. Joseph Conrad(1857-1924 considered it as his masterpiece in a oeuvre comprising such classics as "Lord Jim"; "The Secret Agent"; "Almayer's Folly"; "Victory" and such novellas as the immortal "The Heart of Darkness." Conrad's world is characterized by:
a. Materialism and greed
b. The isolation of individuals in an uncaring universe
c. A comsos devoid of God.
Nostromo is set in the lush exotic mythical South American nation of Costaguana. The book discusses the Civil war of General Barrios against General Montero. We witness the independence movement in the port city of Sulaco which eventually becomes a wealthy republic free of control by Costaguana.
The book is memorable for the well drawn characters:
Nostromo-He is a sailor from Genoa Italy who was orphaned and abused as a child. The name of this strong and brave man means "boatswain" but can also mean "our man." He is the leader of the mine workers at the San Tomas mine. He steals a huge load of silver from the mine hiding it on one of the three Isabel islands. He becomes involved in a love triangle with the daughter of old Viola. He is killed by Viola who mistakenly thinks he is Ramirez the hated lover of his younger daughter Giselle. Nostromo was engaged to Linda the oldest Viola daughter but was smitten with the lovely Giselle. Nostromo like most of the major characters is tainted by his lustful worship of silver.
Charles Gould-He is the rich English educated native of Sulaco who is theowner of the St. Tomas mine. His wife Emilia is a saint-like woman. He is greedy for gain coming under the influence of the bumptious Holroyd. Holyrod is an American businessman who practices the Protestant religon but whose real gold is money!
Martin Decoud-The wealthy native of Constaguana is the editor of the anti-government newspaper in Sulaco. He joins with Nostromo in a plot to hide the silver from the mine. He is in love with the aristocratic Antonia Avellanos. Her father Don John Avellanos who is a respected leader in Sulaco's tight aristocratic community.
Decoud fears execution but instead commits suicide feeling abandoned and alone on a deserted stretch of beach alone in the universe/.
The major symbols of the book:
San Tomas Mine representing greed and the lure of materialistic accumulation.
Costaguana standing as a microcosm of the evil world we all inhabit
The Lighthouse-It is operated by old Viola and is a symbol of light and love in a dark world.
The book is far from an easy read! Conrad utilizes multiple narrators. Conrad tells the story through flashbacks and non-chronological plot development. The novelist also uses a complex political plot which some readers may find hard to unravel. Conrad writes in a poetic evocative style which is wordy. This is not a novel for one who is just beginning to become acquainted with the classics! Nostromo is divided into three long sections: 1. the Silver of the Mine. 2. The Isabels. 3. The Lighthouse. As the blurb on the back cover of the Penguin edition notes, "Nostromo is..a masterpiece of tension, adventure and mystery.' Joseph Conrad is a great writer and this book deserves careful reading. Excellent !

Forget what the critics say! This is Joseph Conrad's greatest novel. It is also one of the finest political novels ever written. Its grand theme is the involvement of ''material interests" with the South American republic of Costaguana. It shows how "material interests" create governments and inspire revolutions. The novel also deals with the lives of several vividly drawn characters who are caught up in Costaguana's latest revolution.

The title character is the Italian captain of the lightermen who work for the British-owned steamship company. As such, he is one of the lowest ranked individuals in Costaguana's European pecking order. His life and loves constitute the ostensible plot of this "tale of the seaboard." Nostromo is a victim of the workings of material interests and we witness his decline from super-hero to wealthy but unhappy thief.

The real story, however, is the story of Costaguana's inability to achieve salvation through politics. This is a good story as well as the portrait of a society in revolution. Beware of the changes in time sequence, This book is one of the earliest classics of Modernism. There is one jarring note. As a member of the European upper class, Conrad was a man of his times. His anti-semitism, racism and distrust of democracy come through quite clearly. Nobody ever said that that a great writer had to have great values. Read the book!

An "incorruptible" man (Nostromo) becomes corrupted by the dishonest acquisition of "filthy lucre" (silver ingots) when the lighter (barge) he is operating with the silver on it sinks; he is able to hide the ingots on an island for his later personal gain. His impeccable reputation allows the citizens to believe the silver is actually on the bottom of the sea. Nostromo justifies his actions by concluding that he was duped and used by the silver company - the self-deluded victim. In the last section, considered the weakest by some critics but magnificent all the same, Nostromo falls in love with two sisters (Giselle and Linda) and they with him; he chooses falsely by choosing Giselle: it is Linda at the novel's end who cries her heart out for him after his death. But by now Nostromo, once hero to all, is making very bad decisions.

Many consider this Conrad's greatest novel, and in it he paints a very large picture of corruption, revolution, love, and material gain; as in all his novels the writing is suspenseful and dramatic. Nostromo, on his death-bed, confesses to the kindly Mrs. Gould (the mine owner's wife) how he had stolen the silver, but she refuses to let him tell her where he hid it: "Isn't there enough treasure without it to make everybody in the world miserable?" Indeed. Money is the destructive force here: only Linda's love for the man is worth praising.

Back when "Nostromo" first came out, the Times Literary Supplement said that the book could stand some serious editing in its first two hundred pages. Others said Conrad managed to turn a short story into a novel. I agree on both counts. In the unabridged audio version, even with as fine a reader as Frank Muller, I had to wait till tape 8 or 9 (of 11) to begin to get into some really interesting plot, dialogue, and character development. The conversation between Nostromo and the doctor -- for me the high point of the book, pereceptive and pointed -- was about tape 10. Then the book returned to its rather unimaginative self till it limped to its end. Perhaps a cautionary tale for our century, written at its beginning, about the dangers of obscene wealth and thoughtless loyalty, the book has been superseded by many superior and more engaging tales of its kind (like Steinbeck's "Winter of our Discontent"). If you're a patient reader who likes very quiet books, "Nostromo" may suit your fancy. Otherwise, beware.

I found Nostromo sslow going at first, but this is a reflection on me, not Conrad. But the book ends in a powerful way, and I found at the end I was greatly impressed. I think Colombia is the nearest thing to Conrad's fictional country, and one is amazed that Conrad could make the place seem so authentic, especially since I understand he never spent any time to amount to anything ashore in South America. This book is the Conrad book on the Modern Library panel's 100 best books written in English in this century, and that is what induced me to read it, and I am glad I did

Joseph Conrad is one of my favourite writers - so often his philosophies, his points of view become my own. Why is it then that this novel was such hard going for me? I have just finished the novel - I had tried at least twice previously and failed to get to the end - an unusual occurrence for me. Perhaps, because it was Conrad I wouldn't go on as I lost concentration, failed to have any sense of direction. Perhaps I had to put it aside to attack it again with renewed vigour at a later time. Another author I might have put aside altogether.

Certainly the start of 'Nostromo' is very slow - and for much of it - where is Nostromo; that man with so many names? Perhaps the languid mood of the story - despite the underlying threats - created the feeling Conrad wanted for this tropical colonial setting with all those immigrant peoples (again, I think - as I have noted before - Conrad misses the indigenous locals, almost as if they don't exist).

Gradually themes emerged for me - lines of thought that gave me a sense of direction. And Conrad is such a master at weaving these together - threads of time, threads of location, threads of the unfolding (and closing) of lives. But the novel is very bleak, with hardly a positive outcome anywhere. The best we see is dogged resolve. Can life be so bad? Can even the best of us be corrupted by a hoard of silver, so corrupted as to lose the greatest reward that was available? Conrad, does take the breath away with surprising but ever-so-logical sequences of events.

I'm glad I completed 'Nostromo' and suspect I will read it again - perhaps with outcomes already in mind, it may go better for me. But if I was to recommend a Conrad novel to a Conrad novice it wouldn't be 'Nostromo'.

other recommendations:

Joseph Conrad - 'Chance'

Joseph Conrad - 'Victory'

Joseph Conrad - 'Lord Jim'

Ivan Turgenev - 'Torrents of Spring'

The Conrad biographer Jocelyn Baines wrote of "Nostromo" that it is "worthy of comparison with the most ambitious of all great novels, "War and Peace." Well, this ain't necessarily so. I found the novel somewhat disappointing. The major theme is a central one for Conrad: The clash of Western rationality, in the form of colonial commercial interests, with the uncontrollable forces of backward, irrational and brutal cultures. And while the Belgian bunglers in the Congo made a sad mess of it ("Heart of Darkness"), here the rectitude and single-minded devotion of a very English Mr. Gould and his silver mine are supposed to stabilize and enhance the life of the citizens of one of the banana republics of mid 19th century South America. After various political and military maneuvers (which take up the bulk of the work and show a rich assortment of characters) this venture does succeed, but at what human cost to the work-obsessed Gould, his lonely wife and their immediate associates! In any case, even that success is relative as clouds of new unrest appear on the horizon. (The foolish masses just cannot be satisfied with a good thing!) --The longshoreman Nostromo and his ill-begotten silver play a secondary role for most of the novel but provide Conrad with enough stuff for some page-turning adventures and some rather overwrought romantic scenes. -- The conclusion seems to be that the creation and management of wealth in emerging societies is a constant struggle between the self-sacrificing visionaries of Western education and the native masses and their irresponsible demagogues. (After all Conrad wrote this novel in an era in which Kipling spoke of "The White Man's Burden"!) Conrad, the naturalized British citizens, was a firm supporter of British--for him that meant rational and high-minded--colonialism, even if not unaware of its human costs (for the colonizers!). -- But quite apart from my ideological reservations, I could never quite shake the feeling that Conrad here strained every of his artistic fibers to write his "great" novel for posterity. The sheer effort shows, at times painfully so. How seemingly effortless, by contrast, evolve his beautiful shorter works.

Set in the fictional South American country of Sulaco, Nostromo is, on the surface, the story of a revolution and counterrevolution. Deeper, it is a dark novel of descent of one man from hero to thief and the destructive influence of excess of personality. Each personality is a contrast to every other, providing the sort of rich cast of characters that marks the greatest of novels. Certainly, this is one of Conrad's finest and a triumph of 20th century fiction.

Was not an easy read for me for many reasons and I really had to take time to understand the storyline, the political premises, and multiple characters and their representations of political purposes. This is a challenging read, definitely requiring commitment, and I struggled at times not because it was not interesting but because it was not a natural pick for my taste. Nevertheless, it is of high literary quality-- complex, interesting, definitely with the distinct voice and style of this author.

Nostromo knows he is as an example of nobility and selflessness for the people of Sulaco. When opinions look like beginning to change he feels betrayed. He tries to find some other purpose, and it is the silver. He successfully upholds his image though, but not before the silver has taken hold. He is caught between the materialism of Gould and the idealism of Decoud. This is why Nostromo is the main character of the novel, because everyone else acts to showing different parts of Nostromo in more exagarrated form.

Revolution in the Republic of Costaguana threatens a silver shipment from the Gould mines, but the heroic Nostromo agrees to bury the silver so that it won't be found. But the corruptive power of the silver is too much for even the previously trustworthy Nostromo in Conrad's pessimistic tale of Central American colonialism.
Now I love Heart of Darkness (read Orrin's review), my beloved Grandfather gave me Lord Jim (read Orrin's review) when I was a kid and I was even pleasantly surprised by The Secret Agent (read Orrin's review), but I have never been able to get in to Nostromo, despite numerous attempts. I get the whole metaphor deal, the silver represents all of the wealth that colonists have torn out of the Third World and Nostromo ("our man") is corrupted by this shipments, just as the West has been corrupted by Imperialism. Yeah, yeah, yeah... I guess the first problem is that I think that's a crock of hooey and colonialism was the best thing that ever happened to these places, but I also really just find the novel to be lifeless.
I believe that both David Lean and John Huston died while trying to adapt the story for the movies, perhaps one of these masters could have sold me on the story. As is, I just didn't like it.
GRADE: D+

Nostromo is one of Conrad's finest works and is also one of the few which is set upon land. It was published in 1904 and concerns primarily the corrupting influence of money or in this case silver. The novel is set in the fictional South American country of Costaguana. We learn of a local legend in the province of Sulaco about the disappearance of two thieving `gringos' who haunt the mountains due to their greed. We meet Charles Gould, who controls a silver mine and is trying to save it from the corrupt government. It is a time of political unrest and the dictator Ribiera flees. In this atmosphere, Gould becomes obsessed with saving the silver from the mine and emplys Decoud and Dr Monygham to aid him. They turn to Nostromo, a popular hero of sorts, who sails with the Decoud to hide the treasure but disaster strikes and they collide with an enemy boat. They arrive on an island and Decoud remains to protect it. However, he goes insane alone on the island and shoots himself before drowning, tied to a great quantity of silver. As the novel progresses we focus on Nostromo's unwise romance with his friend Viola's daughters. It contains very perceptive portraits of both heroes and anti-heroes and of the guilt that punishes the selfish, the greedy and the foolish. Many consider it to be Conrad's most important novel.

Not a walk in the park but, you will be happy you took the time to read.

It reminds me of the time I had my first sailboat I named it "Earls Pride" and me da bought me a fine looking mesh ball cap that said the same over the bill, I still have the hat and I do not think any amount of time will pass that will bring the hat back into fashion, its just plain ugly. Tacky and ugly and you will have to pull it off of my cold dead head if ever want to posses the...thing.

My friend Deemont called me one time and wanted to know if I would take his new girlfriend and himself sailing, I said yeah. So we met at Eagle Creek Reservoir and the wind was so strong that I judged it not safe for all of us to sail together for my craft was small, 13 ft. stem to stern. So we discussed the situation and Deemont laughed and told me how he met his new gal. The story goes she worked for a phone soliciting company and one of her employees called him and he used profanity and hung up on her, well her boss was appalled and call Deemont back to set him straight and well...he asked her out and that's how they met. I don't recall her name but I do know she was wearing Daisy Duke style shorts, she drew the long straw (turned out to be the short straw as fate would have it) and we went for a sail. I only raised the Jib sail since the winds were so severe, well we probably made it 100 yards from the docks, the wind shifted we turtled the "Earls Pride" (rolled it over mast down) well we gathered all our stuff and I coached her on the entire routine of righting a turtled sailboat, but then the wind would catch us and back over we would go. On and on this continued, occasionally we would right the craft and sail for a while (at which time I figured out from my keen powers of observation she had no underclothes under her daisy dukes) finally we just headed for shore drug the boat up on the beach where Deemont stood laughing.He had driven down to the next boat launch to find us, and helped us walk it along the shore back to the dock and later confessed to me that he was not so much concerned about our drowning but whether she was keeping her dukes in place and me the same. I don't know why especially since Nostromo took place on dry land but everytime I read this novel I think of this little adventure on Eagle Ocean.

Like all of Conrad's works, Nostromo contains a well structured plot, strong well defined characters and a message. No question that Conrad can be as verbose as Henry James but, unlike James, Conrad has something intersting to say. Nostromo is a man of the people who is used by the European aristocracy that rule a South American 'banana republic' to do their dirty work. Nostromo eventually is corrupted by the demands and is eventually undone by it.
Most critics beleive that Nostromo is Conrad's best work.

I wish I had a better review for this book, but I really can't say I enjoyed it. It's clear that Conrad put a lot of work into writing the book. At least, he put a lot of work into the writing of the book. Every single sentence of this book is a work of art. Conrad writes each sentence as if his life depended on it. Pure, unabashed, overwrought tedium.

The story is about political change in the fictitious South American country of Costaguana and its crown jewel Sulaco. It's also about the rich silver mine on the island. And it's about the foreigners who come to take so much from the country for their own gain. It never really brings these themes together coherently.

The first half of the book (up to the second section, 6th chapter) sets up the scene. Characters are introduced and thrown away, locations are presented and detailed from the tips of the mountains to the smoldering candles of the inns. This part of the book reads very slowly. It's like slogging through mud in a dense fog. The reader is tempted to skim this section, but I found myself more confused if I didn't read a sentence carefully than if I spent a minute on each one.

The second half of the book, starting at the second section, 6th chapter, is where the book starts moving. The political revolution occuring in Costaguana threatens the safety and tranquility of Sulaco, so a plan is hatched to resist the marching armies of Montero and to make Sulaco an independent country. This story is interesting compared to the rest of the book, but it is by no means a captivating story.

For all the work that the book requires of the reader, the payoff is slight. Compare the difficult poetry of Nostromo to All the King's Men. Nostromo suffers greatly because of its lack of cohesion and minimal plot. It relies on the strength of the prose to carry the book, but the text is uninviting and difficult. All the King's Men, on the other hand, is wordy and terribly over-written, but the story is never subordinated to the prose.

I can't in good conscience recommend this book. It may be worth it if you are dying to read Joseph Conrad, but otherwise the book is hopelessly long and unfulfilling. The writing gets 2 stars and the story gets 1, so 3 stars total, but these are a hesitant 3 stars.

Below this review there is a short review by someone named 'cmerrel', who very generously gives the ending away and answers the critical question of what happens to Nostromo. After reading 100 pages of this book, to read this was a great annoyance. Please stay away from that particular review.

The book is said to be "pessimistic". Why? For one the subject matter indicts capitalism, imperialism, materialism, merchantalism, any and all "isms" possible. But on the other hand, the author misses the opportunity to set straight the issues raised by Europeans in a foreign south american country operating a silver mine, employing local indians, and profiting greatly. The key character, Nostromo, is in all ways compromised by silver and its promise of wealth for the rest of his life. Leaving human nature aside and its frailities, Europeans made possible the development of the mine. Wealth was created in the employment of locals paid in local wages. The exploitation issues arguably causing a revolution misses the point. The revolution occured because of the lack of democracy and political will. The most basic point however is this. Wealth and its accumulation as argued by the Enlightenment philosphers of the 18th is not a bad thing. It is to be applauded as the engine and reward for creativity. It is curious how so many authors of the 29th century convolute the benefits of freedom and capitalism. Everyone should prepare for this novel by reading Adam Smith.

One of the early heroic novels (like Haji Murad) containing a towering figure with consummate reality and strength. Nostromo improves the lives of his countrymen in a familiar story of mineral wealth, human suffering, and political venality. I don't know if this novel is better than Heart of Darkness but is so different.

I really enjoy the works of Joseph Conrad, and wish he had written more. Imagine the additional literary riches we would possess had he been able to match the output of Dickens! And now, a random observation. The name of the freighter where all the action took place in the movie "Alien" was named "Nostromo". I can't imagine the correlation.....

Half way through this novel Conrad is still working on the set up. 'Heart of Darkness' is his masterpiece (for once in his career he was concise), not this unwieldy, meandering novel. I post this as someone who has read Proust (the whole thing), Moby Dick twice, as well as War and Peace, Crime and Punishment five or six times, so I am not a light, occasional reader. There is no accounting for taste as the five star reviews confirm. Many authors have done a far better job at mixing character, plot and description than this master of tedium. Secondarily, if you want to read novels about Latin America, I recommend you go to the authors from that region of the globe.

I do realize novels were written in a different style at the time Conrad wrote Nostromo, but after struggling for a couple months through the first 100 pages of what is essentially background material, I just decided it wasn't worth it. I had yet to get to the actual plot of the book by this time and decided there were too many great books out there to waste more time on this. I had really enjoyed The Secret Agent and Heart of Darkness wasn't bad so I was very disappointed in Nostromo. The premise of the book sounds so interesting.

Good luck to those of you starting this book. I hope the struggle will be worth it to you.

This book is about South America around 1900. What is happening is that the area is being developed by foreign investments from Europe and North America. So we see the rise of mining, they want to build railway and the telegraph is drawing it's lines. The central character of the account is Nostromo, he is some kind of Che Guevara or Prince Myshkin like character, but eventually he is corrupted by the greed for wealth like everybody else. The best thing about the novel is Conrads ability to build the environment with a graphical textuality and presence. The style of the novel is the grand epic tale, it seems like Conrad has been inspired by the great Russians, for example Tolstoys War and Peace.