I’m on a bit of a Joseph-Conrad roll. With The Heart of Darkness and Typhoon in my rear-view mirror, I look forward to reading the much-praised (by my brother) The Secret Sharer. I’ve got to tell you, it’s a wonderful feeling in 2018 to “discover” an author more than a century past! I’ve fallen in love with age-old authors before, such as H. Rider Haggard, Jules Verne, and Jack London; but none of those authors had taken me to the high seas as Joseph Conrad has done. I thank him posthumously for the claw that has scratched my itch.
In Youth, Conrad re-introduces his speaker from The Heart of Darkness, Charlie Marlow. Again, Marlow speaks his tale to listeners who may or may not be paying full attention, though the reader is held fast by his words. Over a couple of drinks, Marlow describes to some fellow sea-faring lads one of his first experiences at sea as a second-mate of the ill-fated coal-ship Judea, christened with the motto “Do or Die.”
When this ship catches flame in its hold of coal, its Captain Beard and First Mate Mahon must steer her true until all she finally succumbs to the fire and is given up as lost. Marlow himself then “commands” his first “ship”, a life-raft tossed from the burning hulk, until they reach land somewhere in Southeast Asia.
The unfolding of the story progresses in a suspenseful fashion, for the reader isn’t quite sure whether the original ship will make it or not. The suspense of the crew ultimately watching her burn and sink is well worth the wait, and one can almost hear Marlow’s voice describing each terrifying second.
Conrad utilizes the device of LIGHT in this work so expertly, that many might not notice its presence. But from beginning to end, this aspect of light-versus-darkness and his use of the language of light and color is as main a character in the story as is Marlow himself! Here are just a few examples:
The boats, fast astern, lay in deep shadow, and all around I could see the circle of the sea lighted by the fire. (25)
He got up painfully, looked at the flames, at the sea sparkling around the ship, and black, black as ink farther away. (27)
Between the darkness of the earth and heaven she was burning fiercely upon a disc of purple sea shot by the blood-red play of gleams; upon a disc of water, glistening and sinister. (28)
Conrad’s title comes from Marlow’s own attitude in the face of deadly danger. At one point, he sees death at the door and finds it quite nearly entertaining, saying, “We asked ourselves, ‘What next?’ I thought, ‘Now this is something I like. This is great. I wonder what will happen next.’ O youth!” (21) And then,
Oh, the glamour of youth! Oh, the fire of it, more dazzling than the flames of the burning ship, throwing a magic light on the wide earth, leaping audaciously to the sky, presently to be quenched by time, more cruel, more pitiless, more bitter than the sea—like the flames of the burning ship surrounded by an impenetrable night. (24)
I was highly entertained (and even a little sadly reminded of my own strange obsessions of youth) by this story and its message. As a literary classic, it cannot be ignored. But in particular, I’d recommend it to those just cresting their thirties, for (in this particular time-period), it seems to be only these who’ve escaped the nonsense of youth and are finally recognizing its folly for what it is—and yet they, like Marlow, still reserve a special place in their hearts for the joys of its folly. “O youth!”
©2018 E.T.
Read More from Joseph Conrad:
- Heart of Darkness (1899)
- Youth (1898)
- Typhoon (1902)
- The Secret Sharer (1910)
- Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (2020; adapted by Peter Kruper)