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The Mirror of the Sea
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208 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1906
About the author
Joseph Conrad
3,040 books4,270 followersJoseph Conrad (born
Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski
) was a Polish-born English novelist who today is most famous for Heart of Darkness, his fictionalized account of Colonial Africa.
Conrad left his native Poland in his middle teens to avoid conscription into the Russian Army. He joined the French Merchant Marine and briefly employed himself as a wartime gunrunner. He then began to work aboard British ships, learning English from his shipmates. He was made a Master Mariner, and served more than sixteen years before an event inspired him to try his hand at writing.
He was hired to take a steamship into Africa, and according to Conrad, the experience of seeing firsthand the horrors of colonial rule left him a changed man.
Joseph Conrad settled in England in 1894, the year before he published his first novel. He was deeply interested in a small number of writers both in French and English whose work he studied carefully. This was useful when, because a need to come to terms with his experience, lead him to write Heart of Darkness, in 1899, which was followed by other fictionalized explorations of his life.
He has been lauded as one of the most powerful, insightful, and disturbing novelists in the English canon despite coming to English later in life, which allowed him to combine it with the sensibilities of French, Russian, and Polish literature.
Conrad left his native Poland in his middle teens to avoid conscription into the Russian Army. He joined the French Merchant Marine and briefly employed himself as a wartime gunrunner. He then began to work aboard British ships, learning English from his shipmates. He was made a Master Mariner, and served more than sixteen years before an event inspired him to try his hand at writing.
He was hired to take a steamship into Africa, and according to Conrad, the experience of seeing firsthand the horrors of colonial rule left him a changed man.
Joseph Conrad settled in England in 1894, the year before he published his first novel. He was deeply interested in a small number of writers both in French and English whose work he studied carefully. This was useful when, because a need to come to terms with his experience, lead him to write Heart of Darkness, in 1899, which was followed by other fictionalized explorations of his life.
He has been lauded as one of the most powerful, insightful, and disturbing novelists in the English canon despite coming to English later in life, which allowed him to combine it with the sensibilities of French, Russian, and Polish literature.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
March 2, 2022
Joseph Conrad’s autobiographical 1906 publication about his life on the seas was remarkable for its candid description of his love for the nautical life.
Any reader of Conrad’s will quickly realize that here is a writer who knows the sea, knows the intricate craft of sailing vessels, here is a man who came up from the water and knows a thing or two about maritime business. His greatest, most recognizable works all deal with life on a boat: Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Secret Sharer, etc. While he has a great range as a writer, and has written wonderful stories that do not involve nautical subjects, the sea is never far removed from his subject matter.
This is a series of essays, sketches, and memoirs of his time at sea. If you’re not a Conrad fan, and / or if you don’t also love the sea, this may be dry or uninteresting. I liked it because I am a Conrad scholar and I also love the sea.
I was in the United States Coast Guard from 1992 to 1997 and in the reserve until 2001 when I transferred my commission to the Army National Guard. During my time in that sea service, I had almost three years sea duty and I learned and later taught navigational rules of the road to my fellow coasties and I enjoyed the teaching aspects of that job.
One situation I recall was when a vessel had ran aground. The Rules state that: A vessel aground shall give the bell signal and if required the gong signal prescribed in paragraph (g) of this Rule and shall, in addition, give three separate and distinct strokes on the bell immediately before and after the rapid ringing of the bell. A vessel aground may in addition sound an appropriate whistle signal.
So the prescribed signal for a vessel ran aground is:
Ding
ding
ding
dingdingdingdingdingdingdingding
Ding
ding
ding.
How did I help my students to learn and memorize this rule? I asked them to add this language to their studies to help them better recall this rule:
I
F**cked
Up!
Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey!
I
F**cked
Up!
I think they all got this one right on the test.
Any reader of Conrad’s will quickly realize that here is a writer who knows the sea, knows the intricate craft of sailing vessels, here is a man who came up from the water and knows a thing or two about maritime business. His greatest, most recognizable works all deal with life on a boat: Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Secret Sharer, etc. While he has a great range as a writer, and has written wonderful stories that do not involve nautical subjects, the sea is never far removed from his subject matter.
This is a series of essays, sketches, and memoirs of his time at sea. If you’re not a Conrad fan, and / or if you don’t also love the sea, this may be dry or uninteresting. I liked it because I am a Conrad scholar and I also love the sea.
I was in the United States Coast Guard from 1992 to 1997 and in the reserve until 2001 when I transferred my commission to the Army National Guard. During my time in that sea service, I had almost three years sea duty and I learned and later taught navigational rules of the road to my fellow coasties and I enjoyed the teaching aspects of that job.
One situation I recall was when a vessel had ran aground. The Rules state that: A vessel aground shall give the bell signal and if required the gong signal prescribed in paragraph (g) of this Rule and shall, in addition, give three separate and distinct strokes on the bell immediately before and after the rapid ringing of the bell. A vessel aground may in addition sound an appropriate whistle signal.
So the prescribed signal for a vessel ran aground is:
Ding
ding
ding
dingdingdingdingdingdingdingding
Ding
ding
ding.
How did I help my students to learn and memorize this rule? I asked them to add this language to their studies to help them better recall this rule:
I
F**cked
Up!
Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey!
I
F**cked
Up!
I think they all got this one right on the test.
January 7, 2023
Mira, qué paz.
October 19, 2014
If the days of tall ships and sailing fascinate and excite you, or if you simply love beautiful masterpieces of words, read Mirror of the Sea. If you like both, you'll enjoy it even more. Conrad's compilation of articles about sailing and the sea is a wonderful look at so many aspects of life on the sea, and Conrad writes in such a vivid and incredible manner that what might otherwise seem mundane is fascinating. Part of what I loved about Mirror of the Sea is that the articles are short and easy to read. There is also a huge variety of forms of writing. Some of the articles are descriptive, some are analogies (the ones about the West and East Winds in particular), some are short stories and anecdotes from Conrad's experiences in sailing. Some of those are funny, and others are definitely "page turners". But overall what I loved most was how the love of sailing and the fascination of sea is so beautifully shown in Mirror of the Sea.
March 16, 2023
I could listen to most of this book of essays and musings about the sea and sailing ships and maritime life again and again. If the sea calls you, read or listen to this love story.
December 29, 2012
The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad was a compelling read. From love to death, Conrad expounds on it all, using his life at sea to relate to the human condition. I'm quickly learning that to really understand a book, you must first understand its author. And to do that, it is best to read even a little about that author and their life. You can do this before or after you read the book, but at the very least, look the person up on Wikipedia. It helps to give you an idea of where they're coming from with the book, what inspired them, and the course of current events during the time the book was written. I have also learned that reading a couple of works from the same author together can really give you a feel for them, and I highly recommend it.
That being said, I chose to read this after Heart of Darkness to get a better understanding of Conrad. Now this book has been disputed as not all completely factual, but I have no qualms with that. Unlike the critics, I believe that many untruths we use to describe our life are in fact, truth to us, because it is how we perceive ourselves and the situation.
In comparing this to Heart of Darkness, I actually enjoyed the way he wrote in this one better, maybe because it came from personal experience. It was eloquent and fanciful and I found myself actually comparing it to Cod: A biography of the fish that changed the world by Mark Kurlansky because much like fish, I really don't have an interest in the sea or what it's like to be a seaman. However, this book was so well written, I found myself mesmerized by the ocean and all its personalities. Conrad uses anchor's for metaphors and describes characters so real they could be standing next to you. His depiction of the battle between the winds was thrilling, the east and west being kings and the north and south being princes, with all bowing to the west wind in the end. He describes chilling encounters with storms and calm seas, with ships going down in both encounters. He rescues men from a sinking ship that are near death and describes the ships in the most majestic ways. He describes the ports of the cities as old friends with the sights and smells distinguishing one another distinctly. He relates to Ulysses, in that the Mediterranean is the only sea for adventurous voyages and he sees himself reflected in the Mirror of the Sea.
While this doesn't have enough points to be a classic, I believe it is pervasive beauty in all its sea splendor and should be an accompaniment to anything read by Conrad.
ClassicsDefined.com
That being said, I chose to read this after Heart of Darkness to get a better understanding of Conrad. Now this book has been disputed as not all completely factual, but I have no qualms with that. Unlike the critics, I believe that many untruths we use to describe our life are in fact, truth to us, because it is how we perceive ourselves and the situation.
In comparing this to Heart of Darkness, I actually enjoyed the way he wrote in this one better, maybe because it came from personal experience. It was eloquent and fanciful and I found myself actually comparing it to Cod: A biography of the fish that changed the world by Mark Kurlansky because much like fish, I really don't have an interest in the sea or what it's like to be a seaman. However, this book was so well written, I found myself mesmerized by the ocean and all its personalities. Conrad uses anchor's for metaphors and describes characters so real they could be standing next to you. His depiction of the battle between the winds was thrilling, the east and west being kings and the north and south being princes, with all bowing to the west wind in the end. He describes chilling encounters with storms and calm seas, with ships going down in both encounters. He rescues men from a sinking ship that are near death and describes the ships in the most majestic ways. He describes the ports of the cities as old friends with the sights and smells distinguishing one another distinctly. He relates to Ulysses, in that the Mediterranean is the only sea for adventurous voyages and he sees himself reflected in the Mirror of the Sea.
While this doesn't have enough points to be a classic, I believe it is pervasive beauty in all its sea splendor and should be an accompaniment to anything read by Conrad.
ClassicsDefined.com
January 11, 2011
OMG! Is there anybody outside of Shakespeare who is as much a magician of the English language as Conrad??? And it was his second language! Wow! As a sailor home on the sea, I have never read such poetic, accurate descriptions of "out there". The metaphors sometimes make me laugh out loud they are so beautiful.
December 19, 2021
his is a sort of omnium-gatherum of Joseph Conrad's impressions of over 20 years at sea, mostly on sailing ships. It contains elements of biography (Conrad's experiences as a smuggler of arms to the Carlists in Spain); history (a tribute to Admiral Horatio Nelson); and general anecdotes of sailing the Seven Seas. In fact, The Mirror of the Sea is an impressionistic but endlessly fascinating book. One of the reasons is the occasional transcendental stylistic passage, such as the following:
This is a book that deserves to be read by anyone who, like me, loves Conrad's work.
Those who from the heat of that battle sank together to their repose in the cool depths of the ocean would not understand the watchwords of our day, would gaze with amazed eyes at the engines of our strife. All passes, all changes: the animosity of peoples, the handling of fleets, the forms of ships; and even the sea itself seems to wear a different and diminished aspect from the sea of Lord Nelson’s day. In this ceaseless rush of shadows and shades, that, like the fantastic forms of clouds cast darkly upon the waters on a windy day, fly past us to fall headlong below the hard edge of an implacable horizon, we must turn to the national spirit, which, superior in its force and continuity to good and evil fortune, can alone give us the feeling of an enduring existence and of an invincible power against the fates.Particularly good is the chapter on the West winds.
This is a book that deserves to be read by anyone who, like me, loves Conrad's work.
June 26, 2013
A wonderful collection of essays by a man who obviously spent much of his time contemplating the significance of his experiences at sea and, fortunately, had an outstanding ability to convey those experiences and thoughts into words which would allow readers to appreciate them into posterity.
I’m in the process of reading all of Conrad’s books in the chronological order by which they were written, and have found that the more familiar I become with his style and the time-appropriate meanings of the words he uses, the more awed I am by his ability to evocatively describe setting, character, and drama. This book, by providing experiential background, adds a new dimension to that respect, as though the revelation of his own history and thinking puts in greater relief the already-memorable scenes in his early fiction.
Conrad personally experienced the transition of sea life from sailing under canvass to being pushed by steam-driven engines. So much of this book serves as a last tribute to a profession where one entrusted his fate to the seaworthiness (or personality, perhaps) of his vessel, the skill of his captain and shipmates, and the whims of wind and sea. He slips into attributing emotions to those vessels and elements, but does so in a way that suggests that this cannot be helped by any seaman who has been at their mercy.
I’m even more inspired to proceed with the twenty or so of his remaining books.
I’m in the process of reading all of Conrad’s books in the chronological order by which they were written, and have found that the more familiar I become with his style and the time-appropriate meanings of the words he uses, the more awed I am by his ability to evocatively describe setting, character, and drama. This book, by providing experiential background, adds a new dimension to that respect, as though the revelation of his own history and thinking puts in greater relief the already-memorable scenes in his early fiction.
Conrad personally experienced the transition of sea life from sailing under canvass to being pushed by steam-driven engines. So much of this book serves as a last tribute to a profession where one entrusted his fate to the seaworthiness (or personality, perhaps) of his vessel, the skill of his captain and shipmates, and the whims of wind and sea. He slips into attributing emotions to those vessels and elements, but does so in a way that suggests that this cannot be helped by any seaman who has been at their mercy.
I’m even more inspired to proceed with the twenty or so of his remaining books.
April 12, 2023
Excelente libro, de lo mejor del año.
Joseph Conrad no es un autor fácil porque usa un estilo sinuoso y ambiguo; además el lenguaje que usa es rebuscado, digamos que las palabras que escoge no las usa por su significado principal sino por uno secundario, lo que da más complejidad a su estilo; pero en este libro las características anteriores están atenuadas y hacen más fácil su lectura.
El libro es una carta de admiración al mar, a los barcos y las personas que los surcaban, pero como todo escritor genial supera los géneros y da una dimensión universal al tema, de hecho si cambiáramos la palabra "mar" del título y pusiéramos "vida" se ajustaría incluso más a lo conseguido por el autor. Es un libro que muestra una forma de ver la vida y enfrentarse a ella, llena de personajes típicos de Conrad , que se enfrentan a una realidad que les obliga a reevaluar y cuestionar el sistema de valores aceptados, lo que les da un toque legendario y cierto sentimiento de culpa. Conrad no es nada sensiblero ni cursi al describir el mar y su gente, en cambio muestra una gran sensibilidad por los personajes y sus pensamientos
Le doy cinco estrellas también a Javier Marías que ha realizado una gran traducción y ha añadido unas notas a pie de página escuetas pero que ayudan a comprender mejor la narración
Joseph Conrad no es un autor fácil porque usa un estilo sinuoso y ambiguo; además el lenguaje que usa es rebuscado, digamos que las palabras que escoge no las usa por su significado principal sino por uno secundario, lo que da más complejidad a su estilo; pero en este libro las características anteriores están atenuadas y hacen más fácil su lectura.
El libro es una carta de admiración al mar, a los barcos y las personas que los surcaban, pero como todo escritor genial supera los géneros y da una dimensión universal al tema, de hecho si cambiáramos la palabra "mar" del título y pusiéramos "vida" se ajustaría incluso más a lo conseguido por el autor. Es un libro que muestra una forma de ver la vida y enfrentarse a ella, llena de personajes típicos de Conrad , que se enfrentan a una realidad que les obliga a reevaluar y cuestionar el sistema de valores aceptados, lo que les da un toque legendario y cierto sentimiento de culpa. Conrad no es nada sensiblero ni cursi al describir el mar y su gente, en cambio muestra una gran sensibilidad por los personajes y sus pensamientos
Le doy cinco estrellas también a Javier Marías que ha realizado una gran traducción y ha añadido unas notas a pie de página escuetas pero que ayudan a comprender mejor la narración
January 19, 2021
This is probably the best introduction to Conrad for anyone not familiar with his writings. These tales read like autobiographical memoirs mostly and Conrad describes them as “impressions and memories.” He wonders how these personal tales will fare in a century, two or three, when the seafaring ways of his time are forgotten and replaced by newer ships such as the steamships in his time were replacing sailing ships. There is much ruminating in these reflections on the “immense and unfathomable” mirror of the sea. A great deal is covered here about sea life and Conrad’s experience in his twenty years on the sea except the last one which reflects on the career of Lord Nelson a Century earlier.
September 6, 2023
Kitabın isminin davetkâr güzelliğine rağmen, denizciliğin mesleki jargonunda boğulurum korkusuyla başlamıştım. Her sayfayla okur yelkenlerim öyle doldu ki kitap bitiverdi.
Ömer Bozkurt çevirisinin akıcılığı bunu yaptı diye düşünüyorum.
Yirmi yılını denizcilikle geçiren Joseph Conrad yaşadıklarını özellikle gemiler ve mürettebat üzerinden anlatmış. Ozansı bir tanıklık demişler kalemine ki çok haklılar. Gidişi ve dönüşü olay olan bir meslek bu meslek, karadakinin günlük evden çıkış ve dönüşünden çok farklı. Gidiş ve dönüş arasında özlem ve endişeli bekleyiş var çünkü… Hepsine rastgele!
….
“ … O yaşlı adam, dünyanın işinde kendine düşen küçük görevi etkin biçimde yerine getirmekteydi. Küçük mavi gözleri, tehlikeyi yüzlerce yarda uzaktan fark etmişti. Küçük kosterlerin gövdesinde bu tıknaz gövdeyi yıllarca taşımaktan ve rıhtımların kaplama taşları üzerinde acı içinde millerce yürümekten yorulmuş romatizmalı ayakları, gülünç bir felaketi zamanında önlemeyi başarmıştı.”
O yaşlı adam gibi dünyanın her gününü yaşanılır hale getiren her bir emekçiye bu paragraf, selam olsun.
Ömer Bozkurt çevirisinin akıcılığı bunu yaptı diye düşünüyorum.
Yirmi yılını denizcilikle geçiren Joseph Conrad yaşadıklarını özellikle gemiler ve mürettebat üzerinden anlatmış. Ozansı bir tanıklık demişler kalemine ki çok haklılar. Gidişi ve dönüşü olay olan bir meslek bu meslek, karadakinin günlük evden çıkış ve dönüşünden çok farklı. Gidiş ve dönüş arasında özlem ve endişeli bekleyiş var çünkü… Hepsine rastgele!
….
“ … O yaşlı adam, dünyanın işinde kendine düşen küçük görevi etkin biçimde yerine getirmekteydi. Küçük mavi gözleri, tehlikeyi yüzlerce yarda uzaktan fark etmişti. Küçük kosterlerin gövdesinde bu tıknaz gövdeyi yıllarca taşımaktan ve rıhtımların kaplama taşları üzerinde acı içinde millerce yürümekten yorulmuş romatizmalı ayakları, gülünç bir felaketi zamanında önlemeyi başarmıştı.”
O yaşlı adam gibi dünyanın her gününü yaşanılır hale getiren her bir emekçiye bu paragraf, selam olsun.
September 3, 2016
The person who wishes to understand Joseph Conrad’s views on politics and religion would do well to consider just how much time Conrad spent at sea before he turned to novel writing. Conrad spent half of the preceding twenty years on voyages, and to some extent his mind never really left that world.
Indeed, there is often a kind of duality of thinking in Conrad’s mind, reflecting the two great learning experiences of Conrad’s life – the time he spent at sea, tempered with the lessons he learned later when he gave up this life, and returned to living on land.
Politically Conrad always favoured strong leadership, and this reflects the view of a man used to living on a ship. Whilst The Mirror of the Sea contains critical passages about some of the captains he served under, Conrad remains respectful towards his former superior officers, and he never questions the right of a captain to make any decision he pleases. This view may be set against Conrad’s fear of tyrannical government and institutions that we see in works such as Nostromo and Under Western Eyes. What worked at sea did not always work so well on land.
Conrad’s works often stress the importance of solidarity, and portray seamen working together to achieve a common goal. This should not be mistaken for any kind of communist belief, and this solidarity always exists under the guidance of a firm leader. It is also tempered with a belief in self-reliance. The crew should be tough and hardy, and not exploiting the welfare and charity of other shipmates. We saw this in The Nigger of the Narcissus, with its implied opposition to the values of government welfare on land too.
Allied with this is Conrad’s Europeanism. He is open-minded to members of other nations. In The Mirror of the Sea, when he and his colleagues adopt the Royalist cause in one conflict, he is vague about whether he really supported it, or just chose a side for the sake of it. Later in the final paean to Nelson’s achievements that ends the book, he is careful to refer to the opposing side as adversaries and not enemies.
Alas, the famous opponent of colonialism was not able to extend this broad-mindedness to colonised peoples, and non-European characters in Conrad tend to be less well-developed or sympathetic. Women too play little part in this world. Conrad describes the masculine world of the sea where women can only feature as family members, often staying at home. Indeed, I am not sure if women feature in this book at all.
Conrad’s respect for solidarity among individuals of other nations is strangely at odds with the pessimistic view of human nature, both individually and socially, that he expresses throughout his fiction. In The Mirror of the Sea, the dangers of treachery are seen in the account of The Tremolino, the most exciting part of the book. In this section, Conrad describes how he was obliged to scuttle a boat after being betrayed to the authorities by an unworthy family member of one of the owners.
Turning to Conrad’s religious views, his outlook is notably sceptical, and he expresses no particular faith in any god in his fiction. Conrad’s world seems to be a godless and capricious place where suffering is inflicted on the characters by human depravity, and also by the natural elements.
This also reflects Conrad’s experience at sea, hemmed in by natural forces and living for months in a world away from any obvious divine presence. The hostility of the natural elements comes out in several passages in this book, when he talks of the enmity seamen feel towards the sea, and he describes the fierceness of the various winds.
While Conrad may not be religious, there is a certain amount of superstitiousness in his work, and this perhaps reflects the world of the man at sea, where he is constantly at the mercy of luck, and begins to anthropomorphise the elements. Hence Conrad speaks about ships and the winds as if they are sentient elements who punish mankind, arbitrarily in the case of the winds and deservedly in the case of the ships. It is not clear how far Conrad believes this himself, and how far he is using these notions to write imaginative prose.
The imagination that Conrad employs throughout his writing is another instance of his duality. The lesson that he seems to have learned from his time at sea is that imagination is a bad thing, and that a sensible person devotes themselves to being industrious and hard-working. Nonetheless Conrad himself is a very sensitive and imaginative writer. Perhaps Conrad was aware of the dangers of the imaginative temperament, and he did have one or two breakdowns during his life.
The Mirror of the Sea began life as a series of smaller sketches that Conrad wrote elsewhere and then pulled together into one book. Conrad makes great claims for their autobiographical importance. However, personal details are sketchy and unreliable. We can glean some of Conrad’s personal opinions, and certainly some of his experiences of the sea, but it is more like a love letter concerning his time at sea.
The structure is very loose, but sections of the book deal in different aspects of sea life – ship departures and arrivals, the nature of ships, the sea, the winds, ports, Conrad’s ownership of The Tremolino and a final dedication to Nelson.
In spite of speaking highly of them in his Preface, Conrad was privately dismissive of the sketches as hackwork. He may have underestimated their worth here. There are some interesting anecdotes and some good descriptions, though the quality is variable, and the passages relating to the winds and Nelson are somewhat dull.
Notably this lack of enthusiasm has carried across to the public too, and The Mirror of the Sea does not even merit its own Wikipedia page. I find it hard to get excited by the book either. It often feels like getting the descriptive framework of a great Conrad novel without having the actual story to go with it. However, it is not without interest, and provides some useful background to the inspirations and loves of its author.
Indeed, there is often a kind of duality of thinking in Conrad’s mind, reflecting the two great learning experiences of Conrad’s life – the time he spent at sea, tempered with the lessons he learned later when he gave up this life, and returned to living on land.
Politically Conrad always favoured strong leadership, and this reflects the view of a man used to living on a ship. Whilst The Mirror of the Sea contains critical passages about some of the captains he served under, Conrad remains respectful towards his former superior officers, and he never questions the right of a captain to make any decision he pleases. This view may be set against Conrad’s fear of tyrannical government and institutions that we see in works such as Nostromo and Under Western Eyes. What worked at sea did not always work so well on land.
Conrad’s works often stress the importance of solidarity, and portray seamen working together to achieve a common goal. This should not be mistaken for any kind of communist belief, and this solidarity always exists under the guidance of a firm leader. It is also tempered with a belief in self-reliance. The crew should be tough and hardy, and not exploiting the welfare and charity of other shipmates. We saw this in The Nigger of the Narcissus, with its implied opposition to the values of government welfare on land too.
Allied with this is Conrad’s Europeanism. He is open-minded to members of other nations. In The Mirror of the Sea, when he and his colleagues adopt the Royalist cause in one conflict, he is vague about whether he really supported it, or just chose a side for the sake of it. Later in the final paean to Nelson’s achievements that ends the book, he is careful to refer to the opposing side as adversaries and not enemies.
Alas, the famous opponent of colonialism was not able to extend this broad-mindedness to colonised peoples, and non-European characters in Conrad tend to be less well-developed or sympathetic. Women too play little part in this world. Conrad describes the masculine world of the sea where women can only feature as family members, often staying at home. Indeed, I am not sure if women feature in this book at all.
Conrad’s respect for solidarity among individuals of other nations is strangely at odds with the pessimistic view of human nature, both individually and socially, that he expresses throughout his fiction. In The Mirror of the Sea, the dangers of treachery are seen in the account of The Tremolino, the most exciting part of the book. In this section, Conrad describes how he was obliged to scuttle a boat after being betrayed to the authorities by an unworthy family member of one of the owners.
Turning to Conrad’s religious views, his outlook is notably sceptical, and he expresses no particular faith in any god in his fiction. Conrad’s world seems to be a godless and capricious place where suffering is inflicted on the characters by human depravity, and also by the natural elements.
This also reflects Conrad’s experience at sea, hemmed in by natural forces and living for months in a world away from any obvious divine presence. The hostility of the natural elements comes out in several passages in this book, when he talks of the enmity seamen feel towards the sea, and he describes the fierceness of the various winds.
While Conrad may not be religious, there is a certain amount of superstitiousness in his work, and this perhaps reflects the world of the man at sea, where he is constantly at the mercy of luck, and begins to anthropomorphise the elements. Hence Conrad speaks about ships and the winds as if they are sentient elements who punish mankind, arbitrarily in the case of the winds and deservedly in the case of the ships. It is not clear how far Conrad believes this himself, and how far he is using these notions to write imaginative prose.
The imagination that Conrad employs throughout his writing is another instance of his duality. The lesson that he seems to have learned from his time at sea is that imagination is a bad thing, and that a sensible person devotes themselves to being industrious and hard-working. Nonetheless Conrad himself is a very sensitive and imaginative writer. Perhaps Conrad was aware of the dangers of the imaginative temperament, and he did have one or two breakdowns during his life.
The Mirror of the Sea began life as a series of smaller sketches that Conrad wrote elsewhere and then pulled together into one book. Conrad makes great claims for their autobiographical importance. However, personal details are sketchy and unreliable. We can glean some of Conrad’s personal opinions, and certainly some of his experiences of the sea, but it is more like a love letter concerning his time at sea.
The structure is very loose, but sections of the book deal in different aspects of sea life – ship departures and arrivals, the nature of ships, the sea, the winds, ports, Conrad’s ownership of The Tremolino and a final dedication to Nelson.
In spite of speaking highly of them in his Preface, Conrad was privately dismissive of the sketches as hackwork. He may have underestimated their worth here. There are some interesting anecdotes and some good descriptions, though the quality is variable, and the passages relating to the winds and Nelson are somewhat dull.
Notably this lack of enthusiasm has carried across to the public too, and The Mirror of the Sea does not even merit its own Wikipedia page. I find it hard to get excited by the book either. It often feels like getting the descriptive framework of a great Conrad novel without having the actual story to go with it. However, it is not without interest, and provides some useful background to the inspirations and loves of its author.
February 8, 2019
Thoroughly enjoyable as a memoir of a career on the sea which doubles as a writer's opportunity for reflection on broader themes.
April 21, 2020
Quite unexpectedly Heart of Darkness has got me hooked on Joseph Conrad. Since I didn’t have it in my heart to venture on another lengthy voyage with him, The Mirror of the Sea was promptly picked as the next best thing. This collection comprises 15 of the Conrad’s autobiographical essays first published in different magazines over the course of two years, so… yes, it’s patchy. Patchy, but also brilliant, intimate and just as captivating as the best examples of nautical fiction can be.
Landfalls and departures become the metaphor for life and death, where the latter is the ultimate and immediate union of both, anchors stand for the emblems of hope, the heart-wrenching sadness seeps through the Overdue and Missing headlines in “Shipping Intelligence”. Even the winds are caught by Conrad and drawn out as rulers of East and West, ruthless and unrepentant. There are, of course, people, idle and death-defying in their determination to become the new Ulysses, but it’s the ships that make the stories “work”.
The ships that are lying moored in some of the older docks of London as a flock of swans kept in the flooded backyard of grim tenement houses. The clippers, the barques and the balancelles escaping the deadly gale or getting devoured by the ancient sea, - they are the ones that have claimed and secured the spotlight here.
The last story, aptly named The Heroic Age, has now ended, leaving the vivid descriptions of masts at the harbour, echoed years later by paintings in thick impasto
Landfalls and departures become the metaphor for life and death, where the latter is the ultimate and immediate union of both, anchors stand for the emblems of hope, the heart-wrenching sadness seeps through the Overdue and Missing headlines in “Shipping Intelligence”. Even the winds are caught by Conrad and drawn out as rulers of East and West, ruthless and unrepentant. There are, of course, people, idle and death-defying in their determination to become the new Ulysses, but it’s the ships that make the stories “work”.
The ships that are lying moored in some of the older docks of London as a flock of swans kept in the flooded backyard of grim tenement houses. The clippers, the barques and the balancelles escaping the deadly gale or getting devoured by the ancient sea, - they are the ones that have claimed and secured the spotlight here.
The last story, aptly named The Heroic Age, has now ended, leaving the vivid descriptions of masts at the harbour, echoed years later by paintings in thick impasto
In fact, love is rare—the love of men, of things, of ideas, the love of perfected skill. For love is the enemy of haste; it takes count of passing days, of men who pass away, of a fine art matured slowly in the course of years and doomed in a short time to pass away too, and be no more. Love and regret go hand in hand in this world of changes swifter than the shifting of the clouds reflected in the mirror of the sea.
October 2, 2017
A memoir, not a novel, of Conrad's early life spent on the sea with the British merchant marine. There are rememberances of joyful and terrifying times, much told wistfully as Conrad lived to see the transition to the less-romantic age of steamships. Four stars, not five, as its not one of his novels, but Conrad is Conrad, so the writing is still wonderful.
"But one could see at a glance that men and ships were never hustled there. They were so quiet that, remembering them well, one comes to doubt that they ever existed - places of repose for tired ships to dream in, places of meditation rather than work, where wicked ships- - the cranky, the lazy, the wet, the bad sea boats, the wild steerers, the capricious, the pig-headed, the generally ungovernable - would have full leisure to take count and repent of their sins, sorrowful and naked, with their rent garments of sailcloths stripped off them, and with the dust and ashes of the London atmosphere upon their mastheads."
"But one could see at a glance that men and ships were never hustled there. They were so quiet that, remembering them well, one comes to doubt that they ever existed - places of repose for tired ships to dream in, places of meditation rather than work, where wicked ships- - the cranky, the lazy, the wet, the bad sea boats, the wild steerers, the capricious, the pig-headed, the generally ungovernable - would have full leisure to take count and repent of their sins, sorrowful and naked, with their rent garments of sailcloths stripped off them, and with the dust and ashes of the London atmosphere upon their mastheads."
March 25, 2020
Autobiographically inclined best describes the vignettes Conrad presents in this volume. Several of them form an arc of connected stories. All are descriptive of the ocean, the age of sail, and the men who served aboard the ships of that era. Conrad writes most majestically of the end of the age of sail, contrasting the emotional heart of sailing ships with the cold impersonal nature he saw accompanying the age of steam. So, it's no coincidence that the last pages of the book focus on Lord Nelson, the most romantic of British heroes coming out of that age.
There is something else. This volume should be read after perusing most of the rest of Conrad's work. That is, if you want to find hints and clues to the storylines he had already written by 1906 and was to write soon thereafter. For they are secreted away here, sometimes in a few lines, often in imagery, and frequently in plot.
There is something else. This volume should be read after perusing most of the rest of Conrad's work. That is, if you want to find hints and clues to the storylines he had already written by 1906 and was to write soon thereafter. For they are secreted away here, sometimes in a few lines, often in imagery, and frequently in plot.
Read
April 25, 2021Incorporo en este blog las relecturas de clásicos que hago paralelamente a nuevos que van apareciendo porque, cada vez más,considero que es una de las actividades que todo lector debe hacer y de las más gratificantes pues siempre encuentra algo nuevo y siempre disfruta el doble que la primera vez que las leo, sea porque lleva más bagage literario, sea porque retornar a los clásicos es volver a disfrutar de la perfección. En cualquier caso yo no puedo hacer una crítica a esta obra porque me parece indigno para su autor. Sólo diré que la he leído en la versión traducida y corregida por Javier Marías y la he disfrutado aún más que la primera vez. El amor, la personificación del mar y los barcos e, incluso, esos artículos de opinión que recoge el libro que nos traen ecos de otros grandes articulistas de la actualidad merecen la pena volver a repasarse y disfrutarse.
June 4, 2012
Autobiographical essays by Conrad...
As stated in the Author’s Note to this work:
”Beyond the line of the sea horizon the world for me did not exist….Within these pages I make a full confession not of my sins but of my emotions. It is the best tribute my piety can offer to the ultimate shapers of my character, convictions, and, in a sense, destiny—to the imperishable sea, to the ships that are no more, and to the simple men who have had their day.”
As stated in the Author’s Note to this work:
”Beyond the line of the sea horizon the world for me did not exist….Within these pages I make a full confession not of my sins but of my emotions. It is the best tribute my piety can offer to the ultimate shapers of my character, convictions, and, in a sense, destiny—to the imperishable sea, to the ships that are no more, and to the simple men who have had their day.”
April 24, 2022
Memoar? - då tänkte jag att Conrad kanske skulle nämna sina texters tillkomst, sitt författarskap. Men nej. Inte ett ord. Men vad gör det, Det här är en fantastisk bok.
Conrad gör en djupdykning i allt som rör sjömanslivet, han förklarar allt som vi landkrabbor aldrig fattat, inklusive språkbruk vi missförstått. Conrads känsla för segelskeppen som levande väsen, och sjömanskapets speciella livsvillkor, det mäktig havet, lindarna, kustlinjer och floder, allt väcker en närmast magisk närvarokänsla i mig. Människans litenhet i havets närhet.
Men i slutet bryts allt abrupt av ett tidig, ja Conrads första erfarenhet till havs, på 'Tremolino', då i Medelhavet, tydligen någon typ av smuggling till-från Marseille, även om inte det är det viktigaste. Det är den unga idealistiske Conrads oerfarenhet och första brustna illusioner, som både väcker humor och drama. Vilket gör att texten bryter av från övriga mer generella minnen.
Sluttexten 'The Heroic Age', rör dock inte Conrad, utan det Brittiska krigsflottan och i synnerhet Lord Nelson. Den texten är onödig, bryter av för mycket från boken som 'Memoar'. Men det här är en bok att läsa och läsa om, när man vill komma i stämning vad gäller havet. Och vid omläsning vet man när det är dags att sluta läsa. Det är bara de sista tio sidorna.
Conrad gör en djupdykning i allt som rör sjömanslivet, han förklarar allt som vi landkrabbor aldrig fattat, inklusive språkbruk vi missförstått. Conrads känsla för segelskeppen som levande väsen, och sjömanskapets speciella livsvillkor, det mäktig havet, lindarna, kustlinjer och floder, allt väcker en närmast magisk närvarokänsla i mig. Människans litenhet i havets närhet.
Men i slutet bryts allt abrupt av ett tidig, ja Conrads första erfarenhet till havs, på 'Tremolino', då i Medelhavet, tydligen någon typ av smuggling till-från Marseille, även om inte det är det viktigaste. Det är den unga idealistiske Conrads oerfarenhet och första brustna illusioner, som både väcker humor och drama. Vilket gör att texten bryter av från övriga mer generella minnen.
Sluttexten 'The Heroic Age', rör dock inte Conrad, utan det Brittiska krigsflottan och i synnerhet Lord Nelson. Den texten är onödig, bryter av för mycket från boken som 'Memoar'. Men det här är en bok att läsa och läsa om, när man vill komma i stämning vad gäller havet. Och vid omläsning vet man när det är dags att sluta läsa. Det är bara de sista tio sidorna.
September 19, 2021
I think I've read widely enough now to declare that Joseph Conrad is, in my opinion, the best writer of all time. Not that he wrote my favourite books of all time - none of them QUITE get there for me - but his writing is like heaven on a page. I really don't care about the seafaring life, but when he writes about it, I suddenly care about the seafaring life. That's all that this book really is, and I LOVE IT. It's sort of a memoir, but more of a selection of anecdotes and musings on his love affair with the sea, and you can feel his deep, passionate love for ships, for sailing, for open water, for nature, and for the human race in every single gorgeous sentence.
And his sketches! Among all his sketches of seascapes, landscapes, and details of nature are two sketches of babies that really made me fall in love with the man. If those were portraits he sketched of his sons, I fully believe he was a loving, devoted father, because those babies are sketched with way more care and tenderness than any of his other sketches, the one's sadness and the other's playfulness are palpable which shows that the artist was very familiar with and understanding of their moods, and they're just so darn cute that he clearly took great pride in them. I just love him so much, okay? 😭
And his sketches! Among all his sketches of seascapes, landscapes, and details of nature are two sketches of babies that really made me fall in love with the man. If those were portraits he sketched of his sons, I fully believe he was a loving, devoted father, because those babies are sketched with way more care and tenderness than any of his other sketches, the one's sadness and the other's playfulness are palpable which shows that the artist was very familiar with and understanding of their moods, and they're just so darn cute that he clearly took great pride in them. I just love him so much, okay? 😭
March 1, 2024
A series of stories about life on the sea and the camaraderie between the different elements of sea-life and the sailors. Each story is so life-like that you could swear he lived them all. It does show, however, that the man lived at sea, at least for a while.
Every story has either a poetic quality, a tragic side or something epic and breathtaking.
Joseph Conrad is now part of my favorite writers. Even when translated, his style comes through in all the written stories.
Every story has either a poetic quality, a tragic side or something epic and breathtaking.
Joseph Conrad is now part of my favorite writers. Even when translated, his style comes through in all the written stories.
November 30, 2022
Listened to the audiobook. Joseph Conrad is possibly the best descriptive writer this world has produced. He is a master story teller and his grasp of the English language is here for all of us land lubbers. What a life he had.
October 20, 2019
Een nostalgisch boek van iemand die zielsveel van houten schepen hield .... hoe anders dan zijn 'hart der duisternis' ......
October 17, 2023
Nelle fesserie scritte per far soldi lo specchio della complessità di Conrad
Solitamente sono critico nei confronti della modifica dei titoli originali di romanzi e libri in genere, soprattutto se di autori defunti, considerandoli una manipolazione indebita della loro volontà, anche se sono consapevole che a volte – si pensi ad esempio a titoli che contengano un gioco di parole intraducibile – la variazione si rende necessaria.
Nel caso di questo volume, l’aver tradotto letteralmente il titolo originale The Mirror of the Sea ha paradossalmente comportato una sorta di sua diminuzione di pertinenza, cosa di cui è peraltro ben conscio il curatore Franco Marenco, in quanto la parola inglese mirror ha, oltre al significato di specchio come superficie liscia riflettente, anche un suo significato giornalistico assente in italiano – testimoniato dal fatto che compare nelle testate di alcuni quotidiani - che attiene alla (presunta) oggettività del contenuto. Ne risulta che il titolo italiano non rende con esattezza la duplicità di significato dell’originale, che fa riferimento sia al mare come specchio delle ambizioni umane sia all’origine giornalistica degli scritti in esso contenuti. Del resto non ho trovato un termine che potesse tradurre correttamente quel Mirror, quindi non resta che approvare la scelta fatta da Marenco.
Conrad pubblicò The Mirror of the Sea nell’ottobre 1906, riunendovi tredici articoli che aveva scritto per alcune riviste e quotidiani nei due anni precedenti e aggiungendovi due testi inediti. Non si tratta di racconti veri e propri, ma di memories and impressions, come recita il sottotitolo di alcune edizioni posteriori, di ricordi della vita marinaresca dell’autore volti alla rievocazione della marineria mercantile a vela, a quel tempo ormai in via di definitiva scomparsa, soppiantata inesorabilmente dall’avvento delle navi a vapore, i piroscafi.
Come noto, Conrad era stato marinaio per vent’anni, dal 1874 al 1894, imbarcandosi su navi mercantili, per la maggior parte a vela, e compiendo numerose traversate oceaniche, dapprima come marinaio, quindi come ufficiale di bordo e capitano. Questa esperienza professionale e di vita così totalizzante, sia per la prolungata condizione di solitudine e di isolamento del marinaio, sia per il confronto quotidiano con un elemento primigenio come il mare, sia infine per la possibilità di conoscere terre lontane e toccare con mano il lato oscuro del colonialismo, fu decisiva per la formazione della poetica del futuro scrittore, che iniziò a scrivere il suo primo romanzo, La follia di Almayer, praticamente subito dopo aver appeso al chiodo il cappello di capitano.
Nei primi anni del ‘900 Conrad ha già alle spalle alcuni dei suoi capolavori, come Un reietto delle isole, Cuore di Tenebra, Lord Jim, e sta scrivendo Nostromo; il successo editoriale però non gli ha arriso, ed egli è stato classificato dalla critica come uno scrittore di genere, nomea che lo accompagnerà per il resto della vita e che gli darà non poco fastidio; inoltre il suo inglese letterario e ricercato, per lui terza lingua dopo il polacco e il francese, non piace molto. Le sue finanze non sono quindi floride, e per rimpinguarle deve collaborare a periodici letterari e non, scrivendo articoli ovviamente di ambito marinaresco, per un compenso di cinque ghinee ogni mille parole. La bella prefazione di Franco Marenco, da leggersi con attenzione perché a mio avviso svela il cuore segreto del volume, informa il lettore che Conrad dedicava a queste fesserie - come le definiva – le ore notturne, dettando tremila parole in quattro ore all’amico Ford Madox Ford, mentre riservava alla scrittura dei romanzi le ore del giorno. Per inciso quello tra Conrad e Ford, a mio avviso uno dei più importanti scrittori del primo ‘900 britannico, non è stata solo un’amicizia, ma un vero e proprio sodalizio letterario che ha portato alla scrittura a quattro mani di alcune importanti opere.
The Mirror of the Sea è dunque uno scritto minore di Conrad, poco più di una collazione di articoli giornalistici dedicati ad argomenti a prima vista molto tecnici e potenzialmente aridi, e ad una lettura superficiale pare risentire parecchio di questo suo vizio d’origine. Le sue pagine tra l’altro abbondano di termini marinareschi poco conosciuti dai non addetti ai lavori, tanto che il curatore si è sentito in dovere di integrare il testo con un ampio Glossario dei termini marinari. Si tratta tuttavia di un’opera che, pur con i suoi limiti strutturali, ci aiuta a capire meglio la poetica dello scrittore, a collocarla in quella fase molto particolare della storia europea che vedeva il tramonto dell’ottimismo positivista imperante nella seconda metà dell’ottocento, espresso letterariamente dal naturalismo nelle sue varie declinazioni nazionali, e i primi segni della sua crisi, che avrebbe portato ai vari modernismi. In Gran Bretagna simbolicamente questo passaggio è segnato dalla morte della Regina Vittoria, avvenuta nel 1901, quindi emblematicamente pochi anni dopo l’esordio di Conrad, autore che non a caso, nella imperante smania di catalogazione critica, viene definito vuoi postimpressionista vuoi premodernista.
Come giustamente fa notare Marenco, c’è in molti dei capitoli che compongono Lo specchio del mare una buona dose di impressionismo, come del resto sottolineato anche dal suo sottotitolo. Celebre è peraltro la prefazione a Il negro del Narcissus, romanzo del 1897, nella quale Conrad si professa convintamente impressionista e di cui ritengo opportuno riportare un paio di passi: ”L’arte stessa può venir definita come un deciso tentativo di rendere il livello più elevato di giustizia all’universo visibile, portando alla luce la verità, molteplice e una, che sottende ogni sua espressione. È un tentativo di trovare nelle sue forme, nei suoi colori, nella sua luce, nelle sue ombre, nei vari aspetti della materia e nei fatti della vita, cosa sia fondamentale, cosa sia duraturo ed essenziale – l’unica loro qualità illuminante e convincente – la verità stessa della loro esistenza. […] L’obiettivo che sto cercando di raggiungere è di permettervi, usando il potere della parola scritta, di udire, di sentire e soprattutto di vedere. Questo – e nient’altro. Ed è tutto”.
L’impressionismo, anche di maniera, è in The Mirror of the Sea chiaramente funzionale ad attrarre ed emozionare il lettore, ed emerge soprattutto nelle descrizioni delle navi. Come detto, Conrad si riferisce in particolare ai mercantili a vela, ormai quasi scomparsi dalle banchine dei moli ma che hanno costituito, tra l’altro, una delle architravi della potenza commerciale dell’impero. Ecco quindi che l’oggetto-nave viene idealizzato, caratterizzandolo attraverso la sua forma - così leggiadramente diversa da quella pesante dei piroscafi - i suoi colori, le fantasmagoriche alberature e velature, il silenzio che accompagna la navigazione e il sibilo di cavi ed alberi durante una tempesta. Le navi ormeggiate nei docks lungo il Tamigi divengono cigni, temporaneamente prigionieri in attesa di poter aprire di nuovo le ali/vele. Spesso le navi vengono umanizzate, ed in particolare femminilizzate: a loro si deve il rispetto e l’amore che si deve ad una donna, si devono saper trattare, perché sono volubili, anche se mai infedeli (tema, quello della nave-femmina, che verrà ripreso anche in La linea d’ombra). Hanno poi una loro misteriosa anima, per cui esistono navi maneggevoli e navi ingovernabili, navi veloci e navi lente, e ciò in larga parte indipendentemente da fattori oggettivi derivanti dalla loro costruzione. Ogni nave a vela è quindi, secondo Conrad, un organismo complesso, dotato di una specifica personalità, che il capitano, gli ufficiali di bordo e i marinai devono capire ed amare per condurla al meglio. La nave a vela, inoltre, usa il vento, e questo fa della navigazione una sorta di sfida continua agli elementi naturali, che a volte sono al servizio della nave e altre volte la minacciano: le rotte stesse erano fortemente condizionate dalla ricerca dei venti migliori. Tutto questo è finito con l’avvento della navigazione a vapore: non è solo una questione di forma degli scafi, ma è cambiato il rapporto stesso della nave e dell’equipaggio con il mare, essendo molto meno diretto. Così il piroscafo avanza, nell’incessante clangore dei suoi motori e avvolto da un fumo nero, su una superficie che assomiglia ad una anonima strada.
Schiettamente impressionistiche sono anche molte delle descrizioni del mare, affidate a toni di colore e ai rumori prodotti dallo sciabordio delle onde, e quelle delle tempeste, con gli schianti del tuono, il vento che mugghia tra il sartiame e gli scrosci improvvisi di pioggia. Forse il culmine di questo modo di descrivere Conrad lo tocca nel capitolo Il fiume fedele: nella risalita dall’estuario del Tamigi ai docks di Londra sembra proprio di vedere, tracciate come in un quadro impressionista, il brulicare delle attività umane, il viavai delle navi e il rosso annerito dal carbone degli edifici industriali e commerciali che si affacciano sul fiume.
Conrad insomma riesce da par suo a evocare atmosfere, a rendere attraente e misterioso il mondo del commercio marittimo, a beneficio del pubblico piccolo-borghese delle riviste su cui pubblicava, cui non manca, lui britannico d’adozione, di trasmettere l’orgoglio nazionalistico della potenza marittima imperiale, in particolare nell’ultimo dei capitoli, L’età eroica, originariamente pubblicato in occasione del centenario della morte di Nelson, e che onestamente rappresenta il punto meno alto dell’opera.
Se fosse tutto qui saremmo quindi di fronte ad una letteratura ammiccante e commerciale, che si avvale di un collaudato ed ottocentesco apparato lessicale per trasformare quelli che avrebbero potuto essere piatti resoconti di esperienze marittime e commerciali nell’epopea celebrativa della marineria a vela britannica, nel suo funerale in pompa magna.
Ma siamo di fronte ad uno dei più grandi scrittori della nostra epoca, ed il Conrad che di notte detta le sue fesserie non può contrapporsi al Conrad che di giorno scrive Nostromo. Ed ecco quindi che quest’ultimo riappare, con la potenza della sua visione cupa e novecentesca del mondo, anche nelle pagine di questi scritti d’occasione. Riappare prepotentemente in particolar in due capitoli del libro.
Il primo si intitola Iniziazione, ed inizia, come altri, con una lunga professione d’amore per le navi a vela anche qui femminilizzate, cui però viene subito contrapposto un sentimento di timore e quasi di odio verso il mare, la cui umanizzazione maschile passa attraverso termini quali mai amico dell’uomo, pericoloso istigatore di ambizioni universali, sino al grido: Stolto è colui - uomo o popolo, - che confidando nell’amicizia del mare, trascura la forza e l’astuzia della sua mano destra! […] l’oceano non ha compassione, non fede, non legge, non memoria”. E ancora, poco più avanti: ”Il mare – è una verità da confessare – non conosce generosità. Nessuno sfoggio di qualità virili – coraggio, ardimento, saldezza, lealtà – a quanto si sa, ha mai scalfito la sua irresponsabile consapevolezza del potere. […] Al giorno d’oggi, come sempre, è pronto a ingannare e a tradire, a schiantare e ad affogare l’incorreggibile ottimismo di uomini che, spalleggiati dalla fedeltà delle navi, tentano di strappargli la fortuna della loro casa, il dominio del loro mondo o soltanto un��elemosina di cibo per la loro fame. È qui che Conrad definisce il mare come uno specchio, che non conserva impronte delle passioni dell’uomo, del suo amore di rapina e di gloria, di avventura e di pericolo, che scorrono e svaniscono su di esso come immagini riflesse.
Segue il racconto dell’iniziazione marinaresca di Conrad, avvenuta nel momento in cui, giovane primo ufficiale, recupera in una splendida giornata nove superstiti dal relitto di un brigantino danese da giorni alla deriva e sul punto di affondare. Lì comprende cosa sia veramente il mare, la sua crudeltà ed infedeltà e come tutte le sue idealizzazioni letterarie da parte di scrittori cui ”poco importa al mondo [...] se non il ritmo dei propri versi e la cadenza delle proprie frasi” siano irrimediabilmente false. Al di là della forma del racconto, conradianamente splendida, è a mio avviso fortemente emblematico, del tutto antivittoriano e novecentesco, che l’iniziazione al mare, e quindi alla vita, venga fatta coincidere con un naufragio, con la fine di illusioni tardoromantiche.
L’altro capitolo che emerge a mio avviso nella raccolta è Il Tremolino, uno dei due inediti inseriti da Conrad nel volume. Si tratta di un vero e proprio racconto di ispirazione autobiografica, ambientato negli anni in cui, tra il 1876 e il 1878, il ventenne Conrad visse a Marsiglia, periodo di cui si sa poco. Nel racconto egli è coinvolto nella terza guerra carlista spagnola, e a bordo di una piccola imbarcazione, il Tremolino appunto, partecipa al trasporto di armi per i ribelli filoborbonici in Catalogna. Nel bellissimo racconto, denso di pathos e tragedia umana e marinaresca, nel quale molti sono i rimandi all’Odissea omerica, emerge la figura di Dominic Cervoni, un trafficante corso amico di Conrad che ispirò alcuni personaggi dei suoi romanzi, tra i quali il Giovanni Battista Fidanza di Nostromo.
Se queste sono le mie considerazioni originali derivanti dalla lettura de Lo specchio del mare devo accennare alla profonda analisi compiuta da Franco Marenco, che condivido in pieno.
Secondo la sua lettura, il fatto che Conrad chiami arte bella la marineria a vela e la relativa cantieristica, nelle quali il mestiere e la perizia assumevano un carattere di simbiosi con i loro strumenti e prodotti (le navi) e comportavano un rapporto umanizzato con gli elementi naturali, rimanda ad una modernissima critica alla specializzazione e parcellizzazione della tecnica, di cui sono emblema in ambito marinaresco i piroscafi. Anche l’insistenza sull’uso corretto dei termini marinareschi, cui l’autore dedica puntigliose pagine nei primi capitoli, è indice di come la marineria a vela rappresenti una delle espressioni di un sapere organico ed antico, che nel corso dei secoli ha sviluppato un suo preciso linguaggio cui è necessario fare riferimento (oltre che, dico io, manifestazione di quell’ossessione per la giusta parola di derivazione flaubertiana che caratterizza tutta l’opera di Conrad). Lo scrittore non compie quindi una operazione nostalgica e celebrativa di un mondo scomparso, ma lo utilizza per costruire una sua elegia, o meglio una palinodia, che inevitabilmente rimanda alla crisi generale cui la fiducia nel progresso tecnico sta portando l’umanità.
Se dunque ad una prima lettura Lo specchio del mare può apparire una raccolta di testi utilitaristici, di fesserie scritte per far soldi, ad un esame più attento anche in essi emerge, e non potrebbe essere che così, il grande scrittore che della complessità ha fatto la sua cifra narrativa.
Solitamente sono critico nei confronti della modifica dei titoli originali di romanzi e libri in genere, soprattutto se di autori defunti, considerandoli una manipolazione indebita della loro volontà, anche se sono consapevole che a volte – si pensi ad esempio a titoli che contengano un gioco di parole intraducibile – la variazione si rende necessaria.
Nel caso di questo volume, l’aver tradotto letteralmente il titolo originale The Mirror of the Sea ha paradossalmente comportato una sorta di sua diminuzione di pertinenza, cosa di cui è peraltro ben conscio il curatore Franco Marenco, in quanto la parola inglese mirror ha, oltre al significato di specchio come superficie liscia riflettente, anche un suo significato giornalistico assente in italiano – testimoniato dal fatto che compare nelle testate di alcuni quotidiani - che attiene alla (presunta) oggettività del contenuto. Ne risulta che il titolo italiano non rende con esattezza la duplicità di significato dell’originale, che fa riferimento sia al mare come specchio delle ambizioni umane sia all’origine giornalistica degli scritti in esso contenuti. Del resto non ho trovato un termine che potesse tradurre correttamente quel Mirror, quindi non resta che approvare la scelta fatta da Marenco.
Conrad pubblicò The Mirror of the Sea nell’ottobre 1906, riunendovi tredici articoli che aveva scritto per alcune riviste e quotidiani nei due anni precedenti e aggiungendovi due testi inediti. Non si tratta di racconti veri e propri, ma di memories and impressions, come recita il sottotitolo di alcune edizioni posteriori, di ricordi della vita marinaresca dell’autore volti alla rievocazione della marineria mercantile a vela, a quel tempo ormai in via di definitiva scomparsa, soppiantata inesorabilmente dall’avvento delle navi a vapore, i piroscafi.
Come noto, Conrad era stato marinaio per vent’anni, dal 1874 al 1894, imbarcandosi su navi mercantili, per la maggior parte a vela, e compiendo numerose traversate oceaniche, dapprima come marinaio, quindi come ufficiale di bordo e capitano. Questa esperienza professionale e di vita così totalizzante, sia per la prolungata condizione di solitudine e di isolamento del marinaio, sia per il confronto quotidiano con un elemento primigenio come il mare, sia infine per la possibilità di conoscere terre lontane e toccare con mano il lato oscuro del colonialismo, fu decisiva per la formazione della poetica del futuro scrittore, che iniziò a scrivere il suo primo romanzo, La follia di Almayer, praticamente subito dopo aver appeso al chiodo il cappello di capitano.
Nei primi anni del ‘900 Conrad ha già alle spalle alcuni dei suoi capolavori, come Un reietto delle isole, Cuore di Tenebra, Lord Jim, e sta scrivendo Nostromo; il successo editoriale però non gli ha arriso, ed egli è stato classificato dalla critica come uno scrittore di genere, nomea che lo accompagnerà per il resto della vita e che gli darà non poco fastidio; inoltre il suo inglese letterario e ricercato, per lui terza lingua dopo il polacco e il francese, non piace molto. Le sue finanze non sono quindi floride, e per rimpinguarle deve collaborare a periodici letterari e non, scrivendo articoli ovviamente di ambito marinaresco, per un compenso di cinque ghinee ogni mille parole. La bella prefazione di Franco Marenco, da leggersi con attenzione perché a mio avviso svela il cuore segreto del volume, informa il lettore che Conrad dedicava a queste fesserie - come le definiva – le ore notturne, dettando tremila parole in quattro ore all’amico Ford Madox Ford, mentre riservava alla scrittura dei romanzi le ore del giorno. Per inciso quello tra Conrad e Ford, a mio avviso uno dei più importanti scrittori del primo ‘900 britannico, non è stata solo un’amicizia, ma un vero e proprio sodalizio letterario che ha portato alla scrittura a quattro mani di alcune importanti opere.
The Mirror of the Sea è dunque uno scritto minore di Conrad, poco più di una collazione di articoli giornalistici dedicati ad argomenti a prima vista molto tecnici e potenzialmente aridi, e ad una lettura superficiale pare risentire parecchio di questo suo vizio d’origine. Le sue pagine tra l’altro abbondano di termini marinareschi poco conosciuti dai non addetti ai lavori, tanto che il curatore si è sentito in dovere di integrare il testo con un ampio Glossario dei termini marinari. Si tratta tuttavia di un’opera che, pur con i suoi limiti strutturali, ci aiuta a capire meglio la poetica dello scrittore, a collocarla in quella fase molto particolare della storia europea che vedeva il tramonto dell’ottimismo positivista imperante nella seconda metà dell’ottocento, espresso letterariamente dal naturalismo nelle sue varie declinazioni nazionali, e i primi segni della sua crisi, che avrebbe portato ai vari modernismi. In Gran Bretagna simbolicamente questo passaggio è segnato dalla morte della Regina Vittoria, avvenuta nel 1901, quindi emblematicamente pochi anni dopo l’esordio di Conrad, autore che non a caso, nella imperante smania di catalogazione critica, viene definito vuoi postimpressionista vuoi premodernista.
Come giustamente fa notare Marenco, c’è in molti dei capitoli che compongono Lo specchio del mare una buona dose di impressionismo, come del resto sottolineato anche dal suo sottotitolo. Celebre è peraltro la prefazione a Il negro del Narcissus, romanzo del 1897, nella quale Conrad si professa convintamente impressionista e di cui ritengo opportuno riportare un paio di passi: ”L’arte stessa può venir definita come un deciso tentativo di rendere il livello più elevato di giustizia all’universo visibile, portando alla luce la verità, molteplice e una, che sottende ogni sua espressione. È un tentativo di trovare nelle sue forme, nei suoi colori, nella sua luce, nelle sue ombre, nei vari aspetti della materia e nei fatti della vita, cosa sia fondamentale, cosa sia duraturo ed essenziale – l’unica loro qualità illuminante e convincente – la verità stessa della loro esistenza. […] L’obiettivo che sto cercando di raggiungere è di permettervi, usando il potere della parola scritta, di udire, di sentire e soprattutto di vedere. Questo – e nient’altro. Ed è tutto”.
L’impressionismo, anche di maniera, è in The Mirror of the Sea chiaramente funzionale ad attrarre ed emozionare il lettore, ed emerge soprattutto nelle descrizioni delle navi. Come detto, Conrad si riferisce in particolare ai mercantili a vela, ormai quasi scomparsi dalle banchine dei moli ma che hanno costituito, tra l’altro, una delle architravi della potenza commerciale dell’impero. Ecco quindi che l’oggetto-nave viene idealizzato, caratterizzandolo attraverso la sua forma - così leggiadramente diversa da quella pesante dei piroscafi - i suoi colori, le fantasmagoriche alberature e velature, il silenzio che accompagna la navigazione e il sibilo di cavi ed alberi durante una tempesta. Le navi ormeggiate nei docks lungo il Tamigi divengono cigni, temporaneamente prigionieri in attesa di poter aprire di nuovo le ali/vele. Spesso le navi vengono umanizzate, ed in particolare femminilizzate: a loro si deve il rispetto e l’amore che si deve ad una donna, si devono saper trattare, perché sono volubili, anche se mai infedeli (tema, quello della nave-femmina, che verrà ripreso anche in La linea d’ombra). Hanno poi una loro misteriosa anima, per cui esistono navi maneggevoli e navi ingovernabili, navi veloci e navi lente, e ciò in larga parte indipendentemente da fattori oggettivi derivanti dalla loro costruzione. Ogni nave a vela è quindi, secondo Conrad, un organismo complesso, dotato di una specifica personalità, che il capitano, gli ufficiali di bordo e i marinai devono capire ed amare per condurla al meglio. La nave a vela, inoltre, usa il vento, e questo fa della navigazione una sorta di sfida continua agli elementi naturali, che a volte sono al servizio della nave e altre volte la minacciano: le rotte stesse erano fortemente condizionate dalla ricerca dei venti migliori. Tutto questo è finito con l’avvento della navigazione a vapore: non è solo una questione di forma degli scafi, ma è cambiato il rapporto stesso della nave e dell’equipaggio con il mare, essendo molto meno diretto. Così il piroscafo avanza, nell’incessante clangore dei suoi motori e avvolto da un fumo nero, su una superficie che assomiglia ad una anonima strada.
Schiettamente impressionistiche sono anche molte delle descrizioni del mare, affidate a toni di colore e ai rumori prodotti dallo sciabordio delle onde, e quelle delle tempeste, con gli schianti del tuono, il vento che mugghia tra il sartiame e gli scrosci improvvisi di pioggia. Forse il culmine di questo modo di descrivere Conrad lo tocca nel capitolo Il fiume fedele: nella risalita dall’estuario del Tamigi ai docks di Londra sembra proprio di vedere, tracciate come in un quadro impressionista, il brulicare delle attività umane, il viavai delle navi e il rosso annerito dal carbone degli edifici industriali e commerciali che si affacciano sul fiume.
Conrad insomma riesce da par suo a evocare atmosfere, a rendere attraente e misterioso il mondo del commercio marittimo, a beneficio del pubblico piccolo-borghese delle riviste su cui pubblicava, cui non manca, lui britannico d’adozione, di trasmettere l’orgoglio nazionalistico della potenza marittima imperiale, in particolare nell’ultimo dei capitoli, L’età eroica, originariamente pubblicato in occasione del centenario della morte di Nelson, e che onestamente rappresenta il punto meno alto dell’opera.
Se fosse tutto qui saremmo quindi di fronte ad una letteratura ammiccante e commerciale, che si avvale di un collaudato ed ottocentesco apparato lessicale per trasformare quelli che avrebbero potuto essere piatti resoconti di esperienze marittime e commerciali nell’epopea celebrativa della marineria a vela britannica, nel suo funerale in pompa magna.
Ma siamo di fronte ad uno dei più grandi scrittori della nostra epoca, ed il Conrad che di notte detta le sue fesserie non può contrapporsi al Conrad che di giorno scrive Nostromo. Ed ecco quindi che quest’ultimo riappare, con la potenza della sua visione cupa e novecentesca del mondo, anche nelle pagine di questi scritti d’occasione. Riappare prepotentemente in particolar in due capitoli del libro.
Il primo si intitola Iniziazione, ed inizia, come altri, con una lunga professione d’amore per le navi a vela anche qui femminilizzate, cui però viene subito contrapposto un sentimento di timore e quasi di odio verso il mare, la cui umanizzazione maschile passa attraverso termini quali mai amico dell’uomo, pericoloso istigatore di ambizioni universali, sino al grido: Stolto è colui - uomo o popolo, - che confidando nell’amicizia del mare, trascura la forza e l’astuzia della sua mano destra! […] l’oceano non ha compassione, non fede, non legge, non memoria”. E ancora, poco più avanti: ”Il mare – è una verità da confessare – non conosce generosità. Nessuno sfoggio di qualità virili – coraggio, ardimento, saldezza, lealtà – a quanto si sa, ha mai scalfito la sua irresponsabile consapevolezza del potere. […] Al giorno d’oggi, come sempre, è pronto a ingannare e a tradire, a schiantare e ad affogare l’incorreggibile ottimismo di uomini che, spalleggiati dalla fedeltà delle navi, tentano di strappargli la fortuna della loro casa, il dominio del loro mondo o soltanto un��elemosina di cibo per la loro fame. È qui che Conrad definisce il mare come uno specchio, che non conserva impronte delle passioni dell’uomo, del suo amore di rapina e di gloria, di avventura e di pericolo, che scorrono e svaniscono su di esso come immagini riflesse.
Segue il racconto dell’iniziazione marinaresca di Conrad, avvenuta nel momento in cui, giovane primo ufficiale, recupera in una splendida giornata nove superstiti dal relitto di un brigantino danese da giorni alla deriva e sul punto di affondare. Lì comprende cosa sia veramente il mare, la sua crudeltà ed infedeltà e come tutte le sue idealizzazioni letterarie da parte di scrittori cui ”poco importa al mondo [...] se non il ritmo dei propri versi e la cadenza delle proprie frasi” siano irrimediabilmente false. Al di là della forma del racconto, conradianamente splendida, è a mio avviso fortemente emblematico, del tutto antivittoriano e novecentesco, che l’iniziazione al mare, e quindi alla vita, venga fatta coincidere con un naufragio, con la fine di illusioni tardoromantiche.
L’altro capitolo che emerge a mio avviso nella raccolta è Il Tremolino, uno dei due inediti inseriti da Conrad nel volume. Si tratta di un vero e proprio racconto di ispirazione autobiografica, ambientato negli anni in cui, tra il 1876 e il 1878, il ventenne Conrad visse a Marsiglia, periodo di cui si sa poco. Nel racconto egli è coinvolto nella terza guerra carlista spagnola, e a bordo di una piccola imbarcazione, il Tremolino appunto, partecipa al trasporto di armi per i ribelli filoborbonici in Catalogna. Nel bellissimo racconto, denso di pathos e tragedia umana e marinaresca, nel quale molti sono i rimandi all’Odissea omerica, emerge la figura di Dominic Cervoni, un trafficante corso amico di Conrad che ispirò alcuni personaggi dei suoi romanzi, tra i quali il Giovanni Battista Fidanza di Nostromo.
Se queste sono le mie considerazioni originali derivanti dalla lettura de Lo specchio del mare devo accennare alla profonda analisi compiuta da Franco Marenco, che condivido in pieno.
Secondo la sua lettura, il fatto che Conrad chiami arte bella la marineria a vela e la relativa cantieristica, nelle quali il mestiere e la perizia assumevano un carattere di simbiosi con i loro strumenti e prodotti (le navi) e comportavano un rapporto umanizzato con gli elementi naturali, rimanda ad una modernissima critica alla specializzazione e parcellizzazione della tecnica, di cui sono emblema in ambito marinaresco i piroscafi. Anche l’insistenza sull’uso corretto dei termini marinareschi, cui l’autore dedica puntigliose pagine nei primi capitoli, è indice di come la marineria a vela rappresenti una delle espressioni di un sapere organico ed antico, che nel corso dei secoli ha sviluppato un suo preciso linguaggio cui è necessario fare riferimento (oltre che, dico io, manifestazione di quell’ossessione per la giusta parola di derivazione flaubertiana che caratterizza tutta l’opera di Conrad). Lo scrittore non compie quindi una operazione nostalgica e celebrativa di un mondo scomparso, ma lo utilizza per costruire una sua elegia, o meglio una palinodia, che inevitabilmente rimanda alla crisi generale cui la fiducia nel progresso tecnico sta portando l’umanità.
Se dunque ad una prima lettura Lo specchio del mare può apparire una raccolta di testi utilitaristici, di fesserie scritte per far soldi, ad un esame più attento anche in essi emerge, e non potrebbe essere che così, il grande scrittore che della complessità ha fatto la sua cifra narrativa.
July 30, 2016
Mirror of the Sea (1906) shows a more personal side of Joseph Conrad than his better-known novels like Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness, and Nostromo. It begins as an ode to the sea in which Conrad openly shows his love for all things nautical, a philosophical treatise in which ships and the sea are metaphors for those better angels that make men admirable—or not. Then it morphs into an autobiography of Conrad’s years before the mast in which he discusses storms, good and bad captains, strandings, blow downs, and the other traumas of voyages by sail. Though outdated in many respects (for example, his was the day of sailing ships) even a modern sailor will love his exquisite descriptions of boats, boat people, and life at sea. Consider the following short but representative riff, occurring early in the odistic first part:
Conrad’s descriptions of good and bad captains on both cargo ships and racing yachts, of the pilots who manage the entry and exit of large ships to and from harbors, of the psychological differences between Landfall and Departure, and of the various personalities of ships (some are bad, some are good, one saved itself and the skipper by—once and only once—not obeying its helm) make this book a natural for the nautically minded reader. And his eloquence can thrill any reader.
I found the book both charming and captivating. If your idea of a nautical experience is watching a rubber ducky bob in the bathtub, this is probably not for you. But if you’ve spent time on boats and encountered some of the dangers he describes, even in a very diluted form, you’ll enjoy it.
Five stars.
RATING SYSTEM:
5 = I would certainly read another work by this author
4 = I would probably read another work by this author
3 = I might read another work by this author
2 = I probably would NOT read another work by this author
1 = Never! Never! Never!
In her handling a ship will not put up with a sheer pretender, as, for instance, the public will do with Mr. X, the popular statesman, Mr. Y, the popular scientist, or Mr. Z, the popular—what shall we say?—anything from a teacher of high morality to a bagman—who have won their little race. But I would like (though not accustomed to betting) to wager a large sum that none of the few first-rate skippers of racing yachts has ever been a humbug. It would have been too difficult.Here in one short paragraph we have a melding of political hypocrisy, nautical competence, and personal honor. Who else but Conrad can do that?
Conrad’s descriptions of good and bad captains on both cargo ships and racing yachts, of the pilots who manage the entry and exit of large ships to and from harbors, of the psychological differences between Landfall and Departure, and of the various personalities of ships (some are bad, some are good, one saved itself and the skipper by—once and only once—not obeying its helm) make this book a natural for the nautically minded reader. And his eloquence can thrill any reader.
I found the book both charming and captivating. If your idea of a nautical experience is watching a rubber ducky bob in the bathtub, this is probably not for you. But if you’ve spent time on boats and encountered some of the dangers he describes, even in a very diluted form, you’ll enjoy it.
Five stars.
RATING SYSTEM:
5 = I would certainly read another work by this author
4 = I would probably read another work by this author
3 = I might read another work by this author
2 = I probably would NOT read another work by this author
1 = Never! Never! Never!
May 6, 2019
I read once a castigation of the practice of assigning so many essays to students learning to write. Who wants to read essays? was the main argument. Why not have them write stories? asked the author. Stories are so much more interesting and natural for humanity to communicate, he argued. I agreed at the time, but now I'm sure that author never had read Joseph Conrad's The Mirror of the Sea. Almost entirely a collection of essays on all topics related to the maritime world and maritime trade in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this work is one of the most elegantly written, and most magical of anything I've ever read.
I must admit my natural predisposition toward these topics -- if one were to excise all the 'aside' chapters of Moby Dick, the chapters that did not deal with the plights of the Pequod and its fanatical captain, but explained the uses of the various bodily parts of a cetacean for example, i would readily bound them into their own volume and devour them just as the original.
But this surpasses even that great work. This Mirror turns the sea, its ships, and its storms into piercingly poignant and introspective contemplations. Magic comes pouring out of the simplest observations, of the creaks of the teak decks, to the thumpings of the steam engine. The great Atlantic Ocean will forever have a particular flavor, even to one who has never dipped his toe into its perilous waters. A shipyard's sounds will forever remind one of the characters there, not just the humans, but the ships themselves, who come so practically alive in Conrad's descriptions that they become veritable persons forevermore.
There are stories here too. Of the typical melancholy, interior-wrestling of the authors' others works (Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness, et al.), but it is the way Conrad can spin a yarn from mere description that is really on powerful show here.
Let not your fear of the 'essay' dissuade you from this book. It may just make your eye more keen if not too salty, your ears more open if not too wind-beaten, and your heart more soft if not too watery.
I must admit my natural predisposition toward these topics -- if one were to excise all the 'aside' chapters of Moby Dick, the chapters that did not deal with the plights of the Pequod and its fanatical captain, but explained the uses of the various bodily parts of a cetacean for example, i would readily bound them into their own volume and devour them just as the original.
But this surpasses even that great work. This Mirror turns the sea, its ships, and its storms into piercingly poignant and introspective contemplations. Magic comes pouring out of the simplest observations, of the creaks of the teak decks, to the thumpings of the steam engine. The great Atlantic Ocean will forever have a particular flavor, even to one who has never dipped his toe into its perilous waters. A shipyard's sounds will forever remind one of the characters there, not just the humans, but the ships themselves, who come so practically alive in Conrad's descriptions that they become veritable persons forevermore.
There are stories here too. Of the typical melancholy, interior-wrestling of the authors' others works (Lord Jim, Heart of Darkness, et al.), but it is the way Conrad can spin a yarn from mere description that is really on powerful show here.
Let not your fear of the 'essay' dissuade you from this book. It may just make your eye more keen if not too salty, your ears more open if not too wind-beaten, and your heart more soft if not too watery.
Read
February 2, 2016אני רוצה להמליץ בחום ואהבה רבה על הספר המקסים הזה, שאינו עוסק בקולוניאליזם, התנגשות חזיתית בין המציאות לאידיאל, פוליטיקה או סערות רגשיות הפוקדות את גבוריו, אלא מוסר את זכרונותיו של קונראד מחייו כיורד-ים (לא הצלחתי לחשוב על תואר אחר שיבטא את 'חייו הראשונים' של הסופר, שפרש מהשרות הימי בדרגת קפטן מוסמך).
12 ספרים לאחר שהתחלתי את פרוייקט קונראד שלי (למעלה מ-30), מצאתי את זה בו התאהבתי למן העמודים הראשונים. נוסטרומו, לטעמי, עדיין מחזיק בתואר 'הטוב ביותר' אבל כאן, כשהוא אינו כותב על הנושאים כבדי המשקל המוזכרים למעלה, אלא פשוט על הים אותו כל כך אהב, על רקע חלופת המשמרות בין ספינות המפרש- הרומנטיות, נתונות לחסדי הטבע והים, שם עבודת הצוות ומנהיגות הקפטן הן שמניעות את כלי השיט, לבין ספינות הקיטור- מכניות, אוכלות פחם ופולטות עשן, חסרות התחשבות בכוחות הטבע אך נתונות לחסדיהם כשלב המתכת שלהן מפסיק לפמפם ומסוכנות-כאן אני מרגיש כאילו שהוא פשוט נשען לאחור כאשר מוחו הקודח שבד"כ חיפש אלגוריות או מטאפורות לרומנים הפסיכולוגיים שלו, פשוט הרשה לעצמו לכתוב על אהבתו הגדולה. סיפורים קטנים המתארים כל מה שאפשר לעלות על הדעת הנוגעים בחייו של הימאי- העוגן, הצוות, הקפטן, הים התיכון ועוד ועוד, מקיף בקלילות את הדבר הגדול הזה- הים.
ואני בכלל לא אוהב את הים. לא שונא אותו, אבל תמצאו אותי שם אולי פעם ב-3 שנים. וזו בדיוק הסבה בגינה התאהבתי בספר.
סופר שמצליח לגרום לי לקרוא בעניין כה רב ספר על משהו שלא מושך אותי בעליל, הוא אמן מלים פר אקסלנס. וקונראד, שדפי ספריו הם הקנווס עליו הוא מצייר את הים במלים כה יפות ובוירטואזיות כל כך מרגשת (יבבתי פעמים), אינו נופל מכל אימפרסיוניסט או אקספרסיוניסט מוכשר האוחז במכחול.
חינם באמזון קינדל
12 ספרים לאחר שהתחלתי את פרוייקט קונראד שלי (למעלה מ-30), מצאתי את זה בו התאהבתי למן העמודים הראשונים. נוסטרומו, לטעמי, עדיין מחזיק בתואר 'הטוב ביותר' אבל כאן, כשהוא אינו כותב על הנושאים כבדי המשקל המוזכרים למעלה, אלא פשוט על הים אותו כל כך אהב, על רקע חלופת המשמרות בין ספינות המפרש- הרומנטיות, נתונות לחסדי הטבע והים, שם עבודת הצוות ומנהיגות הקפטן הן שמניעות את כלי השיט, לבין ספינות הקיטור- מכניות, אוכלות פחם ופולטות עשן, חסרות התחשבות בכוחות הטבע אך נתונות לחסדיהם כשלב המתכת שלהן מפסיק לפמפם ומסוכנות-כאן אני מרגיש כאילו שהוא פשוט נשען לאחור כאשר מוחו הקודח שבד"כ חיפש אלגוריות או מטאפורות לרומנים הפסיכולוגיים שלו, פשוט הרשה לעצמו לכתוב על אהבתו הגדולה. סיפורים קטנים המתארים כל מה שאפשר לעלות על הדעת הנוגעים בחייו של הימאי- העוגן, הצוות, הקפטן, הים התיכון ועוד ועוד, מקיף בקלילות את הדבר הגדול הזה- הים.
ואני בכלל לא אוהב את הים. לא שונא אותו, אבל תמצאו אותי שם אולי פעם ב-3 שנים. וזו בדיוק הסבה בגינה התאהבתי בספר.
סופר שמצליח לגרום לי לקרוא בעניין כה רב ספר על משהו שלא מושך אותי בעליל, הוא אמן מלים פר אקסלנס. וקונראד, שדפי ספריו הם הקנווס עליו הוא מצייר את הים במלים כה יפות ובוירטואזיות כל כך מרגשת (יבבתי פעמים), אינו נופל מכל אימפרסיוניסט או אקספרסיוניסט מוכשר האוחז במכחול.
חינם באמזון קינדל
December 21, 2017
This is Joseph Conrad's memoir of his decades working as a sailor around the 1870's. Steam power is taking over from sail and he mourns the passing of an ancient way of life in which a sailor's life is inextricably bound up with the sea, the wind and his ship, which has a character all her own. He also celebrates the way of life he has known and writes in beautiful poetic detail about the west wind, the port of London and many anecdotes from his sailing life.
I read this book slowly, there is no narrative which needs to be kept up with, and it was good to savour it a bit at a time in between lighter reading.
I would definitely recommend this for anyone looking for something deep and rich to read.
I read this book slowly, there is no narrative which needs to be kept up with, and it was good to savour it a bit at a time in between lighter reading.
I would definitely recommend this for anyone looking for something deep and rich to read.
December 21, 2015
I don't care much for Conrad's fiction. He is my idea of a man's writer, but I love his non-fiction essays. Because he straddled the transition from sail to steam, and because he is a great writer, he is able to communicate the joy sailing to a landlubber like me. This collection of essays will take readers out of the everyday world and put them in the middle of the action. They will learn what it feels to stand watch for the first time, to feel a dead ship under their feet, to know what happens when a ship is not loaded properly and many other things. A wonderful read
May 10, 2019
Joseph Conrad was at sea for 17 years -- no person of such seafaring experience ever became so great a writer. Much of this book was concerned with now obsolete sailing techniques and situations, and I'm not a huge sailing lover to begin with. There is also a section where he frames winds as royalty and it goes on and on and on ad nauseam. But it's Conrad, and there are pearls on nearly every page.
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