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Nostromo

by Ian P. Watt, J.P. Stern (Editor)

3.71 · rating details · 2,033 ratings · 155 reviews

Conrad's great novel is a rich study not only of a typical South American country, but of the politics of any underdeveloped country, and for this reason it is permanently topical. Ian Watt addresses Conrad's concerns when writing the work, and provides an accessible introduction, taking account of background, history and politics, and reception and influence.

Paperback, 120 pages

Published April 28th 1988 by Cambridge University Press (first published 1904)

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Feb 13, 2008

Matt rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classic-literature, best-of-the-best

Conrad is cynical, in the best sense of that word. Lord Jim was one of my favorite books, and Nostromo is probably even better. Although it is difficult to become acquainted with the characters at first, the reader cannot help but understand them in a profound way by the end. Conrad's worldview is disturbing but also compelling, as he uses character, symbolism, and allegory to tell a realistic story with an abundance of lessons.

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Jul 29, 2008

Dale rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, adventure

Nostromo was a difficult read for me. I started this book many years ago and gave up after the first 50 pages. This time I plowed through, and I'm glad I did. There's a lot of depth to this novel, but you don't see it until about halfway in.

The story takes place in a fictional South American country called Costaguana at the turn of the 20th century. An Englishman named Charles Gould has inherited a ruined mining concession, and undertakes to restore it, mostly as a means of sticking ...moreNostromo was a difficult read for me. I started this book many years ago and gave up after the first 50 pages. This time I plowed through, and I'm glad I did. There's a lot of depth to this novel, but you don't see it until about halfway in.

The story takes place in a fictional South American country called Costaguana at the turn of the 20th century. An Englishman named Charles Gould has inherited a ruined mining concession, and undertakes to restore it, mostly as a means of sticking a thumb in the eye of the corrupt Costaguana government that caused the ruin of the mine, and the ruin of Gould's father. The title character, Nostromo, is an Italian sailor named Gian' Battista Fidanza, who works as the cargo manager at the port of Sulaco, the city where the action takes place. He is a man of nearly superhuman ability and moral courage, seen as indispensable by the European owners and managers in Sulaco. Despite his great value, his financial rewards are few.

The Gould mining concession is an irresistible prize for the Costaguana government. A few generals stage a military coup, claiming to be democrats and men of the people, with the aim of seizing the mine's wealth. Charles Gould will have none of it, and would rather destroy the mine than have it fall into the hands of the brigands who are coming to seize it.

So at one level the novel addresses issues of colonialism, and in a way that I'm not too happy about. The locals are characterized as thieves, lazy, indigent, greasy, unkempt, venal, crude, and so on, while the Europeans are, for the most part, depicted as idealistic, selfless, beleaguered, and enlightened. But, as always with Conrad, the picture is not quite so cut and dried. Nostromo, and his would-be adopted father Giorgio Viola, an ex captain in the army of Garibaldi, a dedicated republican (in the old sense meaning in favor of liberty), see the Europeans as the exploiters that they are - of course, they themselves are European, but have a moral and philosophical bias towards the downtrodden. And the Europeans themselves are shown to be obsessed by their need to extract the maximum wealth from the country, while treating the local people as mere means towards that end.

The real interest of the novel is in its psychological portraits of the principal characters. Conrad is comfortable with complexity of character, and his characters are never paper cutouts - each one of the major characters in this novel have conflicting desires, and the novel is in some ways a working out of those internal conflicts. Actually there is one exception to this: Captain Mitchell, the local agent for the main shipping company in Sulaco, is a completely self unaware person, who fancies himself a person of deep perception and great courage, but possessing neither. He serves as a kind of quasi-comic foil to the real players: Nostromo, Charles Gould and his wife Emily, Martin Decoud, Giorgio Viola and his wife and daughters, and Dr. Monygham.

This is a novel very well worth reading. Conrad stands out amongst authors of his era for the way that he embraces psychological and social ambiguity. He was a modern writer in that sense, and a realist.

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Sep 23, 2011

Michaelbert Humperdink rated it

· review of another edition

I wanted to read this book solely because it was the name of the mining ship in the movie Alien.

Most of the book is about the still notoriously endemic corruption of South American colonial politics. This is not what I liked about it. The book has little to do with its title character, who is a vain, petty man overly concerned with what people think about him. Nostromo, feeling frustrated and underappreciated, sails off with a small fortune in the chaos of yet another South Americ...more

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Jun 02, 2011

Timothy added it · review of another edition

As a political novel, Nostromo is strong work. After reading a novel, I typically do a quick internet search, looking for summaries, essays, and commentary. In doing so after reading Nostromo, I located a website www.nostromoonline.com. The website, created by Matthew Waller, a self-described 41 year old technical writer, is devoted entirely to the novel. Waller posted an essay, in which he describes the novel’s characters as representations – allegorical symbols of socio-political concepts. Fra...moreAs a political novel, Nostromo is strong work. After reading a novel, I typically do a quick internet search, looking for summaries, essays, and commentary. In doing so after reading Nostromo, I located a website www.nostromoonline.com. The website, created by Matthew Waller, a self-described 41 year old technical writer, is devoted entirely to the novel. Waller posted an essay, in which he describes the novel’s characters as representations – allegorical symbols of socio-political concepts. Frankly, I breezed through the essay quickly. Yet, I read enough to, in a general sense, agree with Waller: the reader is made to understand the characters primarily through their relationship to political situations in Conrad’s fictitious South American nation of Costa Guana. In this, Waller takes a stronger stance than I. To assume that the characters “are” representations of a grand concept, and that Conrad meant them as such, seems an inferential leap. But, it is certainly true that Nostromo is about large political themes, and the characters are understood partly through their associations to these themes. One could, in primitive manner, identify each theme, and identify asssociated characters - as in Western capitalism = Charles Gould, Third World political instability = General Montero, Third World idealism (tinged with modernism) = Martin DeCoud, grassroots populism = Nostromo. The characters are not hollow or simple – in particular, Conrad adds considerable depth to the Nostromo and DeCoud characters. Yet, the strength of Nostromo lies more in political description than character development.

In presenting political themes, Conrad displays an undercurrent of pessimism. Or, perhaps I am inaccurately imputing this, based on Conrad’s nuanced, realistic description of political turbulence in Costa Guana. Imagine reading a newspaper article describing political instability in a non-Western country, sighing, and lamenting greed and violence that, to the unattached observer, seems unfortunate, senseless, and perpetual. Nostromo produces this effect. In my view, this was Conrad’s intent. For example, in the second part of the novel, Conrad devotes considerable space to Martin DeCoud’s ruminations. Key to these sections is the internal conflict that DeCoud was experiencing. He was a publicly vocal optimistic with grand separatist ambitions, yet had some doubts about these ambitions. Ultimately, in one of the novel’s key resolutions, DeCoud fails to reach his political goals.

For all the violence and political chaos embedded in the story line, Conrad spends little time describing battles or warfare. Most of the text is devoted to narrative description. Stylistically, Nostromo is somewhat unique. The events unfold in a fairly straightforward, linear manner. But, as the events unfold, they are described alongside rich, detailed, character narratives. The reader learns a great deal about the biographical backgrounds and ideologies of the characters. At times, it was almost as if key events were secondary to these descriptions – “Oh, by the way there is a political rebellion, now back to Emily Gould”.

Apparently, critics have panned the novel’s conclusion. I agree with this criticism. There was an odd, disjointed feel to the last sections of Nostromo. The emphasis shifts from sweeping political issues, to a personal moral dilemma predicated partly on “romance.” Despite this, on the whole, I can understand the acclaim for Nostromo that offsets this criticism.
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Apr 03, 2011

CaterinaAnna rated it

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Shelves: bookcrossing

I found Heart of Darkness more impenetrable than the jungle it describes, but I thought I ought to give Conrad another go.

This one was a struggle too. The story took a long time to get focussed, there were infelicities in the writing that went beyond it being merely old-fashioned and I found his habit of referring to many characters by at least three different names irritating. I could have coped with the latter had it just been different people using their own name/title for the pe...more

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Oct 04, 2010

Jeffery rated it

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I came to this book only after having seen the BBC multi-episode TV production of "Nostromo" back in the late '90's. I regret that viewing the film resulted in spoilers which dulled the impact of reading the book because the novelty of experiencing the unfolding plot was missing. Nevertheless, I found the book fascinating. If it is true that a movie cannot approach the depth of a book, and now having experienced the story in both forms I think the BBC production only scratched the ...more

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Apr 06, 2010

carl theaker rated it

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Shelves: modern-library-100

With a passage like this I had some hope for Nostromo:

A woman with a masculine mind is not a being of superior efficiency; she is simply a
phenomenon of imperfect differentiation - interestingly barren and without importance.

Conrad has always been a tough read for me. Sometimes he's thinking in Polish and it's coming
out kind of English, as did the first fourth of Nostromo, but then the story picked up.

Though published in 1904, it al...more

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Nov 06, 2009

Justin Evans rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This one's tough to review. I want to recommend it to everyone, but that's probably just a waste of a lot of time. I read this about ten years ago as a young college student, and just re-read it. Even while re-reading, the only things I remember are i) wondering to myself, if this book is called Nostromo, why is Nostromo absent for most of the book? ii) a short passage about bringing people into a paradise of snakes, and iii) Nostromo saying to himself "If I see smoke coming from over there...moreThis one's tough to review. I want to recommend it to everyone, but that's probably just a waste of a lot of time. I read this about ten years ago as a young college student, and just re-read it. Even while re-reading, the only things I remember are i) wondering to myself, if this book is called Nostromo, why is Nostromo absent for most of the book? ii) a short passage about bringing people into a paradise of snakes, and iii) Nostromo saying to himself "If I see smoke coming from over there, they are lost." I have no idea why I remembered iii), but there you go.

The trick is, this book is great, but only if you've already done a *lot* of reading, particularly of the late nineteenth and early century's best novelists. Proust helps a lot. So does James. Even the less difficult modernists, like Forster, are useful. But Nostromo is not like Ulysses. I didn't understand Ulysses, but Joyce's writing is nice and there are some jokes to keep you going. Conrad's style here is wonderful, but not the sort of wonderful that keeps you going on its own. You need to be able to follow the plot, and you have to learn how to follow it.

But if you're either well-read or dedicated enough, this must be one of the best 50 novels- maybe even 20- of the twentieth century. The characters are hard to get a handle on, but once you do, they're extraordinary. Conrad's way of presenting the story is formally amazing. I've also been reading Genette's 'Narrative Structures,' and the tools in that book help make sense of this one (although Nostromo also shows up the problems with Genette's concepts, since they function best in first person narratives and not so well with third person narratives). The narrative seems to be all over the place. You get the consequences of and event before you get the event; you get two line summaries of what seem to be (but aren't) the most important events... and so it goes.

So do yourself a favour. Read the first four chapters. If you don't get into them, just stop and try it again ten years later. But keep trying! (less)

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Nov 21, 2010

Cyril rated it

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This is quite an enjoyable work. Unfortunately it took a long time for me to get through it due to a recent move, and it was difficult to keep track of all the characters through long pauses in reading. It is quite a complex story with meaning in practically every word.

The story takes place in the imaginary South American country of Costuanga. The title character of Nostromo is only one of the many players caught in the throes of revolution that wrack the country. The novel does not ...more

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Mar 14, 2011

Jill rated it

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Shelves: classics

I've tried. I really have. But after one short story (The Secret Sharer) and four novels (Heart of Darkness, The Secret Agent, Lord Jim and now, Nostromo), I've come to the considered conclusion that I really don't appreciate Conrad. I admire him for his prodigious output, especially since he's a non-native English speaker who only learned to speak the language fluently when he was in his 20s (and even then, reportedly with a strong Polish accent). But with perhaps the exception of The Secret ...more

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Dec 22, 2011

Jim rated it

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Shelves: 20th-century-lit, fiction

This is my third reading of this strange and remarkable book. As I began re-reading the first half of the story, I felt disappointed -- as if my taste as the young student who first read this book had somehow traduced me. There was no central figure in this story: It was certainly not Gian' Battista Fidanza, a.k.a. Nostromo, the handsome capataz de cargadores; nor was it Charles and Emily Gould, owners of the San Tomé silver mine; nor was it the host of other characters that Conrad parades befor...more

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Apr 07, 2010

Bruce rated it

· review of another edition

“The wisdom of the heart having no concern with the erection or demolition of theories any more than with the defence of prejudices, has no random words at its command. The words it pronounces have the value of acts of integrity, tolerance, and compassion.”

During the first third of this novel, a number of subplots emerge, all centered in Sulaco, the main town in the isolated province of the imaginary South American country of Castaguana. One thread involves Charles Gould, his famil...more“The wisdom of the heart having no concern with the erection or demolition of theories any more than with the defence of prejudices, has no random words at its command. The words it pronounces have the value of acts of integrity, tolerance, and compassion.”

During the first third of this novel, a number of subplots emerge, all centered in Sulaco, the main town in the isolated province of the imaginary South American country of Castaguana. One thread involves Charles Gould, his family and associates, Gould being the owner and manager of a prospering silver mine. Another revolves around Captain Mitchell, the manager of a steamship line, and his Italian-born foreman, Nostromo. A third is the chronic political unrest in the country, unrest which continually threatens the lives and fortunes of all the populace. Various patriots like Don Jose Avellanos provide continuity and a sense of history so that the changing political fortunes of the country can be appreciated. Conrad tells the story with balance and clarity, weaving the different subplots together as events evolve. What struck me most during the first half of the book is the relative unimportance of Nostromo, the title character; to that point he was very peripheral, and hardly anything was known about him - he was more of a reputation than an active participant in the plot - and it was unclear what role he will eventually play, everything seeming preliminary to this point, a preparation for a main event that was yet to emerge.

After the halfway point of the narrative, Nostromo started to become a bit more prominent. The motivating factor of his life seemed to be “to be well-spoken of.” He was driven by an immense but artless vanity. How odd it is that not until the final fourth of the book does Conrad really focus on Nostromo as a person; until then he is simply a reputation, a figure spoken of by others but never directly encountered by the reader. The change seemed to occur when Nostromo engages in an act that he judges necessary to be hidden; it was never entirely clear whether the point at issue was that no longer could his life be transparent to those around him, and thus his reputation could no longer be public, or whether he truly offended some inner principle that was important to him. At any rate, from this point in the narrative, Nostromo’s life became the primary focus, up to and including his ultimate death.

In one respect, this novel is a commentary on post-colonialism and the exploitation of a nation and people by outsiders whose goal is their own enrichment. Near the end, one of the characters speaks: “There is no peace and rest in the development of material interests. They have their law and their justice. But it is founded on expediency and is inhuman; it is without rectitude, without the continuity and the force that can be found only in a moral principle.”

I think the novel is also an exploration of a personality founded primarily on external validation, the core of which founders when a hidden flaw is recognized and comes to be the obsession of its owner. This is a well written, most interesting, and thought-provoking novel.
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Dec 24, 2011

Jim Leckband rated it

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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 05, 2011

Steve rated it

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Shelves: fiction

Nostromo is considered by many to be Conrad’s greatest novel. The ambiguous nature of good and evil, the importance of duty, common themes in all of Conrad’s novels, get an epic treatment in Nostromo (my Modern Library edition is 630 pages long). But for all of its length, the novel, after the first dense, foundation building 50 pages or so, reads quickly. Published in 1904, the book has the feel of a modern novel. It’s a book about revolutions money, and character, told through different vo...moreNostromo is considered by many to be Conrad’s greatest novel. The ambiguous nature of good and evil, the importance of duty, common themes in all of Conrad’s novels, get an epic treatment in Nostromo (my Modern Library edition is 630 pages long). But for all of its length, the novel, after the first dense, foundation building 50 pages or so, reads quickly. Published in 1904, the book has the feel of a modern novel. It’s a book about revolutions money, and character, told through different voices, different eyes.

The main character is of course Nostromo, though the reader may at first be a bit puzzled by this, since for well over half the book Nostromo, a sailor and dock foreman, exists on the periphery of the story, but always as the “indispensible man.” If anything, the main character is, initially, the San Tome silver mine, a storehouse of wealth in the imaginary South American country of “Costaguana.” Charles Gould is the owner of the mine. He has inherited it from his father, but the mine is both a political football and silver goose due to the country’s never ending revolutions. (So much so that Gould’s uncle was executed by the previous junta.) Gould has no intention of ever letting that happen again, so he takes a different approach, inviting outside investors (American, and others) to get the mine running again, with a backup plan that involves a lot of dynamite. With a new, liberal government in place, it looks like everyone is making money.

Not so, as one resentful general feels he isn’t getting his fair share. Yet another revolution occurs, and the province of Sulaco (the richest in the country) falls under siege. Fortunately Sulaco is protected by its geography, and what follows is a race against time, with several factions vying for control of the country – and the silver. The cast of characters Conrad uses to tell his story seems vast, but the individual treatment is never shallow. Oh, some (most?) of the characters are shallow, depressingly so. Generals, sailors, crazy priests, revolutionaries, nihilists, bandits, women of various natures, are all revealed in their damaged glory. Gould himself, not really good or evil, is a mechanical man, a total materialist, who, oddly, is married to a secular saint of sorts, Emilia. There were times I wondered about this odd match, but in the end I figured Charles represented the ultimate project for Emilia. The result is a sterile standoff.

And then there’s Nostromo, a confident guy who on surface would seem the perfect Conradian hero. He gets the job done, whatever it is, always. However, the problem in Nostromo’s case is that it is always linked to how he feels he is viewed by others – especially his employers. His reputation is paramount. When the social order collapses, he feels “betrayed” by it (or “them”). But much of this is self-serving. When, through an accident, fate pushes the silver into his lap, he makes the wrong choice, and that choice eats at him throughout the rest of the novel, compounding itself into multiple bad choices, with the final, fatal choice linked to love. Some have complained about the late love story in the novel. For me it fittingly closed the circle, and is as heartbreaking an ending as I’ve read in literature. It’s a sad story told by a master.
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May 16, 2011

Veronica rated it

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Recommended to Veronica by: Modern Library's 100 Best Novels

Another pleasant surprise from Conrad. I was really not expecting to enjoy this seafaring epic, but I am very glad my expectations were misguided. My initial reaction was not so positive and I longed for the presence of an illustrative map of the fictional Costaguana. This then followed with the introduction of a multitude of characters. My gut told me there were too many places and too many characters, but my heart told me to keep on reading, and read I did as Conrad managed to bring it al...moreAnother pleasant surprise from Conrad. I was really not expecting to enjoy this seafaring epic, but I am very glad my expectations were misguided. My initial reaction was not so positive and I longed for the presence of an illustrative map of the fictional Costaguana. This then followed with the introduction of a multitude of characters. My gut told me there were too many places and too many characters, but my heart told me to keep on reading, and read I did as Conrad managed to bring it all together, quite magnificently.

Set in the fictitious South American country of Costaguana, Conrad spins a masterful yarn juxtaposing patriotism and revolution, honor and deception. The British Goulds come to town to reopen a silver mine and are seen as both honorable and exploitative. Nostromo, the book’s namesake is believed to be omniscient by all with the exception of the despised Dr. Monygham. There is death, deception and despair and after initial glimpses of the various characters, Conrad then thrusts us in to their hearts and souls where we see what lurks inside.

The protagonist, Nostromo, is an Italian seaman who has become an enigmatic hero to the coastal town of Sulaco. He is adored by women and children, the young and the old, the rich and the poor and is said to be incorruptible. Nostromo’s origins actually came from tales Conrad heard as a young sailor himself. Many years later, he came upon the same tale in a book found in a second hand shop.

Charles Gould had been forewarned by his father that he should have nothing to do with the Sulaco silver mine as it would most certainly come to no good and believed it to be his own downfall. His father writes lengthy letters to his son in England about the evils of the silver mine. Quite expectedly, Charles becomes obsessed with Sulaco and studies mining and travels to Costaguana with his wife following his father’s unexpected death. Don Carlos, as he is known, is seen as a stiff Brit, but is respected for his hard work and accepted for his employment of the townspeople.

The wife of Don Carlos, Emilia Gould is beloved by all. She sees much beyond the mine and takes true interest in some of the townspeople. Whether from boredom or true altruism, she settles in quite happily to life in Sulaco and takes on the care of those in need.

My personal favorite was Dr. Monygham, the misunderstood physician who ambles about town in shabby dress carrying his crippled body about. He is disliked by all, yet no one can state specifically why he is the town’s pariah. Conrad allows the reader to wonder at his insolent behavior until he reveals the brutal torture he endured resulting in the facial scars and lameness that continue to torture him throughout his life.

Quotes:

That irreparable change a death makes in the course of our daily thoughts can be felt in a vague and poignant discomfort of mind.

There is no credulity so eager and blind as the credulity of covetousness, which, in its universal extent, measures the moral misery and the intellectual destitution of mankind.

Solitude from mere outward condition of existence becomes very swiftly a state of soul in which the affectations of irony and scepticism have no place. It takes possession of the mind, and drives forth the thought into the exile of utter unbelief.

Having now consumed two of his novels, I’m sure I’d enjoy chatting with Mr. Conrad. Perhaps he could share some of his seafaring tales over lunch.

My rating for Nostromo is a 9 out of 10.(less)

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Oct 27, 2009

John rated it

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The last time I read something by Joseph Conrad it was required reading in school. It was a short story, I think, but it was a long short story, the kind of short story that has parts instead of chapters. It rained a lot in the story. I think the teacher said that was symbolic of something. I also think there was a boat or a ship in the story.
I promised myself I would never read anything by Joseph Conrad again, unless it was required.
Thirty-five years (approximately) is a long time t...moreThe last time I read something by Joseph Conrad it was required reading in school. It was a short story, I think, but it was a long short story, the kind of short story that has parts instead of chapters. It rained a lot in the story. I think the teacher said that was symbolic of something. I also think there was a boat or a ship in the story.
I promised myself I would never read anything by Joseph Conrad again, unless it was required.
Thirty-five years (approximately) is a long time to keep a promise. I broke the promise, reading "Nostromo" over the past week or so, for no particular reason.
"Nostromo" is set in a fictitious South American country, probably during the latter half of the 19th century, during a time of revolutionary turmoil. The central character is a silver mine, or the silver in the mine, owned by an Englishman and his wife named Gould.
"Nostromo" is a major character. He's an Italian Lone Ranger, a one-man security force who answers to no one but serves just about everyone. Despite being a major character, he barely speaks until about halfway through the book. Even then, a great deal about him remains a mystery. He seems to be invulnerable and tireless, but the adjective Conrad most often uses to describe him -- incorruptible -- turns out to be ironic.
But as I said, the silver itself is the central character. It impacts what every human character does, mostly for the worst.
Reading "Nostromo" is like watching a movie in a foreign language with no subtitles. You certainly get the general idea of what's going on, but you feel like you're missing a great deal along the way.
For me, it's always hard to get back into a book after I've set it down, even if the interval is only a couple of hours or so. But this was more true of "Nostromo" than any other book I can recall reading. It would almost seem as if I was reading a different book entirely.
It doesn't help that Conrad skips around chronologically so that, for instance, a prisoner who is found dead in one chapter is being interrogated in the following chapter.
This is disquieting.
In places, "Nostromo" reminded me strangely of "War and Peace." But although "War and Peace" is much longer, it's also a much easier read.
In spite of all this, I have a feeling it won't be 35 years before the next time I read something by Conrad.
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Jul 13, 2009

Jason rated it

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Shelves: classics, modernism

It took me well over 100 pages to really get into this one, but it was well worth it in the end. Conrad is trying out various techniques that later authors would employ to greater effect, but he deserves credit for experimenting. The narrative jumps around a bit with little cues for the reader and without the psychological probing of the stream-of-consciousness masters.

But once I finally wrapped my head around Conrad's method, the story was captivating. It's a brilliant political t...more

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Dec 02, 2010

Brian rated it

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Shelves: classic

In the relatively narrow genre of "Polish authors writing in English about Italian sailors in war-torn South America," this novel is probably the finest. It is challenging at first, as Conrad seems to be experimenting with a few complex narrative devices, which he uses to provide an introductory history of the setting and dramatis personae. He shifts into that style again later in the book, using what we would call in modern cinematic terms a montage to speed up time as the story jum...more

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Jun 22, 2011

Bart Thanhauser rated it

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Conrad carries this book along on the strength of his writing alone. For all the less-than-bearable floweriness of his sentences, there's also a precision to the images and abstractions Conrad creates. I don't know how Condrad can in one moment put you to sleep with his long winding sentences about dark gulfs and then slap you in the face with a few pages of intense emotion.

That said, this book did slodge along at times--the first half was a especially daunting in its slowness. He ...more

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Jul 18, 2011

Meade rated it

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Shelves: classics, literature

I re-read this after having first read it while in college about 30 years ago. I had read it for a course in English called The Modern Novel and had considered it one of the best books I had ever read. It did not affect me with that much enthusiasm this time around and I wondered why. As I considered the possibilities, I decided that two things in particular stood out: When I read it back then, we had to read it in a week's time, and when we discussed it in class, we had not only our fellow s...more

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Jan 15, 2010

Dalleer rated it

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The following statement is not going to make me look good over this subject, but in the name of honesty I'll admit it, anyway.

I read about fifty pages, until I got literally bored with the extremely long and descriptive language in the book. I originally started to read this one after experiencing Heart of Darkness, but quickly found out that the subject nor the style were nowhere even close to my interests and tastes.

It's too bad that things came out this way for Nostro...more

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May 11, 2011

Sue Herbert rated it

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Conrad is not an easy 'holiday read', but persist and you'll be rewarded with a vivid portrait of a place and time and a brilliantly complex tale of colonial life in Latin America. Conrad is credited with doing away with linear story telling structure for perhaps the first time. Flashbacks, people telling stories within stories, adds to the complexity but also adds depth and a sense of history. The sense of place is so well created that you can almost feel the heat coming off the page. Once you ...more

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Dec 21, 2010

Janet rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

There’s a lot to ponder in Nostromo, because its basic political theme purports cycles: “all for one” mentality, supported by a set of shared ideals among people, that in time - and inevitably - explodes into Separateness, with the ebb and flow of personalities. The book is not an easy read, although its sentences are amazing. Also, I am glad that I’m reading it now, when I’m older, because in my unforgiving youth I’d have been insulted and turned off by perceived gender chauvinism in some of t...more

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Oct 04, 2009

Kate rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: school

This book made me want to throw it across the room, tear my hair out, and possibly burn it all at once. The first little bit of the book is okay but then it just goes down hill until the end when it starts to make some sense. Conrad plays with time in the book jumping from past to present to future without telling the reader at all. None of the characters have personalities really, and by the end you feel they are all shallow and only care about the silver. For the most part this book just m...more

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Jul 24, 2009

Thirteenth Peer rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, books-i-own

First impressions after just having finished the book. I think it's a very good book. What stood out most for me was the quality of the writing. I was impressed by this in a way I haven't been impressed in a while. It is extremely dense. There is always the conciousness of the multi-layered whole and a constant tension held between expectations and the actual narrative flow. I can see myself coming back to this book as a model of prose style.

On the other hand the story did dra...more

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May 03, 2011

Brittany rated it

· review of another edition

I read part of this book in AP English class in high school, and plan to read it all the way through someday. We couldn't afford books, so we had printed pages off the internet (it's available through the Gutenberg Project). Conrad's writing style is always a challenge, but that is part of the fun of reading his work. Once you work through his complex and flourishing sentences, you generally get something truly beautiful. It's also nice to read something by him other than Heart of Darkness, whic...more

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Oct 31, 2011

Dorothy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: english-classics

Earlier this year, I read and enjoyed The Secret History of Costaguana by Juan Gabriel Vasquez. That book was based on the germ of an idea from Conrad's Nostromo. It was set in the fictional country invented by Conrad for his book. Reading that book made me curious about Nostromo and I added it to my reading list. I hardly knew what I was letting myself in for.

This was a very difficult read for me and it took me a seemingly interminable amount of time to finish it, but I persevered...moreEarlier this year, I read and enjoyed The Secret History of Costaguana by Juan Gabriel Vasquez. That book was based on the germ of an idea from Conrad's Nostromo. It was set in the fictional country invented by Conrad for his book. Reading that book made me curious about Nostromo and I added it to my reading list. I hardly knew what I was letting myself in for.

This was a very difficult read for me and it took me a seemingly interminable amount of time to finish it, but I persevered and did manage to read all the way to the end. Part of the difficulty lay in the fact that I read it on my Kindle. It might have been easier with a physical book where I could turn back and reread sections or refer to previous sections with greater ease. As it was, the story was very difficult to get into and I was fully one-third of the way through the book before I began to get a real sense of the story.

One problem that I had with the book was that Nostromo, the main character around whom all the action takes place, is absent from much of the book. We only see him obliquely through the eyes of others, and for long passages he doesn't seem to figure in at all. He is described as the bold and courageous Italian seaman who is a natural-born leader and is admired by everyone. He is incorruptible and undaunted by any challenge, the very model that the inventor of the phrase "paragon of virtue" had in mind.

Nostromo is a hero to the Europeans living in the political upheaval that is Costaguana. When revolution comes, he is the one who saves the day with a dramatic ride. He is also the man chosen to spirit away a load of silver ingots before they can fall into the hands of the "wrong side." He takes them out to sea where they are supposedly lost when the boat sinks, but were they really lost? Well, Nostromo is incorruptible so he wouldn't lie about it, would he?

The revolution is resolved - sort of - and Nostromo slowly begins to build up his wealth until finally he is a very wealthy, as well as respected, man, but then, predictably, it all begins to fall apart. One just knows this isn't going to end well, and (Spoiler alert!) it doesn't.

I really wanted to like this book, but I just found it tedious in the extreme. Although the overall story appealed to me, I could never really get engaged in it. One thing is certain: Any future Conrad that I read will be from a physical paper book. I think this old-fashioned writer is probably best read in old-fashioned form. (less)

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Jan 17, 2012

Miriam rated it

· review of another edition

This book is really several books that don't always go together--political intrigue story, social commentary on the "primitives" of South America, personal demons tragedy, a love story at the end. I found myself often thinking, "Is Nostromo really as simple as the narrator would have me believe--a figure dominated by vanity and the desire for renown?" And I guess I'm not sure, because his actions seem more wide-ranging than that. Spoiler alert. I don't understand why Deco...more

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Apr 17, 2009

Chris rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

It usually takes until the second reading for me to really get a Conrad novel, but I didn't feel that way with Nostromo. Maybe because I saw a lot of similarities to Lord Jim, I only felt really at sea during Part I. Once the action of the plot got going in Parts II and III, I kept up fine. In retrospect, Part I seems a little longer than it really needed to be. In it Conrad gives vivid portraits of most of the key characters, but since their essential nature is revealed and repeated in Part...more

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Oct 29, 2008

Jukka added it · review of another edition

Shelves: no-girlz-allowed

Nostromo (1904) - Joseph Conrad
My book club shared a read of The Red Tent by Anita Diamant and as it turned out i liked it more than probably most of those in club, or perhaps that's just more than what they wanted me to. At the end of our discussion and in reaction i was asked to pick a guy's book for our next read. Without hesitation i said, "Nostromo" and it was agreed.

This book has reputation! Conrad for starters is just known for his tales; stories concerning th...more

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“There is no peace and no rest in the development of material interests. They have their law, and their justice. But it is founded on expediency, and is inhuman; it is without rectitude, without the continuity and the force that can be found only in a moral principle.” — 4 people liked it

“Government in general, any government anywhere, is a thing of exquisite comicality to a discerning mind.” — 2 people liked it

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