Adrian Buck’s Reviews > Nostromo > Status Update
Adrian Buck
is on page 313 of 489
"The working of the usual public institutions presented itself to him as a series of calamities overtaking private individuals and flowing logically from each other through hate, revenge, folly and rapacity, as though they had been part of a divine dispensation." - I should count my blessings, here I deal only with rapacity, Orbán prides himself on how noiselessly he plucks the goose.
— Apr 29, 2023 02:56AM
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Adrian’s Previous Updates
Adrian Buck
is on page 321 of 489
"The history of that ride, sir, would make a most exciting book" - but not one Conrad is going to provide us with.
— Apr 29, 2023 03:03AM
Adrian Buck
is on page 321 of 489
"As to his own usefulness, he reflected bitterly it was also in his own character." - In Dr Monygham, Conrad anticipates Grahame Greene's entire öuevre.
— Apr 29, 2023 03:01AM
Adrian Buck
is on page 312 of 489
"They were proud of, and attached to, the mine. It had secured their confidence and belief. They invested it with a protecting and invisible virtue as though it were a fetish made by their own hands, for they were ignorant, and in other respects did not differ appreciably from the rest of mankind which puts infinite trust in its own creations." - me included.
— Apr 29, 2023 02:51AM
Adrian Buck
is on page 288 of 489
"The fault of this country is the want of measure in political life. Flat acquiesence in illegality, followed by sanguinary reaction - that, senores, is not the way to a stable and prosperous future." - All unhappy countries are alike; each happy country is happy in its own way?
— Mar 03, 2023 09:09PM
Adrian Buck
is on page 275 of 489
"The colonel's want of moral sense was of a profound and innocent character. It bordered upon stupidity, moral stupidity. Nothing that served his ends could appear to him really reprehensible" - I'm too hard on my students, they're not bad, just stupid.
— Mar 03, 2023 09:02PM
Adrian Buck
is on page 237 of 489
"...this man was made incorruptible by his enormous vanity, that finest form of egoism which can take on the aspect of every virtue." - Conrad presents his character's vices as virtues and vice-versa, Greene was later to make a whole career from this.
— Mar 03, 2023 08:58PM
Adrian Buck
is on page 135 of 489
""Ah, if one only knew how far you mean to go," said his wife, inwardly trembling, but in an almost playful tone.
"Any, distance, any length, of course," was the answer, in a matter of fact tone, which caused Mrs Gould to make another effort to repress a shudder."
- this much discussion would be better.
— Mar 03, 2023 08:54PM
"Any, distance, any length, of course," was the answer, in a matter of fact tone, which caused Mrs Gould to make another effort to repress a shudder."
- this much discussion would be better.
Adrian Buck
is on page 135 of 489
"There is a curse of futility upon our character: Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, chivalry and materialism, high-sounding sentiments and a supine morality, violent efforts for an idea and a sullen acquiesence in every form of corruption." - not just Hispanic culture?
— Mar 03, 2023 08:44PM
Adrian Buck
is on page 68 of 489
"Only let the material interests get a firm footing, and they are bound to impose the conditions on which alone they can continue to exist. That's how your money-making is justified here in the face of lawlessness and disorder. It's justified because the security it demands much be shared with an oppressed people."
— Feb 19, 2023 05:24AM
