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Within the Tides
Those who read me know my conviction that the world, the temporal world, rests on a few very simple ideas; so simple that they must be as old as the hills. It rests notably, amongst others, on the idea of Fidelity - Joseph Conrad
Written at various times, under various influences, the four stories contained in Within the Tides are linked by Conrad's treatment of loyalty and betrayal. They range in setting from the Far East via eighteenth-century Spain to England. The tone shifts from the tragic inevitability of The Planter of Malata and the pathos of Because of the Dollars to the gothic The Inn of the Two Witches and the grim humour of The Partner. The form of the stories was experimental but does not obscure Conrad's humanity or his search for moral truth.
Here, then, we have a master of the English language - F.R. Leavis
The cover shows a detail from A Coast Scene by Henry Wallis
Written at various times, under various influences, the four stories contained in Within the Tides are linked by Conrad's treatment of loyalty and betrayal. They range in setting from the Far East via eighteenth-century Spain to England. The tone shifts from the tragic inevitability of The Planter of Malata and the pathos of Because of the Dollars to the gothic The Inn of the Two Witches and the grim humour of The Partner. The form of the stories was experimental but does not obscure Conrad's humanity or his search for moral truth.
Here, then, we have a master of the English language - F.R. Leavis
The cover shows a detail from A Coast Scene by Henry Wallis
183 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1911
26 people are currently reading
241 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Conrad
3,172 books4,891 followersJoseph Conrad was a Polish-British novelist and story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language and, although he did not speak English fluently until his twenties, he became a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature. He wrote novels and stories, many in nautical settings, that depict crises of human individuality in the midst of what he saw as an indifferent, inscrutable, and amoral world.
Conrad is considered a literary impressionist by some and an early modernist by others, though his works also contain elements of 19th-century realism. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters, as in Lord Jim, for example, have influenced numerous authors. Many dramatic films have been adapted from and inspired by his works. Numerous writers and critics have commented that his fictional works, written largely in the first two decades of the 20th century, seem to have anticipated later world events.
Writing near the peak of the British Empire, Conrad drew on the national experiences of his native Poland—during nearly all his life, parceled out among three occupying empires—and on his own experiences in the French and British merchant navies, to create short stories and novels that reflect aspects of a European-dominated world—including imperialism and colonialism—and that profoundly explore the human psyche.
Conrad is considered a literary impressionist by some and an early modernist by others, though his works also contain elements of 19th-century realism. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters, as in Lord Jim, for example, have influenced numerous authors. Many dramatic films have been adapted from and inspired by his works. Numerous writers and critics have commented that his fictional works, written largely in the first two decades of the 20th century, seem to have anticipated later world events.
Writing near the peak of the British Empire, Conrad drew on the national experiences of his native Poland—during nearly all his life, parceled out among three occupying empires—and on his own experiences in the French and British merchant navies, to create short stories and novels that reflect aspects of a European-dominated world—including imperialism and colonialism—and that profoundly explore the human psyche.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
June 21, 2017
Within the Tides is a collection of four short stories by Joseph Conrad and first published in 1911.
Using as a vehicle his almost signature style of relating the story as if told by another, the actual narration originates from a group of old sailors swapping tales. Conrad’s subtle recitation is reminiscent of James Joyce.
In the essay / review by Agata Szczeszak-Brewer. Empire and Pilgrimage in Conrad and Joyce. "Though they were born a generation apart, Joseph Conrad and James Joyce shared similar life experiences and similar literary preoccupations. Both left their home countries at a relatively young age and remained lifelong expatriates ... both rejected organized religion and observed the colonial presence in their native countries allowed them to destabilize traditional notions of power, colonialism, and individual freedom in their texts."
In the “Planter of Malata” Geoffrey Renouard plays the role of the Conradian misanthropic loner and outsider looker in. Drawn inevitably to society, he becomes enraptured and entangled in a human drama that leads to a fateful decision.
“The Partner” is a tale of duplicity and betrayal. It is well settled that Conrad influenced Ernest Hemingway; this one is a template for Papa to use down the road again and again.
“The Inn of the Two Witches” describes a chance adventure found written out in some notes at the bottom of a decaying old box, a treasure found unexpected as Conrad relates a story of intrigue on the lonely Cuban coast.
Finally in “Because of the Dollars” Conrad returns to his frequent setting of “a great port in the East” (actually present day Vietnam, the setting of several of his stories) and describes the unique community of the European colonials in the far flung neighborhood of Southeast Asia, and of the underside of that group, of villainy and desperate solitude of the Victory genre of his canon.
Using as a vehicle his almost signature style of relating the story as if told by another, the actual narration originates from a group of old sailors swapping tales. Conrad’s subtle recitation is reminiscent of James Joyce.
In the essay / review by Agata Szczeszak-Brewer. Empire and Pilgrimage in Conrad and Joyce. "Though they were born a generation apart, Joseph Conrad and James Joyce shared similar life experiences and similar literary preoccupations. Both left their home countries at a relatively young age and remained lifelong expatriates ... both rejected organized religion and observed the colonial presence in their native countries allowed them to destabilize traditional notions of power, colonialism, and individual freedom in their texts."
In the “Planter of Malata” Geoffrey Renouard plays the role of the Conradian misanthropic loner and outsider looker in. Drawn inevitably to society, he becomes enraptured and entangled in a human drama that leads to a fateful decision.
“The Partner” is a tale of duplicity and betrayal. It is well settled that Conrad influenced Ernest Hemingway; this one is a template for Papa to use down the road again and again.
“The Inn of the Two Witches” describes a chance adventure found written out in some notes at the bottom of a decaying old box, a treasure found unexpected as Conrad relates a story of intrigue on the lonely Cuban coast.
Finally in “Because of the Dollars” Conrad returns to his frequent setting of “a great port in the East” (actually present day Vietnam, the setting of several of his stories) and describes the unique community of the European colonials in the far flung neighborhood of Southeast Asia, and of the underside of that group, of villainy and desperate solitude of the Victory genre of his canon.
February 4, 2017
"One may meditate on life endlessly, one may even have a poor opinion of it--but the fact remains that we have only one life to live. And it is short."
-- Joseph Conrad, Within the Tides, "The Planter of Malata"
Joseph Conrad likes to test men. He likes to place them in circumstances that bend, break, or change men. These four short stories collected together are all typical Conrad. The language is beautiful and clean. There is an abundance of psychology and perhaps even a bit of madness.
The Four Stories are:
1. The Planter of Malata - 5 stars
2. The Partner - 4 stars
3. The Inn of the Two Witches - 3 stars
4. Because of the Dollars - 4 stars
I used to tell my wife the reason I pushed and teased people was I wanted them a bit off balanced. Like those punching bags with sand in the bottom, people can lean and pretend. They show me their mask, but not their "real" side. They can easily provide to stranger or friend an act or a cover for who they really are. Often, however, when you shake them, surprise them, "punch them" intellectually a bit it throws this mask off. When they "recover" their balance they (even just momentarily) often lose their artifice and pretense. I think Conrad is a bit like that. I think in his search for truths about people, he wants to examine the edges, the stresses, the places where people collapse or change. In that zone. In that littoral zone of the human psyche, truth resides.
-- Joseph Conrad, Within the Tides, "The Planter of Malata"
Joseph Conrad likes to test men. He likes to place them in circumstances that bend, break, or change men. These four short stories collected together are all typical Conrad. The language is beautiful and clean. There is an abundance of psychology and perhaps even a bit of madness.
The Four Stories are:
1. The Planter of Malata - 5 stars
2. The Partner - 4 stars
3. The Inn of the Two Witches - 3 stars
4. Because of the Dollars - 4 stars
I used to tell my wife the reason I pushed and teased people was I wanted them a bit off balanced. Like those punching bags with sand in the bottom, people can lean and pretend. They show me their mask, but not their "real" side. They can easily provide to stranger or friend an act or a cover for who they really are. Often, however, when you shake them, surprise them, "punch them" intellectually a bit it throws this mask off. When they "recover" their balance they (even just momentarily) often lose their artifice and pretense. I think Conrad is a bit like that. I think in his search for truths about people, he wants to examine the edges, the stresses, the places where people collapse or change. In that zone. In that littoral zone of the human psyche, truth resides.
November 6, 2016
Joseph Conrad could be a good writer of short stories, and his best short stories have a unity and clarity that is often lacking in his longer works. Sadly, Within the Tides is not the best place to look for Conrad’s story-telling skills, and none of the four tales here can be counted among his better works.
Two of the stories are merely potboilers. ‘The Partner’ is a morality tale about greed, though the moral is unambiguous and not especially insightful. It concerns a plan to make money by scuttling a ship. A worthless man is employed to carry out the act, but an attempt to lock him in the hold of the sinking ship backfires badly. He is released by the ship’s owner who he then shoots. As a result of his death, the money goes to his widow, and the plotters lose out on the chance to invest in a lucrative business.
The story is related in a crude and flippant way by a rascally man, who asks the unnamed narrator, a writer, to polish the story up before publication. However, the narrator does not think too highly of the story and simply presents it in the unvarnished way that he was told. I am inclined to suspect that Conrad felt the same way about the story too.
‘The Inn of the Two Witches’ is a spooky tale about two seamen who are forced to land in a Spanish village during the Napoleonic wars. The officer seeks out his ship, but when he returns for the other crew member, he is unable to find him. He agrees to stay overnight with three sinister ladies who claim to have seen his shipmate. In fact, they have killed his crew man by use of a descending baldaquin, and the officer only narrowly escapes the same fate.
In his biography of Conrad, Jocelyn Baines dismisses the story as being only suitable for children. The story is not that bad, and is a serviceable creepy tale. Conrad was no specialist in Poe-like tales of the macabre, but the story is competent enough, if somewhat insubstantial.
The other two stories have a little more substance, and read like offcuts of Victory, Conrad’s last novel. Indeed ‘Because of the Dollars’ features the kindly Davidson, the only decent man who survived that novel. Alas, a spiteful fate awaits him in this story. In the course of Davidson’s business, the sea captain and trader engages in work with a disreputable man living on an island with a female companion whom Davidson has previously known.
Laughing Anne (as she is called) warns Davidson that three visitors to the island intend to kill him and steal the money on his ship. Forewarned, Davidson is able to save himself, but one of the robbers kills Laughing Anne in retaliation. The good-hearted captain decides to adopt her son in recompense, but his jealous and mean-spirited wife assumes that the son is his illegitimate child, and leaves Davidson.
The story plays out many of the themes of Victory in a muted but glum manner. Once again a man is betrayed by his willingness to form ties with other people in the world, although this time it only results in two deaths (Davidson is able to kill Laughing Anne’s murderer). The story is a sad one, and Conrad had intended it to be the main story for Victory. However, the limitations of the scenario caused him to relegate it to a minor short story.
The longest story here is ‘The Planter of Malata’. The planter is Renouard, and he agrees to help Professor Moorsom and his daughter to find her missing fiancé, who fled the country after being wrongly implicated in a financial scandal. The professor does not seem especially keen to find the missing man, and Felicia seems to be conflicted between her wish to do the honourable thing by her disgraced fiancé and her obvious attraction to Renouard.
Eventually it turns out that the missing fiancé is a partner whom Renouard had employed, and everybody decides to visit Renouard’s island to bring him back. The problem is that Renouard has not told them that the fiancé had in fact died out there, because Renouard has fallen in love with Felicia and does not wish her to return home too quickly. Eventually he confesses. Felicia leaves, and Renouard commits suicide.
Readers of ‘Freya of the Seven Isles’ or Victory will not to be too surprised that the story has no happy ending. As in those stories, the characters are too romanticised to be imagined living a happy ordinary life of domestic bliss after the story ends. Indeed Renouard’s eventual fate recalls that of other Conrad characters who chose a death by sea – Brierley in Lord Jim, or Decoud in Nostromo.
The story is interesting enough, but is marred by a few flaws. Firstly it is predictable that the missing fiancé will turn out to be Renouard’s companion, and Renouard’s refusal to simply state that the fiancé is dead rings false. Some of the romantic language in the story is also a little insipid and clichéd.
More seriously, the story treats the leading female character with a good deal of resentment, often the case in Conrad’s stories. We see a similar note of resentment in Conrad’s handling of Davidson’s wife, the witchlike conspirers in ‘The Inn of the Two Witches’ and even the ineffectual widow in ‘The Partner’ who goes into a decline after her husband’s death, though it is she who inherits the money that everyone else wants.
In this case, we are told that Felicia Moorson’s fidelity to her fiancé is not an honourable motivation but almost an affectation. Her feelings and her motivations, both her father and Renouard suggest, are mere froth and not to be taken as having any depth. We have heard similar sentiments elsewhere in Conrad, where women are seen to be out of touch with reality and shallow in their understanding.
Conrad was not a misogynist, but he was far from being a feminist either, and perhaps his time at sea away from female society had caused him to view them as having no understanding of the deeper affairs of men. ‘The women are out of it’ as Marlow says in Heart of Darkness, and this seemed to be Conrad’s belief too.
The stories in this collection are decent enough, and some pleasure can be gained from reading. However, they are written with the left hand of Conrad, and are probably not a good starting point for anyone unfamiliar with his works.
Two of the stories are merely potboilers. ‘The Partner’ is a morality tale about greed, though the moral is unambiguous and not especially insightful. It concerns a plan to make money by scuttling a ship. A worthless man is employed to carry out the act, but an attempt to lock him in the hold of the sinking ship backfires badly. He is released by the ship’s owner who he then shoots. As a result of his death, the money goes to his widow, and the plotters lose out on the chance to invest in a lucrative business.
The story is related in a crude and flippant way by a rascally man, who asks the unnamed narrator, a writer, to polish the story up before publication. However, the narrator does not think too highly of the story and simply presents it in the unvarnished way that he was told. I am inclined to suspect that Conrad felt the same way about the story too.
‘The Inn of the Two Witches’ is a spooky tale about two seamen who are forced to land in a Spanish village during the Napoleonic wars. The officer seeks out his ship, but when he returns for the other crew member, he is unable to find him. He agrees to stay overnight with three sinister ladies who claim to have seen his shipmate. In fact, they have killed his crew man by use of a descending baldaquin, and the officer only narrowly escapes the same fate.
In his biography of Conrad, Jocelyn Baines dismisses the story as being only suitable for children. The story is not that bad, and is a serviceable creepy tale. Conrad was no specialist in Poe-like tales of the macabre, but the story is competent enough, if somewhat insubstantial.
The other two stories have a little more substance, and read like offcuts of Victory, Conrad’s last novel. Indeed ‘Because of the Dollars’ features the kindly Davidson, the only decent man who survived that novel. Alas, a spiteful fate awaits him in this story. In the course of Davidson’s business, the sea captain and trader engages in work with a disreputable man living on an island with a female companion whom Davidson has previously known.
Laughing Anne (as she is called) warns Davidson that three visitors to the island intend to kill him and steal the money on his ship. Forewarned, Davidson is able to save himself, but one of the robbers kills Laughing Anne in retaliation. The good-hearted captain decides to adopt her son in recompense, but his jealous and mean-spirited wife assumes that the son is his illegitimate child, and leaves Davidson.
The story plays out many of the themes of Victory in a muted but glum manner. Once again a man is betrayed by his willingness to form ties with other people in the world, although this time it only results in two deaths (Davidson is able to kill Laughing Anne’s murderer). The story is a sad one, and Conrad had intended it to be the main story for Victory. However, the limitations of the scenario caused him to relegate it to a minor short story.
The longest story here is ‘The Planter of Malata’. The planter is Renouard, and he agrees to help Professor Moorsom and his daughter to find her missing fiancé, who fled the country after being wrongly implicated in a financial scandal. The professor does not seem especially keen to find the missing man, and Felicia seems to be conflicted between her wish to do the honourable thing by her disgraced fiancé and her obvious attraction to Renouard.
Eventually it turns out that the missing fiancé is a partner whom Renouard had employed, and everybody decides to visit Renouard’s island to bring him back. The problem is that Renouard has not told them that the fiancé had in fact died out there, because Renouard has fallen in love with Felicia and does not wish her to return home too quickly. Eventually he confesses. Felicia leaves, and Renouard commits suicide.
Readers of ‘Freya of the Seven Isles’ or Victory will not to be too surprised that the story has no happy ending. As in those stories, the characters are too romanticised to be imagined living a happy ordinary life of domestic bliss after the story ends. Indeed Renouard’s eventual fate recalls that of other Conrad characters who chose a death by sea – Brierley in Lord Jim, or Decoud in Nostromo.
The story is interesting enough, but is marred by a few flaws. Firstly it is predictable that the missing fiancé will turn out to be Renouard’s companion, and Renouard’s refusal to simply state that the fiancé is dead rings false. Some of the romantic language in the story is also a little insipid and clichéd.
More seriously, the story treats the leading female character with a good deal of resentment, often the case in Conrad’s stories. We see a similar note of resentment in Conrad’s handling of Davidson’s wife, the witchlike conspirers in ‘The Inn of the Two Witches’ and even the ineffectual widow in ‘The Partner’ who goes into a decline after her husband’s death, though it is she who inherits the money that everyone else wants.
In this case, we are told that Felicia Moorson’s fidelity to her fiancé is not an honourable motivation but almost an affectation. Her feelings and her motivations, both her father and Renouard suggest, are mere froth and not to be taken as having any depth. We have heard similar sentiments elsewhere in Conrad, where women are seen to be out of touch with reality and shallow in their understanding.
Conrad was not a misogynist, but he was far from being a feminist either, and perhaps his time at sea away from female society had caused him to view them as having no understanding of the deeper affairs of men. ‘The women are out of it’ as Marlow says in Heart of Darkness, and this seemed to be Conrad’s belief too.
The stories in this collection are decent enough, and some pleasure can be gained from reading. However, they are written with the left hand of Conrad, and are probably not a good starting point for anyone unfamiliar with his works.
January 20, 2010
This is a fun collection of short stories. All four are centered around the sea, though none of them ever really make it out to sea. They touch on supernatural (The Inn of the Two Witches is flat out creepy) without being ghost stories per se. Three of the four stories are from the perspective of a rugged, individualistic man. The other, The Partner, shows what'll happen to you if you're NOT a rugged individualistic man.
January 25, 2020
Four superb stories form the contents of this volume. Ranging from Southeast Asia to London and to Spain, they illustrates some of Conrad's most recurrent themes. "The Planter of Malata," for example, centers on the frustrations and illusions rendered through the pursuit of misplaced love. The same theme is at work as part of the background to the last story as well, "Because of the Dollars," which works at two levels--the self deception about his wife inflicted on a good, well meaning ship's captain and a similar willingness to fall to the predation of low men on the part of a "painted woman." Fortunately, the "painted woman," in this case, isn't reduced to the cliched "prostitute with a heart of gold," but she does demonstrate how even those caught in the most extreme positions in life can find redemption, albeit at a terrible cost. And redemption is a rare thing in Conrad. And just to make sure you realize it, the final image of the captain is of someone left alone and hopeless, despite his good works.
In between are two other tales. In "The Partner," Conrad experiments with the elliptical, both at the literal level in the sentence and the narrative level with his story. It isn't his best effort, and it gives way to the third story in the volume, "The Inn of the Two Witches--A Find." This piece resembles something concocted in the mind of Edgar Allan Poe. Even down to the mechanism of murder. But more, it's atmosphere pulsates with a dark and stormy landscape, fitting for the isolated fiends the hero uncovers in his journey.
Good adventure all the way around, with "Because of the Dollars" perhaps the strongest in this regard. And the one most likely to fit in with other novels and tales Conrad fashioned out of the landscape of Southeast Asia.
In between are two other tales. In "The Partner," Conrad experiments with the elliptical, both at the literal level in the sentence and the narrative level with his story. It isn't his best effort, and it gives way to the third story in the volume, "The Inn of the Two Witches--A Find." This piece resembles something concocted in the mind of Edgar Allan Poe. Even down to the mechanism of murder. But more, it's atmosphere pulsates with a dark and stormy landscape, fitting for the isolated fiends the hero uncovers in his journey.
Good adventure all the way around, with "Because of the Dollars" perhaps the strongest in this regard. And the one most likely to fit in with other novels and tales Conrad fashioned out of the landscape of Southeast Asia.
November 29, 2021
5 out of 10. Sometimes reading Conrad I find myself wondering what the hell he's talking about...though written in beautiful English...usually the difficulty regards what a character is supposed to be feeling.
December 14, 2014
I got this to listen to during a commute and was disappointed. It seemed very slow and hard to follow - but I'll take the blame. It was probably the wrong material to compete with rush hour traffic and deserved quiet attention.
Short Stories - Recorded - 4 psychological studies - "The Planter of Malata" a novella of the planter and his relationship with the daughter of a professor; "The Partner" about a plan to wreck a ship for the insurance; "The Inn of the Two Witches" follows two English seamen in Spain during the Napoleonic Wars; "Because of the Dollars" troubles sea captain Davidson.
Short Stories - Recorded - 4 psychological studies - "The Planter of Malata" a novella of the planter and his relationship with the daughter of a professor; "The Partner" about a plan to wreck a ship for the insurance; "The Inn of the Two Witches" follows two English seamen in Spain during the Napoleonic Wars; "Because of the Dollars" troubles sea captain Davidson.
June 5, 2020
I have these Conrad short stories in Penguin 506, second edition 1945, and it has more than signs of wear and tear. The sewn pages are in good nick, though, and it was a pleasure to hold and read.
These things matter, especially if you struggle with Conrad and haven’t read him for a while.
I found the opening number, ‘The Planter of Malata’, hard to get into: slow moving (as if affected by the South-East Asian tropical heat of its setting) and to me full of abstracts and intangible obscurities. Now that I look for examples, I can’t find them, which I think means that having finished the book, I’ve acclimatised to the style. And that’s a good thing because I liked these yarns.
‘The Planter’, the longest story, is really a novella. Renouard, an island-dwelling experimental planter of something – never made clear: I imagined rubber – on one of his journeys to the mainland encounters and falls in love with a young woman from England who has come east with her father to look for her fiancé. Said young man has disappeared following a financial scandal from which he was exonerated, but who finds his sense of shame is insupportable. A local journalist discovers that he is the very man who Renouard took on as an assistant when he was last in town. So, Renouard finds himself compromised, whether to declare himself or tell the young woman an uncomfortable truth. The tale is brooding, moody, steamy (in a literal sense), full of ennui and women dressing inappropriately but nevertheless immaculately for the climate. Reminded me of ‘Victory’ (which I last read in 1970, I think), in which I seem to remember the island-dwelling Heyst is undone by falling in love.
Two of the other stories, ‘The Partner’ and ‘Because of the Dollars’, both in one way or another about men trying to get their hands on easy money and being thwarted, are both narrated by a man who becomes the mouthpiece for someone else who is telling him a long yarn. Well made tales, bobbing steadily along: the nature of seamen who have time on their hands seems to require unhasty storytelling, but that was, once I was warmed up, fine by me. I found myself enjoying being slowed down.
The fourth story, ‘The Inn of the Two Witches’ is set in northern Spain: a young naval officer is sent on a mission to meet a band of resistance fighters in Napoleonic Europe. The narrator purports to be an antiquarian of sorts who comes across a manuscript from 1813 which gives the outline of the story that he then elaborates. It turns out to be something that Edgar Allan Poe might have written.
I’m glad to have read these. I’d forgotten that Conrad can set a scene, create a mood, and establish situations that test his characters’ integrity or which places them between a rock and a hard place, requiring them to make impossible decisions. It makes me think it’s time to pick up ‘Victory’ again, and perhaps to try ‘Under Western Eyes’ which I’ve never read.
These things matter, especially if you struggle with Conrad and haven’t read him for a while.
I found the opening number, ‘The Planter of Malata’, hard to get into: slow moving (as if affected by the South-East Asian tropical heat of its setting) and to me full of abstracts and intangible obscurities. Now that I look for examples, I can’t find them, which I think means that having finished the book, I’ve acclimatised to the style. And that’s a good thing because I liked these yarns.
‘The Planter’, the longest story, is really a novella. Renouard, an island-dwelling experimental planter of something – never made clear: I imagined rubber – on one of his journeys to the mainland encounters and falls in love with a young woman from England who has come east with her father to look for her fiancé. Said young man has disappeared following a financial scandal from which he was exonerated, but who finds his sense of shame is insupportable. A local journalist discovers that he is the very man who Renouard took on as an assistant when he was last in town. So, Renouard finds himself compromised, whether to declare himself or tell the young woman an uncomfortable truth. The tale is brooding, moody, steamy (in a literal sense), full of ennui and women dressing inappropriately but nevertheless immaculately for the climate. Reminded me of ‘Victory’ (which I last read in 1970, I think), in which I seem to remember the island-dwelling Heyst is undone by falling in love.
Two of the other stories, ‘The Partner’ and ‘Because of the Dollars’, both in one way or another about men trying to get their hands on easy money and being thwarted, are both narrated by a man who becomes the mouthpiece for someone else who is telling him a long yarn. Well made tales, bobbing steadily along: the nature of seamen who have time on their hands seems to require unhasty storytelling, but that was, once I was warmed up, fine by me. I found myself enjoying being slowed down.
The fourth story, ‘The Inn of the Two Witches’ is set in northern Spain: a young naval officer is sent on a mission to meet a band of resistance fighters in Napoleonic Europe. The narrator purports to be an antiquarian of sorts who comes across a manuscript from 1813 which gives the outline of the story that he then elaborates. It turns out to be something that Edgar Allan Poe might have written.
I’m glad to have read these. I’d forgotten that Conrad can set a scene, create a mood, and establish situations that test his characters’ integrity or which places them between a rock and a hard place, requiring them to make impossible decisions. It makes me think it’s time to pick up ‘Victory’ again, and perhaps to try ‘Under Western Eyes’ which I’ve never read.
June 12, 2024
The Planter of Malata, 2 stars
The Partner
3 stars.
Two brothers own a ship. Te one that handles the business on land is partners with a man doing business in pateNt medicine. He convinces the ship-owner to sink the ship and, with the insurance money,go deeper into business with the patented medicines (think Liver Pills). The captain brother wants nothin to do with the fraud, once the oter brother is convinced that it could work. So, the Partners (of the title) hire a conman to sign on as first mate and sabotage the cable to the anhor onthe nex voyage. This causes the ship to drift and wreck on some sandbars. Nothing good comes of this plan.
The Inn of the Two Witches
3 stars
some Romanians have an inn in the North of Spain where, if you spend the night, the canopy of the bed comes down and suffocates you.
Also, the seaman who has a ponytail wrapped in porpoise skin.
Because of the Dollars
4 stars
This is the story that i checked the book out for. It was mentioned in the book "Victory."
it's the story of a good man, married to a bad wife.
Davidson was also a hero in the book "Victory."
The Partner
3 stars.
Two brothers own a ship. Te one that handles the business on land is partners with a man doing business in pateNt medicine. He convinces the ship-owner to sink the ship and, with the insurance money,go deeper into business with the patented medicines (think Liver Pills). The captain brother wants nothin to do with the fraud, once the oter brother is convinced that it could work. So, the Partners (of the title) hire a conman to sign on as first mate and sabotage the cable to the anhor onthe nex voyage. This causes the ship to drift and wreck on some sandbars. Nothing good comes of this plan.
The Inn of the Two Witches
3 stars
some Romanians have an inn in the North of Spain where, if you spend the night, the canopy of the bed comes down and suffocates you.
Also, the seaman who has a ponytail wrapped in porpoise skin.
Because of the Dollars
4 stars
This is the story that i checked the book out for. It was mentioned in the book "Victory."
it's the story of a good man, married to a bad wife.
Davidson was also a hero in the book "Victory."
October 20, 2019
Some people think Conrad was at his best on the sea; I think that he was at his best in the South Seas. His own experiences as a sailor in this area gave him material for much of his work, and there is something about the climate and culture of the place that seems to magnify emotions and character traits and to lay bare the subconscious. So The Planter of Malata, which opens this collection of stories, takes its place in my mind along side Lord Jim, Almayer's Folly and Victory among my favorites of Conrad's writing. I enjoyed the contradictory psychology of the planter, Renoir, who is drawn into a trap of lies and betrayal by his love. His behavior is crazy, but has an undeniable internal logic. The other stories in this collection were a bit less enticing for me, but neverthelesss good and worth reading.
January 31, 2018
Four solid stories that I thought would be a treat, and lo: they were! My only real complaint is that there wasn't a fifth. They are by no means Conrad at his peak, and for anyone who's read a fair amount of Conrad they are more or less unsurprising, but in my humble opinion their worth isn't limited by that. Rather, they're enjoyable yarns well told. Sometimes that's all I really want, especially in a collection of short stories.
Plus, it's the kind of slim volume you can tuck in a coat pocket. I love a good book that knows how to travel light, personally.
Plus, it's the kind of slim volume you can tuck in a coat pocket. I love a good book that knows how to travel light, personally.
September 5, 2021
Entertaining listening 🔰😀
Four short stories will written by Joseph Conrad, each with a different story line and characters. I would recommend this novella to a reader looking for a quick read. Enjoy the adventure of reading or listening 🔰 2021☺
Four short stories will written by Joseph Conrad, each with a different story line and characters. I would recommend this novella to a reader looking for a quick read. Enjoy the adventure of reading or listening 🔰 2021☺
January 29, 2023
Perhaps, after all, it's as a short story writer that I most love Conrad. This collection of four tales is superb, each one finely crafted and leaping from the page. If you've read 'Victory' and wondered what the fuss is about Joseph Conrad, this is a much better book to turn to.
January 30, 2020
Read Penguin 1978 Edition.
Planter of Malata not his best.
Planter of Malata not his best.
April 25, 2023
The intro said these stories were about fidelity, I think they were linked by greed. But I only have masters degree so …
December 28, 2023
four pretty formulaic adventure stories about swashbuckling and/or moody dudes. well written, obviously, and in a cool variety of voices
June 2, 2014
There are four stories in this collection. Three of them are familiar Conrad territory: the agony of fallible humanity, and as usual he conveys bleakness in the most realistic and depressing way. (That's a compliment. The fourth story, the Inn of the Two Witches, makes you wish he had written more of this sort of thing - it makes your flesh creep. Joseph Conrad, the most underrated author ever.
December 16, 2011
Conrad is suddenly becoming one of my favorite authors, and I haven't even read any of his "major" works yet. My favorite stories in this collection were "The Planter of Malata" and "Because of the Dollars."
November 2, 2013
The inn of the two witches is by far my favorite! Read this just before I went to bed which probably wasn't the best of ideas (had to check for hidden contraptions). Brilliant short story with an ending which is beautifully twisted.
March 4, 2021
This was a grand collection of Conrad tales. I highly recommend it.
April 6, 2009
read the planter of Malaya if nothing else, omits own I would give that story 4 stars, his best romantic tale. the other stories are only so so.
Read
February 21, 2010Within the Tides (Twentieth-Century Classics) by Joseph Conrad (1993)
August 29, 2012
Conrad's writing is brilliant as always, but these short stories are pretty depressing.
April 27, 2016
4 Great Stories
If you have read other works by this author, you will not be disappointed in these stories. An enjoyable read.
If you have read other works by this author, you will not be disappointed in these stories. An enjoyable read.
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