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The Inheritors
Book jacket/ This novel was conceived in the heated and controversial politics of Britain at the turn of the century. Arthur Granger, an aristocratic and unsuccessful novelist, betrays the ideals he prides himself on for the unrequited love of a young woman. And no ordinary woman, she, but an ethereal, goddess-like, nameless agent from a strange world.
324 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1901
32 people are currently reading
528 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Conrad
3,091 books4,849 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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February 14, 2017
In 1901 Joseph Conrad and Ford Maddox Ford, two of the greatest literary writers of the 20th Century, pooled their talents to write a novel about interdimensional terrorism. Almost no one has read it, and those who have do not seem to think much of it.
To critics, it is a mere curiosity, only of any possible interest to completists of Ford or Conrad's works--so, to any of you who have been looking for reasons to dismiss my opinions and paint me as incoherent, here is the gift: I found this book perfectly fascinating. But then, I have come at it from a much different direction than any critic I have seen.
In 1936, J.R.R. Tolkien gave a speech on Beowulf that completely changed the way scholarship on the poem was approached. Prior to this, the poem was studied for almost purely historical reasons: as a portrait of a time in history of which we have very little documentation. However, Tolkien argued that the critics were missing much of the meaning and subtext of the work by ignoring the symbolism of the fantastical elements: the monster Grendel, his mother, and the dragon.
The same oversight seems to have taken place in the approach to this book: critics talk about common themes of Ford's and Conrad's, such as the obsolescence of nobility and the class system, or the foul cruelties of colonialism. They talk about how the book represents the politics of the times, how certain events mirror and comment on history. Yet they completely ignore the central symbolic thrust of the work, the extended conceit which ties the whole thing together.
Unlike most critics, I was primed to look for the meaning behind the fantastical elements, coming to this book not from the context of Conrad's and Ford's more famous works, but from the works of Lovecraft, Chambers, Hodgson, and Blackwood--here, once more, is the tale of that sensitive man, the artist plagued by an otherworldliness that draws him on inexorably to the forfeiture of his very humanity--as well as Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Moorcock, and Griffith, of powerful revolutionaries set to topple the order of the world.
Since magic is the physical representation of an idea, a metaphor sprung to life, it behooves us to ask: what does the magic in this tale represent, and how does it operate within the work? Most intriguing for analyzing the tale is the fact that--unlike what some critics claim--the supernatural element is not merely 'tacked-on', but is a vital part of both Conrad's and Ford's presentation.
To Ford, these alien beings infesting our world--long before the 'Body Snatchers' and 'Pod People' of the 50's Communist scare--are the very spirit of the changing Zeitgeist. It is their arrival (and their insidious effect on society) that will inevitably destroy a thousand years of hereditary rule, plunging the whole world into a war from which it will emerge reborn, a new land of fresh ideas which leaves the old powers amongst the ash.
To Conrad, it represents the subtle treachery of colonial influence, the ability of the ruling power to seduce, use, and abuse its subjects, to make them doubt, to reshape their minds from within, all without their recognizing it, to cause them to betray and subjugate themselves through art, ideal, faith, and symbol. And all of this meaning is wrapped up in a single character, a woman, who with the protagonist creates a rather odd romance: a romance of the colonized mind, a romance of personal obsolescence--but then, perhaps it really isn't so odd, after all.
The subtle turns in the way her alienness is explored would do credit to any of the classic authors of Supernatural Horror. Firstly there is the fact that as we're looking at it, we can't be quite certain if it's even real, or if perhaps the girl is simply mad, or playing a trick on our hero--an idea he clings to desperately.
Additionally, it is implied that somehow, we are descended from these beings, that they are our source, but that we have since forgotten, ceased to see the wonder of other realms, and grown petty (and a bit unhinged)--and that they periodically return to recolonize us. Of course, there is a sort of hint of Dunsany's Elfland in this: the mystical, untouchable realm which fades away from our reality, but which makes us dream, and which we constantly recall through potent images and feelings, without ever realizing what it is these memories represent.
Then there is the impression that, not only are the thoughts of these outsiders infectious and transformational, but that they must be careful not to be changed, themselves, by their interactions with humanity--it is a more delicate way of playing with the notion that 'man himself is the monster'--he is not so in a physical, violent sense, but in the cosmic, Lovecraftian one: that perhaps in this universe, man is the incomprehensible, insane force, not the merely the staid victim--the notion of idea as a disease, of the infection of the meme, recalling the absurd yet seductive theory of Julian Jaynes.
Of course, there is also a colonial commentary here: that even as the colonizer forces her will upon the other, she in turn is changed by their biases and values, no matter how carefully she guards herself against that influence, the natural tendency is for both sides, conqueror and conquered, to draw ever closer together, and even to bind.
In that sense, there is a deep parallel between this story and Kipling's famous representation of a love affair between overseer and vassal: Without Benefit of Clergy--and an even closer similarity to Tagore's less-romanticized reversal, The Postmaster--excepting that in this case, it is the woman who possesses the power of standing and knowledge.
It is also interesting to see Ford and Conrad, not yet successful authors when they collaborated, write about the life of the struggling author: the hopelessness of it, the sense that one is always 'selling one's self' to do work that is little more than propaganda for the state, contrasted with the intense desire to do something worthwhile.
There is also a great deal of clever drawing-room humor, which I expect is Ford's, as Conrad's humor tends to be less that of the wit and more the ironic and morbid cynic. From Conrad, we instead get those utterly characteristic digressions, a sentence here or there where some fundamental aspect of human life is encapsulated in a few profound phrases.
Of course, there are some problems, as well: both authors are young, trying to find their way, and the whole project was, to them, an attempt to make a bit of money--meaning there is some deprecating cleverness to the fact that it is about a writer who gives up his artistry in order to write things that will pay. The most prominent issue is Ford's constant use of the word 'infinite' in his metaphors. Of course, we understand that he is trying to touch on matters of the sublime 'Fourth Dimension', but it could have been done with more variety instead of simple repetition.
The 'Fourth Dimension' itself was coined by H.G. Wells, a friend of both writers, whose success with The Time Machine inspired them to write this fantastical political tale. Wells tried to publish an essay on the topic, exploring the concept that time (like heighth, width, and length), might be seen as traversable, or at least as a coordinate for describing matter, but it went over the head of his editor, who told him to put it in a story, which he did.
In that sense, The Inheritors can also be read as a time-travel story, and that it is not a more perfect place which colonizes us, but a more perfect time. To put it briefly: there are so many fantastical and speculative threads coming together in this story that it would be quite dizzying, if it weren't all performed by subtle implication. Really, we never know just what is going on--all we can do is take in clues and surmise as best we can.
But of course, that's the whole nature of the fantastical: that even when it touches us, we are unable to explain it, to make sense of it, to wrap our minds around it. We tell ourselves that it is an impossibility, we try to ignore it, to concentrate on art or love--on those mad human passions that always draw us away--and yet the fantastical has a way of getting inside of us, no matter how we try to fight it off, of changing us, in such a way that we can never quite go back to the way it was before.
We are left suffused with a feeling of strange nostalgia, and a kind of bitterness--that now we are worldly, we have seen, and cannot be simple again. But then, the true searcher in the dark would never choose simplicity--for if the world has broken one's heart, at least it can be said you loved it--and in the end, that is the true message of Ford's and Conrad's strange little book, too long unknown, ignored, dismissed, but no longer lost to me, or to you.
Lovecraft once said:
And it seems such a shame not to know what he might have made of this book.
Get it for free here at Project Gutenberg
To critics, it is a mere curiosity, only of any possible interest to completists of Ford or Conrad's works--so, to any of you who have been looking for reasons to dismiss my opinions and paint me as incoherent, here is the gift: I found this book perfectly fascinating. But then, I have come at it from a much different direction than any critic I have seen.
In 1936, J.R.R. Tolkien gave a speech on Beowulf that completely changed the way scholarship on the poem was approached. Prior to this, the poem was studied for almost purely historical reasons: as a portrait of a time in history of which we have very little documentation. However, Tolkien argued that the critics were missing much of the meaning and subtext of the work by ignoring the symbolism of the fantastical elements: the monster Grendel, his mother, and the dragon.
The same oversight seems to have taken place in the approach to this book: critics talk about common themes of Ford's and Conrad's, such as the obsolescence of nobility and the class system, or the foul cruelties of colonialism. They talk about how the book represents the politics of the times, how certain events mirror and comment on history. Yet they completely ignore the central symbolic thrust of the work, the extended conceit which ties the whole thing together.
Unlike most critics, I was primed to look for the meaning behind the fantastical elements, coming to this book not from the context of Conrad's and Ford's more famous works, but from the works of Lovecraft, Chambers, Hodgson, and Blackwood--here, once more, is the tale of that sensitive man, the artist plagued by an otherworldliness that draws him on inexorably to the forfeiture of his very humanity--as well as Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Moorcock, and Griffith, of powerful revolutionaries set to topple the order of the world.
Since magic is the physical representation of an idea, a metaphor sprung to life, it behooves us to ask: what does the magic in this tale represent, and how does it operate within the work? Most intriguing for analyzing the tale is the fact that--unlike what some critics claim--the supernatural element is not merely 'tacked-on', but is a vital part of both Conrad's and Ford's presentation.
To Ford, these alien beings infesting our world--long before the 'Body Snatchers' and 'Pod People' of the 50's Communist scare--are the very spirit of the changing Zeitgeist. It is their arrival (and their insidious effect on society) that will inevitably destroy a thousand years of hereditary rule, plunging the whole world into a war from which it will emerge reborn, a new land of fresh ideas which leaves the old powers amongst the ash.
To Conrad, it represents the subtle treachery of colonial influence, the ability of the ruling power to seduce, use, and abuse its subjects, to make them doubt, to reshape their minds from within, all without their recognizing it, to cause them to betray and subjugate themselves through art, ideal, faith, and symbol. And all of this meaning is wrapped up in a single character, a woman, who with the protagonist creates a rather odd romance: a romance of the colonized mind, a romance of personal obsolescence--but then, perhaps it really isn't so odd, after all.
The subtle turns in the way her alienness is explored would do credit to any of the classic authors of Supernatural Horror. Firstly there is the fact that as we're looking at it, we can't be quite certain if it's even real, or if perhaps the girl is simply mad, or playing a trick on our hero--an idea he clings to desperately.
Additionally, it is implied that somehow, we are descended from these beings, that they are our source, but that we have since forgotten, ceased to see the wonder of other realms, and grown petty (and a bit unhinged)--and that they periodically return to recolonize us. Of course, there is a sort of hint of Dunsany's Elfland in this: the mystical, untouchable realm which fades away from our reality, but which makes us dream, and which we constantly recall through potent images and feelings, without ever realizing what it is these memories represent.
Then there is the impression that, not only are the thoughts of these outsiders infectious and transformational, but that they must be careful not to be changed, themselves, by their interactions with humanity--it is a more delicate way of playing with the notion that 'man himself is the monster'--he is not so in a physical, violent sense, but in the cosmic, Lovecraftian one: that perhaps in this universe, man is the incomprehensible, insane force, not the merely the staid victim--the notion of idea as a disease, of the infection of the meme, recalling the absurd yet seductive theory of Julian Jaynes.
Of course, there is also a colonial commentary here: that even as the colonizer forces her will upon the other, she in turn is changed by their biases and values, no matter how carefully she guards herself against that influence, the natural tendency is for both sides, conqueror and conquered, to draw ever closer together, and even to bind.
In that sense, there is a deep parallel between this story and Kipling's famous representation of a love affair between overseer and vassal: Without Benefit of Clergy--and an even closer similarity to Tagore's less-romanticized reversal, The Postmaster--excepting that in this case, it is the woman who possesses the power of standing and knowledge.
It is also interesting to see Ford and Conrad, not yet successful authors when they collaborated, write about the life of the struggling author: the hopelessness of it, the sense that one is always 'selling one's self' to do work that is little more than propaganda for the state, contrasted with the intense desire to do something worthwhile.
There is also a great deal of clever drawing-room humor, which I expect is Ford's, as Conrad's humor tends to be less that of the wit and more the ironic and morbid cynic. From Conrad, we instead get those utterly characteristic digressions, a sentence here or there where some fundamental aspect of human life is encapsulated in a few profound phrases.
Of course, there are some problems, as well: both authors are young, trying to find their way, and the whole project was, to them, an attempt to make a bit of money--meaning there is some deprecating cleverness to the fact that it is about a writer who gives up his artistry in order to write things that will pay. The most prominent issue is Ford's constant use of the word 'infinite' in his metaphors. Of course, we understand that he is trying to touch on matters of the sublime 'Fourth Dimension', but it could have been done with more variety instead of simple repetition.
The 'Fourth Dimension' itself was coined by H.G. Wells, a friend of both writers, whose success with The Time Machine inspired them to write this fantastical political tale. Wells tried to publish an essay on the topic, exploring the concept that time (like heighth, width, and length), might be seen as traversable, or at least as a coordinate for describing matter, but it went over the head of his editor, who told him to put it in a story, which he did.
In that sense, The Inheritors can also be read as a time-travel story, and that it is not a more perfect place which colonizes us, but a more perfect time. To put it briefly: there are so many fantastical and speculative threads coming together in this story that it would be quite dizzying, if it weren't all performed by subtle implication. Really, we never know just what is going on--all we can do is take in clues and surmise as best we can.
But of course, that's the whole nature of the fantastical: that even when it touches us, we are unable to explain it, to make sense of it, to wrap our minds around it. We tell ourselves that it is an impossibility, we try to ignore it, to concentrate on art or love--on those mad human passions that always draw us away--and yet the fantastical has a way of getting inside of us, no matter how we try to fight it off, of changing us, in such a way that we can never quite go back to the way it was before.
We are left suffused with a feeling of strange nostalgia, and a kind of bitterness--that now we are worldly, we have seen, and cannot be simple again. But then, the true searcher in the dark would never choose simplicity--for if the world has broken one's heart, at least it can be said you loved it--and in the end, that is the true message of Ford's and Conrad's strange little book, too long unknown, ignored, dismissed, but no longer lost to me, or to you.
Lovecraft once said:
"Conrad's reputation is deserved -- he has the sense of ultimate nothingness and the evanescence of illusions which only a master and an aristocrat can have; and he mirrors it forth with that uniqueness and individuality which are genuine art. No other artist I have yet encountered has so keen an appreciation of the essential solitude of the high grade personality -- that solitude whose projected overtones form the mental world of each sensitively organised individual"
And it seems such a shame not to know what he might have made of this book.
Get it for free here at Project Gutenberg
May 30, 2015
What a strange novel!
The Inheritors is an obscure book by two major British novelists. It's rarely discussed, and I can see why.
The plot concerns a political scheme to undermine the British empire, based on a Congo-like colonial venture and manipulated journalists. The lead schemer claims she's from the Fourth Dimension and is working to replace the human race (hence the title: her people are our inheritors). So we get a weird hybrid of late Victorian/early Edwardian society tale, science fiction, and political allegory.
But the weighting is not what you might expect from that account. The opening chapter is science fiction, or at least slipstream, as our feckless hero walks across the English countryside looking for a job, only to run into the world-conquering heroine who simply tells him her plans. She has the power of an alien language which controls people's minds, and can even alter our hero's perceptions to show him... an alternate reality? his world from a 4-dimensional view? an antecedent to Lovecraft's "From Beyond"? We never learn, in part because Arthur gets outplayed.
After that dizzying first chapter the novel falls back into a more normal world of the year 1900. We get sketches of British literary and journalistic life, impressions of London, a visit to Paris. And, strangely, Winston Churchill, who becomes Arthur's friend and co-author (!), playing a tragic role as a good man politically outflanked.
The main scheme concerns a European aristocrat's colonization of Greenland, and feels like an allegory of the Belgian Congo: a seemingly humanitarian enterprise which is really horrific exploitation. We don't give into the Greenland project deeply, as it's there mostly as a tool for British political advantage. I don't know how parodic it might have read when the book appeared.
The middle of the book sagged for me, as Arthur moped a lot about the mysterious (never truly named) woman. Her pretending to be his sister was entertaining. Also saggy was the immersion the lives of those being manipulated, as their connections to the plots are understated, and they never emerge fully enough to be careworthy on their own.
By the book's end...
I wish we'd seen more of the Fourth Dimension and its inhabitants. The heroine is fascinating, a kind of super-science character, almost a mad scientist, a bit like Bazarov from Turgenev's Fathers and Children.
Recommended if you are interested in this weirdness, and can power through the saggy sections.
Here's my favorite passage from that great first chapter:
The Inheritors is an obscure book by two major British novelists. It's rarely discussed, and I can see why.
The plot concerns a political scheme to undermine the British empire, based on a Congo-like colonial venture and manipulated journalists. The lead schemer claims she's from the Fourth Dimension and is working to replace the human race (hence the title: her people are our inheritors). So we get a weird hybrid of late Victorian/early Edwardian society tale, science fiction, and political allegory.
But the weighting is not what you might expect from that account. The opening chapter is science fiction, or at least slipstream, as our feckless hero walks across the English countryside looking for a job, only to run into the world-conquering heroine who simply tells him her plans. She has the power of an alien language which controls people's minds, and can even alter our hero's perceptions to show him... an alternate reality? his world from a 4-dimensional view? an antecedent to Lovecraft's "From Beyond"? We never learn, in part because Arthur gets outplayed.
After that dizzying first chapter the novel falls back into a more normal world of the year 1900. We get sketches of British literary and journalistic life, impressions of London, a visit to Paris. And, strangely, Winston Churchill, who becomes Arthur's friend and co-author (!), playing a tragic role as a good man politically outflanked.
The main scheme concerns a European aristocrat's colonization of Greenland, and feels like an allegory of the Belgian Congo: a seemingly humanitarian enterprise which is really horrific exploitation. We don't give into the Greenland project deeply, as it's there mostly as a tool for British political advantage. I don't know how parodic it might have read when the book appeared.
The middle of the book sagged for me, as Arthur moped a lot about the mysterious (never truly named) woman. Her pretending to be his sister was entertaining. Also saggy was the immersion the lives of those being manipulated, as their connections to the plots are understated, and they never emerge fully enough to be careworthy on their own.
By the book's end...
I wish we'd seen more of the Fourth Dimension and its inhabitants. The heroine is fascinating, a kind of super-science character, almost a mad scientist, a bit like Bazarov from Turgenev's Fathers and Children.
Recommended if you are interested in this weirdness, and can power through the saggy sections.
Here's my favorite passage from that great first chapter:
"If you expect me to believe that you inhabit a mathematical monstrosity, you are mistaken. You are, really."
She turned round and pointed at the city.
"Look!" she said.
We had climbed the western hill. Below our feet, beneath a sky that the wind had swept clean of clouds, was the valley; a broad bowl, shallow, filled with the purple of smoke-wreaths. And above the mass of red roofs there soared the golden stonework of the cathedral tower. It was a vision, the last word of a great art. I looked at her. I was moved, and I knew that the glory of it must have moved her.
She was smiling. "Look!" she repeated. I looked.
There was the purple and the red, and the golden tower, the vision, the last word. She said something—uttered some sound.
What had happened? I don't know. It all looked contemptible. One seemed to see something beyond, something vaster—vaster than cathedrals, vaster than the conception of the gods to whom cathedrals were raised. The tower reeled out of the perpendicular. One saw beyond it, not roofs, or smoke, or hills, but an unrealised, an unrealisable infinity of space.
It was merely momentary. The tower filled its place again and I looked at her.
"What the devil," I said, hysterically—"what the devil do you play these tricks upon me for?"
November 5, 2021
The Dimensionists were to come in swarms, to materialise, to devour like locusts, to be all the more irresistible because indistinguishable. They were to come like snow in the night: in the morning one would look out and find the world white; they were to come as the gray hairs come, to sap the strength of us as the years sap the strength of the muscles. As to methods, we should be treated as we ourselves treat the inferior races. There would be no fighting, no killing; we--our whole social system--would break as a beam snaps, because we were worm-eaten with altruism and ethics.
In 1901, Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford (still writing as "Ford Madox Hueffer" at the time) decided to collaborate on the writing of a novel which would borrow some of the speculative elements from the recently published novels of H.G. Wells (such as The War of the Worlds (1898)). Essentially, they write a science-fiction novel, The Inheritors. Conrad was the more experienced writer at this point, having just published Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness two years earlier. Ford had yet to write his famous works. They worked out the main plot; Ford would write a chapter and Conrad would proof and revise. The result is a decent novel on the burgeoning power of the press but a relatively weak work of science fiction.
The authors describe a group of "Fourth Dimensionists" intent on destabilizing modern society in order to come to power in our world without the need for violence or war. A European duke attempts to get rich building a railroad in Greenland to help lift the "Esquimaux" to a civilized status; to garner financial support, the duke relies on an entrenched, liberal politician to sell the importance of this "humanitarian mission" and receive the support of England's government. The Fourth Dimensionists work behind the scenes, derailing the entire enterprise and destroying the careers of the duke and his backers and allowing one of their own members to rise in political power.
The novel is narrated by Etchingham Granger, a writer of "pathetic possiblity, hidden in the heart of the white paper that bore pen-markings of a kind too good to be marketable." He is our liasion with the Dimensionists, falling in love with one. While he believes he possesses free-will, the events of the novel reveal he is delusional in thinking his actions have any influence or effect on the machinations of the Dimensionists.
I am a fan of Joseph Conrad and I had never heard of this novel, which bridges the gap between Heart of Darkness and The Secret Agent. There are elements from both works. The duke's assertion his plan will civilize the Esquimaux echoes Conrad's examinations of the impact of commerce on the Congo. The careful manipulation of a small coterie of conspiracists willing to do whatever it takes to attain power is reworked and far more compelling in The Secret Agent. I enjoyed coming across passages I knew in my heart were penned by Conrad. His prose is inimitable and, when fully unleashed, breath-taking.
Overall, I wouldn't read this novel because it is "science fiction." Though intended to be a quick, popular novel to earn quick cash, it failed to do so and, in my opinion, did not influence later works of science fiction. The novel of a gifted novelist selling out to make a quick buck--and Conrad and Ford are being self-reflective in this endeavor--is the heart of this novel. Granger doesn't always make sense, but his descent down the slippery slope prepared by the Dimensionists is compelling. There was a lot of untilized potential in this novel. I wanted to know more about the Dimensionists, but the authors leave behind more questions than answers regarding their nature.
In 1901, Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford (still writing as "Ford Madox Hueffer" at the time) decided to collaborate on the writing of a novel which would borrow some of the speculative elements from the recently published novels of H.G. Wells (such as The War of the Worlds (1898)). Essentially, they write a science-fiction novel, The Inheritors. Conrad was the more experienced writer at this point, having just published Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness two years earlier. Ford had yet to write his famous works. They worked out the main plot; Ford would write a chapter and Conrad would proof and revise. The result is a decent novel on the burgeoning power of the press but a relatively weak work of science fiction.
The authors describe a group of "Fourth Dimensionists" intent on destabilizing modern society in order to come to power in our world without the need for violence or war. A European duke attempts to get rich building a railroad in Greenland to help lift the "Esquimaux" to a civilized status; to garner financial support, the duke relies on an entrenched, liberal politician to sell the importance of this "humanitarian mission" and receive the support of England's government. The Fourth Dimensionists work behind the scenes, derailing the entire enterprise and destroying the careers of the duke and his backers and allowing one of their own members to rise in political power.
The novel is narrated by Etchingham Granger, a writer of "pathetic possiblity, hidden in the heart of the white paper that bore pen-markings of a kind too good to be marketable." He is our liasion with the Dimensionists, falling in love with one. While he believes he possesses free-will, the events of the novel reveal he is delusional in thinking his actions have any influence or effect on the machinations of the Dimensionists.
I am a fan of Joseph Conrad and I had never heard of this novel, which bridges the gap between Heart of Darkness and The Secret Agent. There are elements from both works. The duke's assertion his plan will civilize the Esquimaux echoes Conrad's examinations of the impact of commerce on the Congo. The careful manipulation of a small coterie of conspiracists willing to do whatever it takes to attain power is reworked and far more compelling in The Secret Agent. I enjoyed coming across passages I knew in my heart were penned by Conrad. His prose is inimitable and, when fully unleashed, breath-taking.
Overall, I wouldn't read this novel because it is "science fiction." Though intended to be a quick, popular novel to earn quick cash, it failed to do so and, in my opinion, did not influence later works of science fiction. The novel of a gifted novelist selling out to make a quick buck--and Conrad and Ford are being self-reflective in this endeavor--is the heart of this novel. Granger doesn't always make sense, but his descent down the slippery slope prepared by the Dimensionists is compelling. There was a lot of untilized potential in this novel. I wanted to know more about the Dimensionists, but the authors leave behind more questions than answers regarding their nature.
July 24, 2025
«И к тому же, — сказала я, — сам вопрос Гренландии. Гренландией должны завладеть мы, англичане… рано или поздно. Это прямо касается и вас. У вас есть сын, довольно обеспеченный; ему не по душе жизнь в графстве, вы хотите послать его за границу с небольшим капитальцем. Что ж, лучше Гренландии места не найти». Так мистер Тулл посмотрел на меня и чуть не покачал головой, даже не скрываясь.
«Вы уж меня простите, миледи, — сказал он, — так дело не пойдет. Да, мистер Черчилль — не какой-нибудь шарлатан. Я знаю, что он с этим делом связан. Но… что ж, короче говоря, миледи, нельзя влезть в деготь и не запачкаться, или, по крайней мере, люди решат, что вы запачкались, — те, что вас не знают. Другие государства — это все очень здорово, как и великое герцогство, как и завладеть Гренландией, но вот что касается лично меня: у моего соседа Слингсби были деньжата, и ему в руки попала реклама проекта. Все выглядело замечательно — просто замечательно, — и он принес мне брошюру. Я до этого дела решил не касаться, а вот Слингсби вложился. И теперь Слингсби на пособии и его ждет работный дом, а ведь его жена по рождению почти что леди. Еще чуть-чуть, и это был бы я — да пронесло божьей милостью. Слингсби — человек хороший и был работящим всю жизнь; а теперь оказывается, что та брошюра — козни де Мерша, „авантюрные планы“, как их зовут в газете. И таких проектов де Мерш или его агенты наплодили прорву. А все ради чего? Чтоб де Мерш стал самым богатым человеком в мире и филантропом. А что же делать Слингсби, если это филантропия? И вот приходит мистер Черчилль и, так сказать, заявляет: „Все это хорошо, но этот самый де Мерш — какой-то там великий герцог, и его надо поддержать в его королевстве, иначе у него будут неприятности с державами“. Державы — что мне державы? Или Гренландия? Когда Слингсби — человек, с которым я раскуривал по трубочке каждый вечер своей жизни, — в работном доме? И таких Слингсби — сотни по стране».
***
«Меня ждал день треволнений. И в моих обстоятельствах этому оставалось только радоваться — так я отвлекался от своих неприятностей. Попробуй предаться мрачным думам, когда правишь норовистой лошадью».
***
Короче, вроде и ерунда какая-то, а вроде и нашлись ближе к концу слова, которые хочется выделить, и как будто гоголевщина даже немного, ну и в паре с «Машиной времени» хорошо читалось.
«Вы уж меня простите, миледи, — сказал он, — так дело не пойдет. Да, мистер Черчилль — не какой-нибудь шарлатан. Я знаю, что он с этим делом связан. Но… что ж, короче говоря, миледи, нельзя влезть в деготь и не запачкаться, или, по крайней мере, люди решат, что вы запачкались, — те, что вас не знают. Другие государства — это все очень здорово, как и великое герцогство, как и завладеть Гренландией, но вот что касается лично меня: у моего соседа Слингсби были деньжата, и ему в руки попала реклама проекта. Все выглядело замечательно — просто замечательно, — и он принес мне брошюру. Я до этого дела решил не касаться, а вот Слингсби вложился. И теперь Слингсби на пособии и его ждет работный дом, а ведь его жена по рождению почти что леди. Еще чуть-чуть, и это был бы я — да пронесло божьей милостью. Слингсби — человек хороший и был работящим всю жизнь; а теперь оказывается, что та брошюра — козни де Мерша, „авантюрные планы“, как их зовут в газете. И таких проектов де Мерш или его агенты наплодили прорву. А все ради чего? Чтоб де Мерш стал самым богатым человеком в мире и филантропом. А что же делать Слингсби, если это филантропия? И вот приходит мистер Черчилль и, так сказать, заявляет: „Все это хорошо, но этот самый де Мерш — какой-то там великий герцог, и его надо поддержать в его королевстве, иначе у него будут неприятности с державами“. Державы — что мне державы? Или Гренландия? Когда Слингсби — человек, с которым я раскуривал по трубочке каждый вечер своей жизни, — в работном доме? И таких Слингсби — сотни по стране».
***
«Меня ждал день треволнений. И в моих обстоятельствах этому оставалось только радоваться — так я отвлекался от своих неприятностей. Попробуй предаться мрачным думам, когда правишь норовистой лошадью».
***
Короче, вроде и ерунда какая-то, а вроде и нашлись ближе к концу слова, которые хочется выделить, и как будто гоголевщина даже немного, ну и в паре с «Машиной времени» хорошо читалось.
September 21, 2020
If you're not an aspiring Conrad completist like I am, you can quite easily not read this book because, frankly, it isn't very good. It starts off impressively--mysterious and beautiful girl "accidentally" meets a failing writer, tells him her secret (she's part of a pan-dimensional force of conquest, apparently from a sidereal future of superior, cosmic beings who know exactly how to conquer and destroy us all), and then skips away laughing into the English countryside--and commences (and ends) awfully: page after page of tedious expose on then-British politics, the machinations of the astute and wealthy, and so on.
A strong start, and a shitty rest-of. It does have its moments. For one thing, it is actually very funny, in that dry British way we all love. And when the Dimensionist girl is around, it's a lot of fun. Otherwise, eminently skippable.
Since it was a collaboration between Conrad and Ford, it's hard to know who to blame. I've never read Ford, so I'll blame him since I know Conrad to be both a fine stylist and storyteller.
A strong start, and a shitty rest-of. It does have its moments. For one thing, it is actually very funny, in that dry British way we all love. And when the Dimensionist girl is around, it's a lot of fun. Otherwise, eminently skippable.
Since it was a collaboration between Conrad and Ford, it's hard to know who to blame. I've never read Ford, so I'll blame him since I know Conrad to be both a fine stylist and storyteller.
January 17, 2023
"Sí, decime. Sí, rápido, Walter. Síntesis Walter. ¿Qué decís? No se entiende".
Una novela con la lógica de la ciencia ficción, pero que en realidad es una novela de controversia política, narrada desde el punto de vista de un escritor que es un imbécil y que se enamora de una mujer que viene de la Cuarta Dimensión.
Por momentos es misteriosa e interesante. Por muchos momentos es insoportable, con una cantidad de nombres, no dichos, implícitos que no existen, traiciones, complots imaginarios, etc. Por momentos sentí que era como si alguien escribiera sobre la maquinaria política con mucho asombro, pero sin conocimiento de cómo funciona. Pero estos son 2 titantes, así que no sé.
Lo único que está bien es la sensación de pérdida y desorientación que tiene el protagonista, que el lector la sufre a la enésima potencia.
Seguramente pueden hacerse lecturas valiosas sobre las oposiciones de escritor comercial / escritor artista, o lo nuevo / lo conservador, el humanismo / lo maquínico (como dice la contratapa). Pero no me gustó. Me costó horrores terminarla. La traducción probablemente no ayudó. La cantidad de puntos suspensivos, la cantidad de adverbios y repeticiones.
Una novela con la lógica de la ciencia ficción, pero que en realidad es una novela de controversia política, narrada desde el punto de vista de un escritor que es un imbécil y que se enamora de una mujer que viene de la Cuarta Dimensión.
Por momentos es misteriosa e interesante. Por muchos momentos es insoportable, con una cantidad de nombres, no dichos, implícitos que no existen, traiciones, complots imaginarios, etc. Por momentos sentí que era como si alguien escribiera sobre la maquinaria política con mucho asombro, pero sin conocimiento de cómo funciona. Pero estos son 2 titantes, así que no sé.
Lo único que está bien es la sensación de pérdida y desorientación que tiene el protagonista, que el lector la sufre a la enésima potencia.
Seguramente pueden hacerse lecturas valiosas sobre las oposiciones de escritor comercial / escritor artista, o lo nuevo / lo conservador, el humanismo / lo maquínico (como dice la contratapa). Pero no me gustó. Me costó horrores terminarla. La traducción probablemente no ayudó. La cantidad de puntos suspensivos, la cantidad de adverbios y repeticiones.
July 13, 2014
Genre-wise it's classified as a sci-fi thriller. Extra-dimensional beings are infiltrating the higher echelons of western society to engineer an economic collapse by scuppering yet another colony, this time in Greenland. The actual fantasy elements are reduced to a shimmering city in the air, a lady whose luminosity is more literal than usual, and a dash of sociopathy in a few characters. As to their plot, it's interesting to read something where an admittedly murderous colony run by a wildcat King Leopold is held up as the last hope for humanity. The cynical eye exposing the assumed-philanthropic mission is the same which uncynically deems it essential for Britain's survival. Possibly an irony that's too thick for me. Actual plot is minimal, the narrator simply makes a tour of various dinner parties until he has a failure of nerve at work, but the descriptions of those dinner parties are beautiful. The house of a publisher's reader flooded with a sodden mass of unpublished matter is a highlight. Apparently it's not very well thought of, but I liked it a great deal. It was also my first time reading a free download from Project Gutenberg on an e-reader, and it wasn't ideal. The formatting was frequently off, and the copy-editing was perpetually suspect. I wish I could have found a nice physical edition but I don't think this is in print at the moment.
March 27, 2021
Separately, Joseph Conrad and Ford Maddox Ford wrote some of the most compelling fiction of the early 20th Cent. I had not been aware of their friendship and literary collaborations. What an odd pair! Condrad was a methodical stylist who wrote ponderous novels in an oddly-syntaxed English (Conrad was Polish) dealing with the evils within people and society. Ford was a modernist who loved playing with form and stream of consciousness. How would a book written by both ever work? Well, after reading The Inheritors I have come to the conclusion that this was an failed experiment. I kept asking myself Is this a science fiction novel (people from the 4th Dimension are taking over our earth)? A political novel (a scheme to get the British Government to back a takeover of Greenland turns out to be badly botched imperialism)? Or is this a battle between generations of writers, one out of vogue and clinging to outdated values (Henry James) the other mercenary, clear eyed and scientifically unemotional (HG Wells)? Well, I suppose it is a little of everything and that probably has a great deal to do with its failure. I kept waiting to see where this was going and it went….nowhere.
July 26, 2013
I finished reading the Inheritors this afternoon. Overall an enjoyable read, but one must remember, it is a science fiction/political intrigue story from 1901. Sadly, this was not the book that inspired Genesis in the song A Trick Of The Tail, though admittedly, it was an honest mistake. By the time I realized the error, I was interested enough in the book to finish it.
It is a novel that must be read carefully as it is full of political intrigue with just enough science fiction to make it more intriguing. Several key ideas spring to my mind having read it:
1. Beware politicians.
2. Beware beautiful women from another dimension.
3. Don't let strangers impersonate a family member.
4. Be true to one's values, family and friends
If you can do this, perhaps you would have faired better than the protagonist of this book and would have had a much happier ending. Sometimes, tradition is a good thing to hold on to.
BTW: It may offend some readers as there are some racially tinged dialogue in the novel, not an atrocious amount, but be aware.
It is a novel that must be read carefully as it is full of political intrigue with just enough science fiction to make it more intriguing. Several key ideas spring to my mind having read it:
1. Beware politicians.
2. Beware beautiful women from another dimension.
3. Don't let strangers impersonate a family member.
4. Be true to one's values, family and friends
If you can do this, perhaps you would have faired better than the protagonist of this book and would have had a much happier ending. Sometimes, tradition is a good thing to hold on to.
BTW: It may offend some readers as there are some racially tinged dialogue in the novel, not an atrocious amount, but be aware.
February 17, 2020
This novel is crap Conrad. It has his usual amazing prose, but the story is tedious and goes nowhere. It was a chore to get through at only 200 pages. Also, don't buy into the idea that this is an early science fiction novel. While a major character claims that she's from the "Fourth Dimension," the rest of the novel does little with this premise and instead focuses on a writer struggling as a journalist.
If you've never read Conrad, start with Heart of Darkness, and then move on to The Secret Agent or Lord Jim. The Inheritors is only worthwhile if you're a Conrad fan and want to read his complete works -- otherwise, I'd skip it.
If you've never read Conrad, start with Heart of Darkness, and then move on to The Secret Agent or Lord Jim. The Inheritors is only worthwhile if you're a Conrad fan and want to read his complete works -- otherwise, I'd skip it.
July 22, 2017
Different to most of Conrad’s books, and written in collaboration with another great author, Ford Maddox Ford.
A story about a romantically obsessed young writer, who slavishly follows the wishes of a very politically ambitious lady who is from the 4th dimension – that was the science fiction pretension. However, there was no need to invoke a different dimension as she was not especially perceptive and merely wanted to take over the world, just like any ‘normal’ sociopath might.
Well written but just didn’t do the business for me.
A story about a romantically obsessed young writer, who slavishly follows the wishes of a very politically ambitious lady who is from the 4th dimension – that was the science fiction pretension. However, there was no need to invoke a different dimension as she was not especially perceptive and merely wanted to take over the world, just like any ‘normal’ sociopath might.
Well written but just didn’t do the business for me.
February 19, 2011
I get the appeal of this book in it's time, but the combination of light sci-fi and a study in manners just didn't wash for me. I would have been just as happy and far less distracted by having the plot work out without the fantatstical element, which in my mind was only a distraction. It read like a fiction class exercise that ended up more than it needed to be and less than it could have been.
November 19, 2025
The Inheritors of the title are an alien (?) or future (?) or something group of ubermensch types who show up in late nineteenth century Europe and infiltrate society and make it smash up so that all the old ideas of loyalty and 'probity' and the like are shown to be based on deep lies so that they can inherit the earth. Add to this that Conrad's writing is so involved and elliptical that it's difficult to say what's happening at any given time-- and it was team-authored by arch-ironist Ford Maddox Ford, who has a markedly different narrative social milieu than Conrad, and there's no chance of understanding the world that you inhabit here. Plus there's a long satire happening where people in high places are urging the colonization of Greenland in order to take its natural resources-- essentially the story of Heart of Darkness but made farcical by happening in the North rather than the South. And this, somehow, rather than being the point of the book, is merely the means by which the alien people triumph in their new beyond good and evil way.
Not very good or interesting.
The copy that I had was published by some terrible off-brand printer and had no page numbers, which was almost like a lived metaphor that you don't know where you are in this journey and it seems like it will never end
Not very good or interesting.
The copy that I had was published by some terrible off-brand printer and had no page numbers, which was almost like a lived metaphor that you don't know where you are in this journey and it seems like it will never end
December 29, 2025
Неожиданно очень и очень плохо, особенно для таких авторов, одним из которых является Джозеф Конрад, написавший великолепное «Сердце тьмы». Похоже, здесь произошло «творческое сложение» худшего из обоих авторов. По крайней мере, ни одной книги Конрада, хуже этой, я не могу вспомнить.
Вялый политический триллер. Повествование рваное, сюжет тёмный, всё выглядит как черновики для чего-то другого. Будто бы авторы работали над книгой, а потом внезапно «охладели к воротам» и решили опубликовать так, как есть, ну, чтобы время работы над книгой не стало просто потерянным временем. Да, имеются забавные параллели с тем, что происходит прямо сейчас, через 125 лет после публикации романа, но это не предвидения, это происходит в любые времена человеческой истории. Если «людей Четвёртого измерения» принять за спецагентов «конкурирующей сверхдержавы», которые разрушают моральные и социальные устои страны, куда их заслали, влияя на слабых в моральном плане чиновников путём интриг, подкупа, угроз, «красных воробьёв» и прочего — это практически то, что мы каждый день читаем в новостях. Опять же, «разговоры о Гренландии».
В общем, «забытый шедевр», похоже, не зря всё это время оставался забытым.
Вялый политический триллер. Повествование рваное, сюжет тёмный, всё выглядит как черновики для чего-то другого. Будто бы авторы работали над книгой, а потом внезапно «охладели к воротам» и решили опубликовать так, как есть, ну, чтобы время работы над книгой не стало просто потерянным временем. Да, имеются забавные параллели с тем, что происходит прямо сейчас, через 125 лет после публикации романа, но это не предвидения, это происходит в любые времена человеческой истории. Если «людей Четвёртого измерения» принять за спецагентов «конкурирующей сверхдержавы», которые разрушают моральные и социальные устои страны, куда их заслали, влияя на слабых в моральном плане чиновников путём интриг, подкупа, угроз, «красных воробьёв» и прочего — это практически то, что мы каждый день читаем в новостях. Опять же, «разговоры о Гренландии».
В общем, «забытый шедевр», похоже, не зря всё это время оставался забытым.
August 16, 2024
O livro é confuso e recorda-me Edgar Allan Poe a partir do momento em que tudo é tão “extraordinário” ou “fantástico” que se torna impossível aos autores descrever o que ocorre (hilariante!).
Retrata um escritor romancista que escreve artigos propagandísticos sobre o projeto Gronelândia mas que vão deixando transparecer no processo a existência de crimes e desordens que refletem os impactos negativos da intervenção inglesa. Não sabemos quais, pois são "extraordinários", nós é que depreendemos.
Existe uma personagem feminina, vinda de uma quarta dimensão, de uma cultura semelhante ao que hoje é escrito sobre a sociedade atual: individualismo, indiferença, leviandade e o show off. A escrita, é "asmática" (vide apêndices) – é irritantemente entrecortada.
A introdução e os apêndices do livro, devem ser lidos para melhor acompanhamento e entendimento da narrativa.
Sim, é irritante e estranho, mas será livro que irei reler.
Retrata um escritor romancista que escreve artigos propagandísticos sobre o projeto Gronelândia mas que vão deixando transparecer no processo a existência de crimes e desordens que refletem os impactos negativos da intervenção inglesa. Não sabemos quais, pois são "extraordinários", nós é que depreendemos.
Existe uma personagem feminina, vinda de uma quarta dimensão, de uma cultura semelhante ao que hoje é escrito sobre a sociedade atual: individualismo, indiferença, leviandade e o show off. A escrita, é "asmática" (vide apêndices) – é irritantemente entrecortada.
A introdução e os apêndices do livro, devem ser lidos para melhor acompanhamento e entendimento da narrativa.
Sim, é irritante e estranho, mas será livro que irei reler.
August 11, 2025
I found this book in a used book store in upstate NY mostly because of Joseph Conrad. I was interested in this book because it is such an old book and story. The book feels and smells old, my favorite.
The story itself was quite odd. There was a lot going on, but not much at the same time. Without giving spoilers, this book makes the reader look at the bigger picture of the world. There are moving parts, but they feel like they are behind the scenes. The vocabulary is a little off-putting, not in an eerie way, but the words used give it an elitist feel, which tracks with the story.
I understand why this book never popped. However, it was a very interesting take on the world in a time when the world was moving slowly and moves were extremely calculated.
Not sure when I will be picking this book back up but it certainly made an impression on me.
The story itself was quite odd. There was a lot going on, but not much at the same time. Without giving spoilers, this book makes the reader look at the bigger picture of the world. There are moving parts, but they feel like they are behind the scenes. The vocabulary is a little off-putting, not in an eerie way, but the words used give it an elitist feel, which tracks with the story.
I understand why this book never popped. However, it was a very interesting take on the world in a time when the world was moving slowly and moves were extremely calculated.
Not sure when I will be picking this book back up but it certainly made an impression on me.
April 5, 2022
I think this is one of Conrad's 'time & place' novels and all I mean by that is that I'm sure in WW1 era England this was the type of novel that would have been very 'timely'. Looking back on it 100 odd years later it's mostly a snore fest but I wouldn't be an ardent Conradian if that's all I took out of it. As with his other works, darkness, exploration and a discovery of 'self' are paramount in his writing. Always going to the 'dark places' either on the map or in our selves and always challenging conceived notions of how things are. When I rate a Conrad story it's against his best stories - HoD, Lord Jim, Youth, when I rate other authors stories it's frequently against Conrad.
August 4, 2017
Ahead of its time -- a person from the 4th dimension, written in 1901.
Want to read
February 21, 2023(hoopla)
January 14, 2025
Honk shoo mi mi mi is all I have to say.
June 10, 2025
essentially silly, but great fun. best opening for a “novel of ideas” i’ve read. ford bits more to my taste than the conrad bits — if im judging right of course
July 15, 2025
Nah. Just skip it. Not for Conrad nor Ford fans.
October 7, 2025
О чём это?
March 5, 2017
Not the Meek
Conrad and Ford (Hueffer) represent two masters of literature and the English language. Each outstanding alone, I am surprised their collaboration fell short. The meek do not inherit the earth, in their eyes. Still, well worth reading
Conrad and Ford (Hueffer) represent two masters of literature and the English language. Each outstanding alone, I am surprised their collaboration fell short. The meek do not inherit the earth, in their eyes. Still, well worth reading
August 4, 2015
Several reviewers have had various goes at explaining what goes on in this short novel. I can't say I'm any the wiser, it's a very odd cross between sci-fi and politics. I'd have thought writers of Conrad and Ford's stature would have come up with something better, maybe they were too young or perhaps too many cooks spoil the broth - how do 2 authors write together ? I get the feeling that Conrad actually wrote most of the text, but Ford came up with the plot, names and settings. It's very much in Conrad's style, but the locations are all like Ford's books.
A reviewer says that Winston Churchill crops up. I think this is false, a key character is called Edward Churchill and he is Foreign Minister, with house in Sussex (Chartwell ?). Given Winston Churchill had only just got elected as an MP for the first time in 1900 and this book is published in 1901, I think it's safe to say that there is no correlation between the character and the subsequent famous politician, just coincidences. But it is distracting having a character called Churchill.
All in all, not even good, but a curious novel, blessedly short, which is worth digging out if you like Conrad and Ford, but otherwise steer clear of it - it might put you off them if you don't know their much better novels (written separately).
A reviewer says that Winston Churchill crops up. I think this is false, a key character is called Edward Churchill and he is Foreign Minister, with house in Sussex (Chartwell ?). Given Winston Churchill had only just got elected as an MP for the first time in 1900 and this book is published in 1901, I think it's safe to say that there is no correlation between the character and the subsequent famous politician, just coincidences. But it is distracting having a character called Churchill.
All in all, not even good, but a curious novel, blessedly short, which is worth digging out if you like Conrad and Ford, but otherwise steer clear of it - it might put you off them if you don't know their much better novels (written separately).
September 26, 2019
F.M.F. with a lot to learn about his craft—but he's young, and he's practicing, and so who shall fault him? The Benefactor, which is at least forty times better, was only four years away.
-=-
SWEEP-READING FORD MADOX FORD (2017-20??)
The Inheritors
The Benefactor
The Soul of London
An English Girl
The Fifth Queen
Mr. Apollo
The Nature of a Crime
The 'Half-Moon'
A Call
The Portrait
Ancient Lights
The Simple Life Limited
Ladies Whose Bright Eyes
The Panel
The New Humpty Dumpty
Mr. Fleight
The Young Lovell
The Good Soldier
The Marsden Case
New York Is Not America
Parade's End
A Little Less than Gods
No Enemy
Return to Yesterday
When the Wicked Man
The Rash Act
It Was the Nightingale
Henry for Hugh
Provence
Great Trade Route
Vive Le Roy
The March of Literature
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SWEEP-READING FORD MADOX FORD (2017-20??)
The Inheritors
The Benefactor
The Soul of London
An English Girl
The Fifth Queen
Mr. Apollo
The Nature of a Crime
The 'Half-Moon'
A Call
The Portrait
Ancient Lights
The Simple Life Limited
Ladies Whose Bright Eyes
The Panel
The New Humpty Dumpty
Mr. Fleight
The Young Lovell
The Good Soldier
The Marsden Case
New York Is Not America
Parade's End
A Little Less than Gods
No Enemy
Return to Yesterday
When the Wicked Man
The Rash Act
It Was the Nightingale
Henry for Hugh
Provence
Great Trade Route
Vive Le Roy
The March of Literature
February 20, 2014
To say that this was a slog to get through would be almost an understatement. Only by dint of my book-reading OCD did I manage to finish. The vocabulary and grammar are old fashioned and filled with obscure Briticisms. The characters are almost indistinguishable. The plot is hard to follow, as it involves politics which were undoubtedly topical when the book was published, but are now all but forgotten and certainly of little interest. The fantasy element, as far as I could tell, because my mind wandered quite a bit during the many dull parts, is negligible.
Note: the co-author is credited as Ford M. Hueffer, which was a pen name of Ford Hermann Hueffer, who later changed his name to Ford Madox Ford.
Note: the co-author is credited as Ford M. Hueffer, which was a pen name of Ford Hermann Hueffer, who later changed his name to Ford Madox Ford.
December 16, 2013
A real oddity -- a dream team of writers - Conrad! Ford! - with no feel at all for the science fiction yarn that this starts out as, they eventually settle for some cosy domestic politics and reflection on the decline of the world. One of the key politicians is a certain Churchill, and there's a gigantic colonial scam based on Greenland... Possibly the worst thing either of them wrote, you ca take a perverse pride in having read it but apart from that there's no real payoff.
I want to see them try a sword and sorcery epic next...
I want to see them try a sword and sorcery epic next...
August 6, 2008
If Conrad and Ford were writing as a team today, they'd probably be cross-posting on each other's "Ally McBeal" fan-fic blogs. So, The Inheritors is better than that. In fact, it demonstrates real talent, with sharp-eyed observations and a swiftly moving narrative.
Nevertheless, the Fourth Dimensionist chippie and the whole Victorian-England-Crumbles-with-the-Failure-of-One-Goddamn-Land-Speculation? Ridiculous, ridiculous bullshit.
Nevertheless, the Fourth Dimensionist chippie and the whole Victorian-England-Crumbles-with-the-Failure-of-One-Goddamn-Land-Speculation? Ridiculous, ridiculous bullshit.
July 12, 2012
I loved 'The Good Soldier' by Ford Madox whatever-his-name-was, and everyone loves Conrad: what on earth they were doing collaborating on this is beyond me. There's a good idea in there somewhere, and it moves along nicely with an excellent sense of the narrator (whining bore) but it would have been much better if they'd handed the whole project over to GK Chesterton. He'd have ended it better, too.
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