EBOOK THE NIGGER OF THE "NARCISSUS" ***
Produced by David Widger
THE NIGGER
of THE NARCISSUS
A TALE OF THE FORECASTLE
BY JOSEPH CONRAD
COPYRIGHT, 1897, 1914,
BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
TO
EDWARD GARNETT
THIS TALE
ABOUT MY FRIENDS
OF THE SEA
TO MY READERS IN AMERICA
From that evening when James Wait joined the ship--late for the muster
of the crew--to the moment when he left us in the open sea, shrouded in
sailcloth, through the open port, I had much to do with him. He was in
my watch. A negro in a British forecastle is a lonely being. He has no
chums. Yet James Wait, afraid of death and making her his accomplice was
an impostor of some character--mastering our compassion, scornful of our
sentimentalism, triumphing over our suspicions.
But in the book he is nothing; he is merely the centre of the ship's
collective psychology and the pivot of the action. Yet he, who in the
family circle and amongst my friends is familiarly referred to as the
Nigger, remains very precious to me. For the book written round him
is not the sort of thing that can be attempted more than once in a
life-time.
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