Youth, a Narrative

And the way he entered manhood marked him forever. Moral dilemmas were always in the very core of Joseph Conrad's writing. And it's here too. But Youth lacks this dark essence flowing through Heart of Darkness , we were spared also sadness and disillusionment of Lord Jim. This very novel is more about adventure and innocence, expectations and hope. It is not tainted yet with sinful deeds and dirty motives, it is not polluted with disappointment, it's not infected with cynicism and apathy.

But for me all the East is contained in that vision of my youth. It is all in that moment when I opened my young eyes on it. I came upon it from a tussle with the sea--and I was young--and I saw it looking at me. And this is all that is left of it! Only a moment; a moment of strength, of romance, of glamour--of youth! View all 38 comments.

Youth by Joseph Conrad is a short, tragi-comic and brilliant portrait of a middle-aged man looking back to the vibrance and enthusiasm of his youthful self. But where Heart of Darkness was a brooding, psychological inspection, Youth is a brief character study of a young man in one of Youth by Joseph Conrad is a short, tragi-comic and brilliant portrait of a middle-aged man looking back to the vibrance and enthusiasm of his youthful self.

But where Heart of Darkness was a brooding, psychological inspection, Youth is a brief character study of a young man in one of his first voyages on the seas. First published in and then later as a collection with Heart of Darkness and The End of the Tether , Youth embodies the simplistic vitality and optimism of a young man. View all 7 comments.

Aug 19, Gaurav rated it really liked it. This could have occurred nowhere but in England, where men and sea interpenetrate, so to speak—the sea entering into the life of most men, and the men knowing something or everything about the sea, in the way of amusement, of travel, or of bread-winning.

But you here—you all had something out of life: It may be said to be an experience that may shape an individual's level of dependency, which can be marked in various ways according to different cultural perspectives. The self-concept of human being is constructed out to vibrancy of youth, the choices made in it shape the future of mankind.

The excitement of youth may be delusional at times, for we tend not to accept our limitations in life. Joseph Conrad builds up a tragic story of humanity looking at vibrancy and enthusiasm of itself when it was youthful. The memories of youth always haunt the adulthood, for the free air of youth teases the monotony of middle age.

Youth is a feat of memory and a record of experiences rooted in its facts, its inwardness, its outward colouring, beginning and ending in itself. The main themes describe some aspects of human life and behaviour, some of which are idealism versus realism, survival and the trials and tribulations that are encountered through life. Marlow, a middle aged man, tells about his voyage of youth to his friends, when he used his exuberance to overcome vagaries of life. The air of adventure and romance keeps him propelling amidst the hardship of the voyage. The burning and sinking of the ship is an adventure to be savoured, but this also foreshadows his future: I thought I would part company as soon as I could.

I wanted to have my first command all to myself. I would make land by myself. I would beat the other boats. The silly, charming, beautiful youth. Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English, instead of the fact that he did not learn as his first language. Marlow, the romantic man, blossoming with youth, falls for Judea the ship despite the obvious challenges of the voyage; rat infestation, crew rebellion, Abraham, the first mate, losing his mind and finally the loss of the ship itself in an explosion, fall out as exciting experiences not so much as tragedies for him.

At the heart of 'Youth' lies the moral dilemmas of humankind- in the middle of sea, the fear of forgetfulness surrounds Marlow, for he doesn't feel belonged to the world; however the thrill of seeing east provided him strength to brave the horrors of existence. In his own command of one of the longboats, he sees a ship on the horizon that might as well relieve them of their duty of bringing the boats into port. The Do or Die motto of the ship resonates so well with him, the flair of his youthfulness struck with it.

The fire of Judea, more dazzling than the flames of the burning ship, throwing a magic light on the wide earth, leaping audaciously to the sky, presently to be quenched by time, more cruel, more pitiless, more bitter than the sea—and like the flames of the burning ship surrounded by an impenetrable night. But he says nothing for this sees it, the magical East. Between the darkness of earth and heaven she was burning fiercely upon a disc of purple sea shot by the blood-red play of gleams; upon a disc of water glittering and sinister.

A high, clear flame, an immense and lonely flame, ascended from the ocean, and from its summit the black smoke poured continuously at the sky. She burned furiously, mournful and imposing like a funeral pile kindled in the night, surrounded by the sea, watched over by the stars. A magnificent death had come like a grace, like a gift, like a reward to that old ship at the end of her laborious days. The surrender of her weary ghost to the keeping of stars and sea was stirring like the sight of a glorious triumph.

The masts fell just before daybreak, and for a moment there was a burst and turmoil of sparks that seemed to fill with flying fire the night patient and watchful, the vast night lying silent upon the sea. At daylight she was only a charred shell, floating still under a cloud of smoke and bearing a glowing mass of coal within. I did not know how good a man I was till then. I remember the drawn faces, the dejected figures of my two men, and I remember my youth and the feeling that will never come back any more—the feeling that I could last for ever, outlast the sea, the earth, and all men; the deceitful feeling that lures us on to joys, to perils, to love, to vain effort—to death; the triumphant conviction of strength, the heat of life in the handful of dust, the glow in the heart that with every year grows dim, grows cold, grows small, and expires—and expires, too soon—before life itself.

Conrad weaves the story around sentences which themselves suggest the exhausting, mind-deadening experience of undergoing a relentless storm and the continual, repetitive struggle to stay alive. The narrative is framed in multiple layers intertwined with the intimate act of telling and listening to oral stories; the seafaring is told with deception and stabilization we observe in The Old man and the Sea. He speaks here not at all of the evils of humans, but of the hardness of their lot and the courage with which ordinary people may face the threat of death.

More than that, he marvels at the fact that such a life can seem like fun. I have seen the mysterious shores, the still water, the lands of brown nations, where a stealthy Nemesis lies in wait, pursues, overtakes so many of the conquering race, who are proud of their wisdom, of their knowledge, of their strength. I came upon it from a tussle with the sea—and I was young—and I saw it looking at me. Only a moment; a moment of strength, of romance, of glamour—of youth! A flick of sunshine upon a strange shore, the time to remember, the time for a sigh, and—good-bye!

View all 17 comments. Apr 28, mark monday rated it really liked it Shelves: To me she was not an old rattletrap carting about the world a lot of coal for a freight - to me she was the endeavour, the test, the trial of life. I think of her with pleasure, with affection, with regret - as you would think of someone dead you have loved. I shall never forget her However, they are both dead and Mrs. Beard is dead, and youth, strength, genius, thoughts, achievements, simple hearts - all dies I don't say positively that the crew of a French or German merchantman wouldn't have done it, but I doubt whether it would have been done in the same way.

There was a completeness in it, something solid like a principle, and masterful like an instinct - a disclosure of something secret - of that hidden something, that gift of good or evil that makes racial difference, that shapes the fate of nations. I didn't know what to make of that so I decided to consult the experts. Yet here Marlow's belief in the existence of a 'hidden something' does not amount to any sort of racial theory of history. The uneven distribution of character appears to him as an inexplicable secret, and it just so happens that the English have more of it than other people.

Marlow's pride in his Englishness does not lead him to pronounce race a 'key to history'; even he feels threatened by the biological definition of national character Conrad also writes that it is service at sea that brings out the 'right stuff' in men. In the final analysis, then, Conrad seems to be suggesting that the highest race one can belong to is not the English race but the transnational, miscegenated Sailor Race, which men belong to after a period of perilous training and collaborative service.

It is a race whose highest moral principle is that all must pull together for the common good. Where Conrad was demonstrably racist in the older, more inclusive sense of the word race is in his belief in the superiority or inferiority of the European "races" or nations in relation to each other -" boldface is mine personally, I'm most inclined to agree with Peter Firchow's interpretation.

View all 11 comments. Judea faces a storm. It is a "Do or Die" situation for the crew.

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He joined the French merchant marine in and the British one in His merchant-marine career lasted 19 years, which is why most of his stories and novels have a nautical setting, depicting trials of the human spirit. In fact, many of their characters were also drawn from his seafaring career and persons whom Judea faces a storm. In fact, many of their characters were also drawn from his seafaring career and persons whom he had met or heard about. He often borrowed the authentic names of actual persons like Captain Beard and Mr.

Mahon in 'Youth' , the short story under review. Writing in the heyday of the British Empire, Conrad created short stories and novels that reflected aspects of a European-dominated world — including colonialism and imperialism. However, the ship seems to be jinxed. Each trip that its crew starts on seems to end in a fiasco with the ship having to return to dock at London.

Even the crew gets changed each time with the exception of the captain, Mahon and the narrator who tells the story in flashback. Joseph Conrad in bowler hat. I had been six years at sea, but had only seen Melbourne and Sydney, very good places, charming places in their way—but Bankok! Even my city Karachi was spelt Kurrachee those days before the British Raj changed its spelling to the present-day one.

Past, Present and Future' was published from Calcutta in the 19th Century. I am reproducing some extracts so that you can realise what an expert Mr. Conrad was on ships, knowing them like the back of his hand. Here he describes about a gale which the crew has to face for several days. It was wind, lightning, sleet, snow, and a terrific sea. We were flying light, and you may imagine how bad it was when I tell you we had smashed bulwarks and a flooded deck. On the second night she shifted her ballast into the lee bow, and by that time we had been blown off somewhere on the Dogger Bank.

There was nothing for it but go below with shovels and try to right her, and there we were in that vast hold, gloomy like a cavern, the tallow dips stuck and flickering on the beams, the gale howling above, the ship tossing about like mad on her side; there we all were, Jermyn, the captain, everyone, hardly able to keep our feet, engaged on that gravedigger's work, and trying to toss shovelfuls of wet sand up to windward.

At every tumble of the ship you could see vaguely in the dim light men falling down with a great flourish of shovels. One of the ship's boys we had two , impressed by the weirdness of the scene, wept as if his heart would break. We could hear him blubbering somewhere in the shadows. We took sixteen days in all to get from London to the Tyne! When we got into dock we had lost our turn for loading, and they hauled us off to a pier where we remained for a month.

Beard the captain's name was Beard came from Colchester to see the old man. She lived on board. The crew of runners had left, and there remained only the officers, one boy, and the steward, a mulatto who answered to the name of Abraham. Beard was an old woman, with a face all wrinkled and ruddy like a winter apple, and the figure of a young girl. She caught sight of me once, sewing on a button, and insisted on having my shirts to repair. This was something different from the captains' wives I had known on board crack clippers.

When I brought her the shirts, she said: They want mending, I am sure, and John's— Captain Beard's— 5 things are all in order now. I would be glad of something to do. She overhauled my outfit for me, and meantime I read for the first time 'Sartor Resartus' and Burnaby's 'Ride to Khiva'. I didn't understand much of the first then; but I remember I preferred the soldier to the philosopher at the time; a preference which life has only confirmed.

One was a man, and the other was either more—or less.

However, they are both dead, and Mrs. Beard is dead, and youth, strength, genius, thoughts, achievements, simple hearts—all die. By the way, what a kind-hearted and loving woman that Mrs. Few of her kind are left in this present-day New World Order. Maybe some of my goodreads friends already know about these books and might have even read them. Later, the narrator of 'Youth' while on a five-day leave goes to London where he buys a complete set of Lord Byron's works to read on the ship. People then truly loved reading books and had excellent choice. Once I visited a friend of mine at the Gidyani Shipbreaking Yard in who took me aboard a huge ship which was being stripped down.

Later, he gave me several books which he had got from the ship's library, including William Peter Blatty's 'The Exorcist'. I was on cloud nine. By the way, 'The Exorcist' is the only film that truly scared me after I had watched a late night show at the Palace cinema hall in Karachi in or I kept thinking about it during the entire night.

The same thing repeated itself when I had watched it a second time. My elder sister went through similar emotions when she watched it. The film had stupendous theme music called 'Tubular Bells' by Mike Oldfield. His top-selling album was titled the same. Mr Oldfield was only 19 when he recorded it in He was only 20 when the album was released in Film poster of William Friedkin's 'The Exorcist' Check out the following two extracts: Oh the fire of it, more dazzling than the flames of the burning ship, throwing a magic light on the wide earth, leaping audaciously to the sky, presently to be quenched by time, more cruel, more pitiless, more bitter than the sea—and like the flames of the burning ship surrounded by an impenetrable night.

I have seen its secret places and have looked into its very soul; but now I see it always from a small boat, a high outline of mountains, blue and afar in the morning; like faint mist at noon; a jagged wall of purple at sunset. I have the feel of the oar in my hand, the vision of a scorching blue sea in my eyes. And I see a bay, a wide bay, smooth as glass and polished like ice, shimmering in the dark. Trailer of French film 'The Young One'.

No English trailer is available at present. You can read 'Youth' here on pdf. Do let me know what you think of it.

Youth: a Narrative, and Two Other Stories

Feb 18, David Sarkies rated it really liked it Recommends it for: People who like a good adventure story. An ocean voyage to Bangkok 21 February Well, if anybody can write and adventure story about a journey by ship it would have to be Joseph Conrad — he ought to know since he spent a lot of his life as a sailor. In fact, it is suggested that this story is based upon Conrad's own experiences which suggests that he had some pretty harrowing experiences during his time on the high seas, especially considering the constant problems that seem to perpetually plague the unfortunate Judea.

The story is An ocean voyage to Bangkok 21 February Well, if anybody can write and adventure story about a journey by ship it would have to be Joseph Conrad — he ought to know since he spent a lot of his life as a sailor. The story is about a smallish ship in its attempts to take a cargo of coal from England to Thailand, with Bangkok being that goal that forever seems to be out of reach.

Even before the Judea leaves England it is hit by a steamer, has the ballast shift, and is also abandoned by the rats which, while sounding like a good thing, is actually a really bad omen, so the Judea then has to waste even more time hiring a new compliment of crew since sailors will not sail on a ship that has been abandoned by rats.

The story is structure similarly to 'Heart of Darkness' in that it begins with a group of ex-sailors sitting around a table, drinking and retelling stories from their youth. The story of the Judea's fateful journey is recounted by the character Marlowe, who in a way is Conrad's alter-ego, and is the story of his first commission as a mate. While he has had experience on ships previously, this is the first time that he held a senior role, and it is also the first time that the captain, John Beard, had captained a boat.

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Mind you, even when the Judea finally manages to leave England the journey was supposed to take five months, but due to all the problems that plagued the unfortunate ship, it end up taking much, much longer the problems aren't over. Well, they do manage to reach the coast of Western Australia before the cargo catches alight and considering that they are carrying coal, that is not really a good thing and they must then resort to various attempts to put it out, though from what I gather it is not a raging fire because they are able to hitch a ride with the steamer so that they might get to the harbour and then sink the ship in an attempt to extinguish the blaze.

I probably shouldn't say too much more because I have probably given away too much already, but the one thought that was going through my mind as I was reading this little narrative was what Bangkok was like back in those days. My experiences of Bangkok is that it is a city of contrasts, but I suspect back in Conrad's days it would have been one of those exotic destinations, but hardly the tourist attraction that it is today though I while they did have a tourism industry back in those days I suspect that you wouldn't have the globe trotters that you have today, and anyway, it probably was not the sort of place that you would go and take your family though unlike these days, only the wealthy would have the money to travel.

Bangkok Bangkok today. I was expecting to have to wait in line for a lecture by sculptor Richard Serra , I hate to waste time, I hate to hold heavy books in my lap, so I grabbed this Penguin 60 off my self to pass the time. Reading this, I realized that male psychology hasn't changed much in a century. Conrad expresses basic male heroic yearnings, youthful enthusiasms and a poignant understanding of their eventual decline that seems as valid today as when they were written.

I also wondered if there is a relationship b I was expecting to have to wait in line for a lecture by sculptor Richard Serra , I hate to waste time, I hate to hold heavy books in my lap, so I grabbed this Penguin 60 off my self to pass the time. I also wondered if there is a relationship between specialized lingos and the development of the novel. Conrad, Melville, and Twain write about seamanship and use the language of seamanship in a casual way--as if we should know what all these terms mean. How many people wrote novels after having lived adventurous youths? Is this a 19th century thing?

Conrad's narrator--the young midshipman Marlow--speaks rapturously of his encounter with the East specifically, Java: Everything after that is decline. Indeed, "The Great Gatsby" can be read as a summary of American history from the pioneer days to the modern age.

Gatsby is a second-hand, self-consciously contrived version of an earlier, authentic American greatness. Nick Carraway praises Gatsby for his powers of self-invention, implying that Gatsby is not the real thing, that he is trying to be something he can never be. The passage from "Youth: A Narrative, " however, describes just the sort of experience Carroway claims is in the past.

The East is fully commensurate with Marlow's capacity to wonder. But now, wonder is directed not at the New World, but the Old World. Which leads me to the topic of Orientalism. Is Marlow's fascination with the East complementary to Carroway's sense of lost enchantment? Is Orientalism--from the paintings of Gerome to New Age spirituality--a symptom of the modern West's sense of agedness?

Which leads me one of my favorite topics: Do Conrad and Fitzgerald exhibit signs of decadence: View all 3 comments. Over a bottle of wine with friends, Marlow tells the tale of his disastrous first sea voyage to the East. Storms, collisions and explosions beset his vessel. Three months after leaving London, the Judea ships off for Bangkok. The Judea travels through the North Sea and Britain. The storm "guts" the Judea ; she is stripped of her stanchions, ventilators, bulwarks, cabin-door, and deck house.

The oakum is stripped from her bottom seams and the men are forced to work at the pumps "watch and watch" to keep the ship afloat. After weathering the storm they must fight their way against the wind back to Falmouth to be refitted.

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Despite three attempts to leave, the Judea ultimately remains in Falmouth for more than six months until she is finally overhauled, recaulked, and refitted with new copper hull sheathing. During the laborious overhaul, the cargo is wetted, knocked about, and reloaded multiple times. The rats abandon the reshipped barque and a new crew is brought in from Liverpool because no sailor will sail on a ship abandoned by rats.

The Judea ships out to Bangkok, running at times 8 knots, but mostly averaging 3 miles per hour. Near the coast of Western Australia, the cargo spontaneously combusts. The crew attempts to smother the fire, but the hull cannot be made airtight. Then they attempt to flood the fire with water, but they cannot fill the hull.

One hundred and ninety miles out from Java Head, the gases in the hull explode and blow up the deck; Marlow is hurled into the air and falls on the burning debris of the deck.

Youth: a Narrative, and Two Other Stories - Wikisource, the free online library

The Judea hails a passing steamer, the Sommerville , which agrees to tow the wounded ship to Anjer or Batavia. Captain Beard intends to scuttle the Judea there to put out the fire, and then resurface her and resume the voyage to Bangkok. However, the speed of the Sommerville fans the smoldering fire into flames.

The crew of the Judea is forced to send the steamer on without them while they attempt to save possibly most of the ship's gear for the underwriters. The gear is loaded into three small boats, which head due north towards Java. Before the crew leaves the Judea , they enjoy a last meal on deck.

Youth, a Narrative by Joseph Conrad

Marlow becomes skipper of the smallest of the ship's three boats. All the boats make it safely into a Java port, where they book passage on the steamer Celestial , which is on her return trip to England. The story is loosely based upon reality. One of Conrad's pen-pals, or friends, discovered the secret of the port at which the boats called: Conrad became angry with him, calling Muntok 'a beastly hole'. The boats of the real ship reached the safety only after several hours, Marlow was a bit younger than Conrad, etc.

September — "Youth" is first published in Blackwood's Magazine. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article does not cite any sources.