Youth; Heart of Darkness; The End of the Tether (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) [Paperback]

Joseph Conrad (Author), John Lyon (Contributor)

Book Description

Series: Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin | Publication Date: November 1, 1995

Conrad's aim was 'by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel ...before all, to make you see'. "Heart of Darkness", his exploration of European colonialism in Africa and of elusive human values, embodies more profoundly than almost any other modern fiction the difficulty of 'seeing', its relativity and shifting compromise. Portraying a young man's first sea-voyage to the "East in Youth", an unenlightened maturity in "Heart of Darkness", and the blind old age of Captain Whalley in "The End of the Tether", the stories in this volume are united in their theme - the 'Ages of Man' - and in their scepticism. Conrad's vision has influenced twentieth-century writers and artists from T. S. Eliot to Jorge Luis Borges and Werner Herzog, and continues to draw critical fire. In his stimulating introduction, John Lyon discusses the links between these three stories, the critiques of Chinua Achebe and Edward Said, and the ebb and flow of Conrad's magnificent narrative art.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

The most authoritative scholarly edition of Conrad's most important narratives, this edition includes detailed explanatory and contextual notes, a glossary of nautical terms, maps and illustrations. This volume will allow scholars to see these familiar stories in a fresh light, by returning to Conrad's original texts. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Joseph Conrad (originally Jozef Teodor Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski) was born in the Ukraine in 1857 and grew up under Tsarist autocracy. In 1896 he settled in Kent, where he produced within fifteen years such modern classics as Youth, Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, Typhoon, Nostromo, The Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes. He continued to write until his death in 1924.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (November 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140185135
• ISBN-13: 978-0140185133
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #961,761 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most romantic stories ever written, February 27, 2010

By 

Christian Kober (Shanghai) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Youth; Heart of Darkness; The End of the Tether (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) (Paperback)

Youth is the story of a young marine officer, taking his first big trip, from England to the Far East. His ship is the Judea, an old ship, continously beset by calamities. The ships motto 'Do or Die' also fans the romantic flames of the young first mate.
The captain, the first mate and the ship reach, despite all misadventures, the Gulf of Bengal, where final misfortune befalls them, their cargo, coal, catches fire and the ship is doomed.
The story is set in the twilight days of the old sailboats. It is romance against the future, but it is also the romance of youth against the wisdom of age. Everyone who once has felt the pulse of adventure in his blood, everyone who once longed for the beckoning adventures of the magical East and of the Sea, will find himself in this book.
And pitty on whoever cannot relate to this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heart of Darkness is the Celebrity; Youth is the Masterpiece, September 8, 2008

By 

JackOfMostTrades "Jack" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Youth; Heart of Darkness; The End of the Tether (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) (Paperback)

Placing these three novellas together was indeed a touch of brilliance. They form a natural trilogy, and happily, 'Youth' is the first in the series as it is to my mind the most profound, hauntingly, and beautifully written. It is a coming of age story of sorts, a brilliant one that operates on many levels: thematically, linguistically, symbolically, and logically to form a mediation on the changes of the peception towards life one goes through as one ages--the trope is brilliant, a man of 45 looking back on a time when he was 20, and realizing that the adventure he THOUGHT he had, was really a comedy of errors populated by bad luck and incompetent sailors. The writing is a bit elegaic, but the narrator is extremely clever--providing a 'meta-analysis' of his own jaded life now in relationship to his 'gee whiz' youth. It also raises a very interesting question. Is it better to maintain those 'positive illusions' of youth--living life with fond memories when everything was new and exciting (deluded by one's inexperience) or better to be 'wise' to the ways of the world, so you can function more efficiently albeit in a machine-like fashion? Perhaps in Conrad's day, this occurred faster, but nonetheless, it is an eternally relevant story and brilliantly and beautifully written. About HOD, enough has been said. Of The End of the Tether, the title says it all: What is the natural progression here? We start off with 'Youth' go to the 'Heart' (of the matter), and finish up with being at 'The end of 'our' Tether.' It doesn't get much better than this as far as literature is concerned.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "To make you hear, to make you feel- and above all, to make you see", October 30, 2005

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Youth; Heart of Darkness; The End of the Tether (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) (Paperback)

Conrad is the master tale- teller of English Literature. In this volume three stories, from three Ages of Life are included. The first 'Youth'is about a maiden vogage to sea, and the last "The End of the Tether" about an old man in his blindness. The story however which has been most written and thought about, and is considered one of Conrad's masterpieces is " Heart of Darkness".
It begins as a meditative reflection, a telling on the banks of the Thames to his friends by the veteran seaman Marlowe of a tale of exploration and disaster. He tells of a voyage into the heart of Africa in search of an enlightened European adventurer and merchant Kurtz . Kurtz has dealt in the deepest part of the jungle in trading in ivory. But what Marlowe comes to discover and see is someone who has seen into ' the heart of darkness' and dies crying out ,"The Horror, the Horror". Marlowe returns to Europe and civilization and tells Kurtz's fiancee that Kurtz's last words were her name.
But the tale is more than the story or the plot. With Conrad the meaning of the tale is the creation of the atmosphere and the meditation on the voyage throughout .It is in a kind too of bringing us into another whole mode of being in thinking about our lives.
" The heart of darkness" to the uncivilized African reality and it refers to the deepest recesses of the human soul, a soul which crosses through and transcends continents.As Conrad's great Literature does.