WordBridge Publishing has performed a public service in putting Joseph Conrad's neglected classic into a form accessible to modern readers. This new version addresses the reason for its neglect: the profusion of the so-called n-word throughout its pages. Hence, the introduction of "n-word" throughout the text, to remove this offence to modern sensibilities. The N-word of the Narcissus tells the tale of a fateful voyage of a British sailing ship, and on that voyage the ability of a lone black man to take the crew hostage. The ability of this man to manipulate an entire ship's crew can no longer be seen as a mere exercise in storytelling. Conrad in fact appears to have been the first to highlight the phenomenon of manipulation based in white guilt.
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more. |
Book Description
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 26 people found the following review helpful
By Sara E
Can anyone seriously imagine that this book could be substituted for Joseph Conrad's original text? When I first heard of this title, I thought it must be a joke, but now I'm not so sure. If we can't read the important documents of our culture in their original form, with some understanding of their context, we may as well stop trying to understand past artists and thinkers altogether.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
We can probably expect from this publisher the following plan:
Apuleius' "The Golden Ass" will be published as "The Golden Bottom."
Stendhal's "The Red and the Black" as "The Socialist and the African-American."
In the new version of "Lolita" by Nabokov, the title character will be fifty-years-old instead of twelve.
"Madame Bovary" will come out as "Emma Rouault," her maiden name. Why should a woman bear her husband's?
All traces of blood will be erased from "The Iliad," and the insult "dog" will be extracted, not to offend animal lovers.
Melville's "Moby Dick" will be "Moby D-Word."
In Cervantes novel both Don Quixote and Sancho Panza will be skinny, to prevent obesity.
Every reference to adultery will be removed from Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina"
for the sake of all the abandoned husbands.
The Dwarfs in "Snow White" will be tall and they will be five, one for each continent.
The Brothers Grimm will be The Brothers Pleasant.
They are also talking to Stephen Hawkins about refraining from using, will you please stop using such sexist macho terms as "Black Hole"?
Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" will be set in Madrid, Spain and will be renamed "My little white house."
See... you can't obliterate the past by crossing out a word. It has to be understood that idiotic people with the hearts and minds of criminals have used a certain word in a certain way. Should Germans quit speaking German because Hitler used the same words they use? People need to be educated, not "protected." Literature is the vital agent of such education.
You need to confront the word in order not to be offended by it. But that can't be done if the word remains hidden.
Oh, just go get the original book and read it.
Apuleius' "The Golden Ass" will be published as "The Golden Bottom."
Stendhal's "The Red and the Black" as "The Socialist and the African-American."
In the new version of "Lolita" by Nabokov, the title character will be fifty-years-old instead of twelve.
"Madame Bovary" will come out as "Emma Rouault," her maiden name. Why should a woman bear her husband's?
All traces of blood will be erased from "The Iliad," and the insult "dog" will be extracted, not to offend animal lovers.
Melville's "Moby Dick" will be "Moby D-Word."
In Cervantes novel both Don Quixote and Sancho Panza will be skinny, to prevent obesity.
Every reference to adultery will be removed from Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina"
for the sake of all the abandoned husbands.
The Dwarfs in "Snow White" will be tall and they will be five, one for each continent.
The Brothers Grimm will be The Brothers Pleasant.
They are also talking to Stephen Hawkins about refraining from using, will you please stop using such sexist macho terms as "Black Hole"?
Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" will be set in Madrid, Spain and will be renamed "My little white house."
See... you can't obliterate the past by crossing out a word. It has to be understood that idiotic people with the hearts and minds of criminals have used a certain word in a certain way. Should Germans quit speaking German because Hitler used the same words they use? People need to be educated, not "protected." Literature is the vital agent of such education.
You need to confront the word in order not to be offended by it. But that can't be done if the word remains hidden.
Oh, just go get the original book and read it.
16 of 19 people found the following review helpful
How is this not censorship? I can't help but be alarmed at these attempts to sanitize the world to the liking of any one group. While I'm certainly NOT a fan of the specific word in question, it did, does and will probably continue to exist in our language and culture. I don't think anyone who's read Conrad would be a fan of this type of edit. Conrad is a master at pointing out the risks, pitfalls, inequities to honestly comment on the ugliness of the human experience. This type of action leaves more questions than answers, specifically: What's next and Who decides?
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Grow up
Not just the publishers, but the reviewers waxing moronic with comparisons to 1984 and Fahrenheit-451, with one of them so outlandishly claiming "We are losing core Western... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Andariel Halo
1.0 out of 5 stars
Ministry of Truth's latest edit
Having read the original I feel inclined to write something about this edition.
Oh. My. God.
Are you people insane? Read more
Oh. My. God.
Are you people insane? Read more
Published 8 months ago by Alen Piljak
1.0 out of 5 stars
Censorhip run amok?
Has political correctness taken over our lives? If this trend continues, can we look forward to Stephen Hawkings's classic, "A Brief History of Time" having all references to... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Spider54
1.0 out of 5 stars
You deserve a C-4 suppository
So you think it is a public service to present Conrad's book, only not using the words Conrad chose to represent it, or the ones he used inside it?
I hate you. Read more
I hate you. Read more
Published on January 11, 2011 by Steven R. Boyett
1.0 out of 5 stars
Original=4 Stars, This Edition=1
This is a version of Joseph Conrad's classic novel with the racial epithet sanitized from title and text. Read more
Published on February 28, 2010 by Bill R. Moore
5.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting Book
Looks from reading the reviews that this book riles both PC and anti-PC crowd which is interesting. This edit of Conrad's work is truly satire at it's best.
Published on February 23, 2010 by Robert C. Alvarado
1.0 out of 5 stars
Thought police at work
I thought this title was a joke but there is nothing humorous about it. We are losing core Western literature to political correctness. Read more
Published on February 2, 2010 by EDWARD J. GILSON Jr.
1.0 out of 5 stars
You have got to be kidding me
The sensitive reader who is offended by the "n-word" should learn the value of ignoring words he doesn't like rather than banning them from being spoken or used by others. Read more
Published on January 9, 2010 by InfraredWhistle
5.0 out of 5 stars
If the n-word is so precious...
Why can't it ever be used? I've already written one comment to refute the criticism such as appears in these reviews, but it didn't get past the Amazon. Read more
Published on January 9, 2010 by Ruben Alvarado
1.0 out of 5 stars
the n-word of the narcissus
If they were going to re-write the book, they could have at least named it The Narwhal of the Narcissus to maintain the alliterative nature of the title. Read more
Published on January 8, 2010 by Book Worm
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
