The Secret Sharer and Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad (read April 2009)

I floated through both stories while on vacation a few weeks back. I have an old paperback with both short novels in it. The editor coupled the stories because of their thematic similarity - they both deal with the maturation of the self. In the first, the Secret Sharer, the new captain of a commercial ship on his first voyage as captain harbors a refugee from another ship wanted for murder. The refugee serves as the alter-identity of the captain and their relationship represents a symbolic dialogue about the captain's growth into a worthy leader aboard ship. The symbolism is obvious and the language and mood are all Conrad. The story is a good warm-up for Heart of Darkness which I have read now for the third time and first in many years. Marlow's journey up the river to find Kurtz is so full of obvious and nuanced imagery and symbolism that you will find it in nearly every paragraph. It is a story of a man's encounter with the primeval darkness that is resident in everyone and symbolized by the dark and primordia jungle and made manifest in human form by Kurtz' character. Kurtz and Marlow are employees of a European trading company that swaps trinkets for ivory with the indigenous African population. Kurtz is the manager of the inner station, a post hundreds of miles inland. Marlow is sent in to find out what has gone wrong; rumors have found their way to the outer station and Europe that Kurtz' methods may be "unsound". Indeed, Marlow replies at one point that he doesn't see any method at all - Kurtz' hut is ringed with poles decorated with human heads. The power of the story, however, is not in the plot. The language and writing are beautiful. The descriptions of the jungle and the interactions of the people on the steamer as Marlow steams inland are unmatched in their richness; the character of the Russian sailor reminds me eerily of the fool from King Lear (without the wisdom). Read this story for the beauty of the language; the philosophy and plot are mere icing.