New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-05-23
Joseph Conrad Tells Why He Chose Enalsh as q

seem crude and without shadow. Never
theless, it is the same picture.
And there is bond between us and
that humanity SO far away. am
speaking here of men and women--not
of the charming and graceful phantoms
that move about in our mud and smoke
and are softly luminous with the radi-
ance of all our virtues; that are pos
sessed of all re6nements, of all sensi-
hliitles, of all wisdom-but, being only
phantoms, possess no heart.
The sympathies of those are (nrob-
ably) with the immortals; with the an
gels above or the devils below. / am
content to sympathize with common
mortals, no matter where they live
In houses or in tents, in the streets,
under fog or in the forests, behind
the dark line of dismal mangroves
that fringe the vast solitude of the sea
For their land, like ours, lies under the
lnscrutable eyes of the Most High.
Their hearts, like ours, must endure the
load of the gifts from Heaven; the
curse OF facts and the blessing of illu-
slons; the bitterness of our wisdom
and the deceptive consolation of our
folly"
Sympathy With Antonio
Conrad always displays warm SYM
pathy with his character He is es-
peclally fond of Antonio, the heroine
OF "Nostromo." In this instance there
IS a personal note in his interest. So
he says:
If anything could induce me to re-
visit Sulaco Il should hate to see all
these changes), it would be Antonio.
And the true reason for that-why not
be frank about it?-the true reason is
That | have modelled her on my first
love. How we, a band of tallish SCHOOL
boy friends, the chums of her two
brothers, how we used to look up to
that girl just out of the schoolroom
herself, as the standard bearer of g
faith to which we all were born but
which she alone knew how to hold
aloft with an unfinching hope. She
had perhaps more glow and less seren-
ity in her soul than Antonio, but she
was an uncompromising Puritan of pa
trlotlsm with no faint of the slightest
worldliness in her thoughts. | was not
the only one in love with her; but it
was | who had to hear oftenest her
scathlng criticism Of my levitics-
very much like poor Decoud--or stand
the brunt OF her austere, unanswera BILE
lnvectlve. But never mind. That aft
ernoon when | came in Ia shrinking
yet defiant sinner to say the final
goodby. | received a hand squeeze that
made my heart leap, and saw tear
that took my breath away. She was
softened at the last as though she had
suddenly perceived Eve were such chill
dren stil) that l was really going
away for good, going far away-even
as far as Sulaco, lying unknown, hidden
from all eyes in the darkness of the
Placid Gulf.
"That's why l long, sometimes, for
another glimpse of the beautiful An
tcnla Cor can it be the Other?) NOV
ing in the dimness of the great cathe-
dral, saying short prayer at the tomb
of the first and last Cardinal-Arch-
bishop of Sulaco, standing absorbed in
tilial devotion before the monument
of Don Jose Avellanos, and, with a
+a,o H. Co; |.
lion memorial to Martin Decoud going
out serene1y into the sunshine of the
plaza, with her upright carriage and
her white head, relic of the past
disregarded by men awaiting inpatient
~ the Dawns of other New Eras, the
coming of more revolutions.
But this is the idlest of dreams;
for | did understand perfectly we'll, at
the time, that the moment the breath
left the body of the Magnificent Capa-
taz, the Man Of the People freed at
last from the tolls of love and wealth,
there was nothing more for me to do in
Sulaco"
"No Unity in Youth"
Conrad declares that the three sto-
ries in the volume entitled Youth" lay
no claim to unity of artistic purpose"
He draws the following comparison be-
tween Youth" and Heart of Dark
ness:
"One more remark may. be added
Youth is a feat of memory. 1t is
record of experience. But that expert
ence. in its facts, in its inwardness and
in its outward coloring, begins and ends
in myself Heart of Darkness is ex-