8
votes
Accepted
Does D'Hubert rape the maid at the beginning of Joseph Conrad's 'The Duel'?
TL;DR: No.
Censorship
Until the second half of the 20th century, it was not easy to publish literature in English that described sex in detailed or explicit terms. In England, literature was ...
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7
votes
What in the Congo causes Marlow's need to lie to the Intended and others back at home?
Why did Marlow lie? On pg. 24, Marlow said that he hates and detests lies (you can read the book online).
If you google "Why did Marlow lie?" you get dozens of answers, all leading to the point that ...
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6
votes
What is the relationship between Heart of Darkness and The Hollow Men?
There is an immediate and direct connection between the two. Toward the conclusion of Heart of Darkness the narrator, Marlow, describes Kurtz as "hollow to the core" (p72). By this, he means that Kutz ...
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5
votes
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Why would Marlow have "abused the old church at home for not being a cathedral"?
The narrator first says "We didn't grumble at her", and then says "I would just as soon have..." This is saying that he wouldn't grumble at the old church, and he doesn't grumble ...
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4
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What in the Congo causes Marlow's need to lie to the Intended and others back at home?
There are three reasons why Marlow lied.
1. Too profound to explain
Marlow keenly felt that his profound experience - of the Belgian Congo in general, and of Kurtz in particular - was beyond ...
4
votes
Accepted
Are the comic elements of Conrad's The Secret Agent intentional?
Yes, the comic effect is intentional. Strong evidence of this is provided by the fact that the author's other political novel, Under Western Eyes, also contains elements of black comedy.
There is ...
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4
votes
Accepted
Who's this African soldier? What does Conrad mean?
It appears that Millot is speaking about himself
In that scene, Susan runs madly through the night - when peasants see her, they take her for a ghost and hide in fear:
She ran lightly, unaware of ...
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3
votes
Accepted
What is "a conical flame with a twisted top" in Youth: A Narrative
As precise as Conrad is with his nautical descriptions, I think if he had meant a mast was consumed he would have said so.
He spent a number of years as a merchant seaman, though Im not aware he was ...
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3
votes
Accepted
Is there a name for the narrative technique of starting at the end and then going back to the beginning? (As in Lord Jim)
A narrative that begins at the end and moves to the beginning of the events it describes would exhibit reverse chronology (see also Joe Bunting, Chazda Hill and LiteraryTerms.net).
However, what we ...
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3
votes
Does D'Hubert rape the maid at the beginning of Joseph Conrad's 'The Duel'?
It was definitely an unwanted attention (groping, kissing), I don't believe it would be a full forced intercourse.
While maids and servants in the XVIII and XIX century were often abused and even ...
- 1,905
3
votes
Accepted
What does "between us there was, as I have already said somewhere, the bond of the sea" mean in Heart of Darkness?
There are two parts to this question: the meaning of "between us there was ... the bond of the sea", and the significance of the interposed clause "as I have already said somewhere".
The novel is a ...
2
votes
Why did Conrad not add commas to lengthy sentences to make them more readable?
There are two theories about the proper use of commas in written English. Theory 1: commas mark pauses in the spoken sentence. Theory 2: commas mark syntatic divisions of the sentence. The one is a ...
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2
votes
What did Conrad mean by teaching to see is everything?
1. What's the source of this Conrad paraphase?
Christensen is almost certainly referring to the quote you've found. The source of that quote is the Preface of Conrad's The Nigger Of The "Narcissus", ...
2
votes
Accepted
What does "I were about to set off for the centre of the earth" mean here
Marlow says he felt as if ("as though") he was going on a journey to the centre of the earth. This can be seen as a foreshadowing of events later in the novel, when he encounters Kurtz. ...
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2
votes
Where did Joseph Conrad praise Anatole France as an analyst of illusions?
The source is Joseph Conrad's Notes on Life and Letters.
The full text of this work, published in 1921 a few years before Conrad's death, is available on Project Gutenberg and also at Online-...
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2
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Has "The Duel" by Joseph Conrad been published in any recent story collections?
Recent is rather vague. "The Duel" was included in Volume IV of The Complete Short Fiction of Joseph Conrad, edited with an introduction by Samuel Hynes (New York: Ecco Press, 1992/1993). ...
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1
vote
Is there a name for the narrative technique of starting at the end and then going back to the beginning? (As in Lord Jim)
A story which begins at the end and then skips to the beginning is a nonlinear narrative. Sometimes, the act of jumping back to a previous point in the story is called a flashback. If the story ...
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1
vote
Accepted
How powerful is Willems in the beginning of An Outcast of the Islands?
Willems isn't powerful in the way that a local ruler may be powerful. He works as "confidential clerk" in a company involved in trade. Wiktionary defines "clerk" as "One who ...
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