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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780141441634
ISBN: 0141441631
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 544
Publication Date: 2007-12-18
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Studio: Penguin Classics

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Money corrupts once again
Review: An "incorruptible" man (Nostromo) becomes corrupted by the dishonest acquisition of "filthy lucre" (silver ingots) when the lighter (barge) he is operating with the silver on it sinks; he is able to hide the ingots on an island for his later personal gain. His impeccable reputation allows the citizens to believe the silver is actually on the bottom of the sea. Nostromo justifies his actions by concluding that he was duped and used by the silver company - the self-deluded victim. In the last section, considered the weakest by some critics but magnificent all the same, Nostromo falls in love with two sisters (Giselle and Linda) and they with him; he chooses falsely by choosing Giselle: it is Linda at the novel's end who cries her heart out for him after his death. But by now Nostromo, once hero to all, is making very bad decisions.

Many consider this Conrad's greatest novel, and in it he paints a very large picture of corruption, revolution, love, and material gain; as in all his novels the writing is suspenseful and dramatic. Nostromo, on his death-bed, confesses to the kindly Mrs. Gould (the mine owner's wife) how he had stolen the silver, but she refuses to let him tell her where he hid it: "Isn't there enough treasure without it to make everybody in the world miserable?" Indeed. Money is the destructive force here: only Linda's love for the man is worth praising.

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