The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’

The presence of Flaubert and Maupassant is very conspicuous throughout Conrad's third novel, his first major achievement, The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’, written between June 1896 and February 1897.

Kirschner has shown that Conrad borrowed extensively from the rendering of Charles Forestier's illness and death in Bel-Ami in portraying the illness and death of James Wait. Forestier, who is dying of tuberculosis in Cannes, is domineering towards his wife and his colleague Georges Duroy who has just arrived from Paris in answer to her call. Engrossed with his condition, he constantly refers to his approaching death, thwarts all their efforts to take his mind off himself, and insists on having them at his beck and call. One evening, as the night draws in, he complains angrily: ‘Eh bien, on n'apporte pas la lampe aujourd'hui? Voilà ce qu'on appelle soigner un malade’ (p. 266). Like Forestier, Wait, who is also dying of tuberculosis, at first exaggerates his illness (‘he worked his ribs in an exaggerated labour of breathing’ (p. 35) just as ‘Charles […] exagérait le fatigue de sa respiration’ (p. 221))1 and takes advantage of his condition to tyrannize his shipmates, silencing any sign of cheerfulness on their part and rebuking them for lack of care: ‘Some of you haven't sense enough to put a blanket shipshape over a sick man’ (p. 39).