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died he threw his violin overboard." One might well depart from
this moribund eccentric with a vision of violin-throwing proclivi–
ties, if it weren't for Jean-Aubry, who tells us something reasonably
specific about dirty poetry, erotic pictures, and suicidal tendencies.
The captain did throw his violin overboard, but this was a one-time
shot, not a proclivity.
If
it imposes itself to some extent as fresh biographical material,
and to a much lesser extent as literature, Mr. Baines's book strikes
a pretty hollow note as criticism. Writing as he does a five to ten
page discussion of each of the major novels (including plot sum–
mary, character analysis, stylistic commentary, and review of narra–
tive technique)-plus shorter accounts of selected short stories-Mr.
Baines would have to write critical diamonds to get much said. He
doesn't. We learn that the early novels are marred by florid and
overwritten passages, that they progress slowly. Of
The Nigger of
the Narcissus
there is a just and almost eloquent appreciation; but
the manifold difficulties of
Lord Jim
are not so much as outlined,
much less fully faced. We learn that
Victory
is melodramatic and
muddled; and of
Chance
that "whatever its qualities, it is certainly
one of Conrad's most imperfect novels"-this judgment is reinforced
by Mr. Baines's failure to ascribe to the book any positive qualities
at all, except popularity.
It
is hard to discover what Mr. Baines
thinks of
Nostromo,
because after he has said that all the major
characters are crude, blurred and unconvincing, and the last two
chapters are magazinish and melodramatic, he concludes that other–
wise the book is almost without blemish. Since he has begun
by
challenging comparison with
War and Peace,
we can evidently have
Nostromo
any way we want.
Mr. Baines dislikes overcomplicated readings of the fiction, and
sometimes demolishes so many "fanciful" theories that nothing much
is left. He tells us, for example, that in "The Secret Sharer" there is
"no suggestion of a transcendental relationship between Leggatt and
the captain or of the 'double' being a psychological manifestation
of an aspect of the original." Moreover, "there is no indication in
the story, explicit or implicit, that the captain sees any of his
dilemma or difficulties in Leggatt or that he performs any self–
examination. Nor is there any 'moral dilemma.' " There is no feel–
ing, even, that the captain is brought to a better knowledge of him-
