Audiobook · read by volunteers
Typhoon
Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
Read by Russ Maxwell, Karen Savage, Esther, Alan Chant, Kirsten Ferreri, Hugh McGuire · 6 chapters · 2 h 38
About the book
Captain MacWhirr is a man of few words and no imagination. He commands the steamer Nan-Shan, a modest ship carrying passengers and cargo across the China Sea, and he has never in his life been troubled by a storm. When the barometer starts to fall, he simply declines to alter course. What follows is a ferocious battle between a literal-minded man and one of the great forces of nature. Joseph Conrad tells this sea story with grim humour and with an unforgettable feeling for the ship, the crew and the water. The young mate Jukes and the chief engineer Solomon Rout are only two of the memorable figures on board. Six volunteer readers share this short novel in six chapters. Short, tense and beautifully written, it is a fine introduction to Conrad.
Introduction
Joseph Conrad was born in 1857 in a part of the Russian Empire that is now Ukraine, and died in England in 1924. After years at sea, first in the French merchant service and then in the British, he became a novelist writing in his third language, English. His work includes Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim and Nostromo. Typhoon was begun in 1899 and published in Pall Mall Magazine in 1902, and it is often counted among his best shorter works.
The story is based on Conrad's knowledge of life aboard a merchant steamer. Its centre is the contrast between the captain, who sees the world in plain facts and has no talent for foreboding, and the sea, which does not care for anyone's ideas. Conrad is interested in what men do under pressure, in how a crew holds together and in how duty can look like stubbornness and courage like stupidity. The storm itself is one of the most powerful in English fiction, and the writing makes the reader feel every wave.
This LibriVox recording lasts about two and a half hours and is divided into six chapters, which are shared among six volunteers. It is a taut, compact tale, and a good introduction to Conrad for listeners who prefer to begin with something short before moving on to his longer novels.
The tale is not long, but it demands attention, because Conrad's sentences build slowly, like the weather they describe. A single listen gives the plot, and a second reveals how skilfully he draws a whole crew, with their fears and jokes, in only a few pages.
Public domain
Joseph Conrad died in 1924: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text