Nostromo

This article is about the Joseph Conrad novel. For the fictional spacecraft, see Alien (film).

For other uses, see Nostromo (disambiguation).

Nostromo
First edition cover
Author(s)	Joseph Conrad
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Harper & Bros
Publication date	1904
Media type	Print (hardcover)
Pages	630 pp
ISBN	NA

Nostromo is a 1904 novel by Polish-born British novelist Joseph Conrad, set in the fictitious South American republic of "Costaguana." It was originally published serially in two volumes of T.P.'s Weekly.

In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Nostromo 47th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. F. Scott Fitzgerald said, "I'd rather have written Nostromo than any other novel." ^[1]

Background

Conrad set his novel in the mining town of Sulaco, an imaginary port in the occidental region of the imaginary country of Costaguana. The book has more fully developed characters than any other of his novels, but two characters dominate the narrative: Señor Gould and the eponymous anti-hero, the "incorruptible" Nostromo.

Plot summary

Señor Gould is a native Costaguanero of English descent who owns the silver-mining concession in Sulaco. He is tired of the political instability in Costaguana and its concomitant corruption, and puts his weight behind the Ribierist project, which he believes will finally bring stability to the country after years of misrule and tyranny by self-serving dictators. Instead, the silver mine and the wealth it has generated become a bone for the local warlords to fight over, plunging Costaguana into a new round of chaos. Among others, the revolutionary Montero invades Sulaco; Señor Gould, adamant that his silver should not become spoil for his enemies, entrusts it to Nostromo, the trusted "capataz de los cargadores" (head longshoreman).

Nostromo is an Italian expatriate who has risen to that position through his daring exploits. ("Nostromo" is Italian for "mate" or "boatswain", but the name could also be considered a corruption of the Italian phrase "nostro uomo," meaning "our man.") Nostromo's real name is Giovanni Battista Fidanza — Fidanza meaning "trust" in archaic Italian.

Nostromo is a commanding figure in Sulaco, respected by the wealthy Europeans and seemingly limitless in his abilities to command power among the local population. He is, however, never admitted to become a part of that society, but rather viewed by the rich as their tool. Some would say that he was also what would today be called a shameless self-publicist. He is believed by Señor Gould to be incorruptible, and for this reason is entrusted with removing a treasure of silver from Sulaco to keep it from the revolutionaries.

In the end, the silver is "lost" in a manner such that only Nostromo knows where it is hidden and not, in fact, lost at all. Nostromo's power and fame continues, as he daringly rides to summon the army which saves Sulaco's powerful leaders from the revolutionaries.

In Conrad's universe, however, almost no one is incorruptible. The exploit does not bring Nostromo the fame he had hoped for, and he feels slighted and used. Feeling that he has risked his life for nothing, he is consumed by resentment, which leads to his corruption and ultimate destruction, for he had kept secret the true fate of the silver after all others believed it lost at sea, rather than hidden on an offshore island. In recovering the silver for himself, he is shot and killed, mistaken for a trespasser, by the father of his fiancée, the keeper of the lighthouse on the island of Great Isabel.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

• In 1991 David Lean, the famous British director, was to film the story of Nostromo, with Steven Spielberg producing it for Warner Bros., but Lean died a few weeks before the principal photography was to begin. Marlon Brando, Paul Scofield, Peter O'Toole, Isabella Rossellini, Christopher Lambert, and Dennis Quaid had all been set to star in this adaptation.

• In 1997, adapted by John Hale and directed by Alastair Reid for the BBC, Radiotelevisione Italiana, Televisión Española, and WGBH Boston. It starred Claudio Amendola as Nostromo, and Colin Firth as Señor Gould. – Nostromo at the Internet Movie Database

• Andrew M. Greeley's 1985 novel Virgin and Martyr has much of the story set in the fictional country of Costaguana. Many of the place names are borrowed from Conrad's novel.

References in other works

• In Ridley Scott's Alien the mining spacecraft is named Nostromo. In James Cameron's sequel, Aliens, the Marine transport vessel is named Sulaco. (Also in Alien, the escape vessel is named Narcissus, an allusion to another of Conrad's works, The Nigger of the Narcissus.)

• In Interstate '76, a vehicular combat driving game developed by LTI Gray Matter and published by Activision, the gate guard at Autowerks Industrial Complex is named Nostromo . ^[2]

See also

Novels portal

• Thomas L. Jeffers, “The Logic of Material Interests in Conrad’s Nostromo,” Raritan (Fall 2003), 80–111.
• Politics in fiction
• The novel Historia secreta de Costaguana by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, tells the fictional story of José Altamirano, the Colombian "informant" of Joseph Conrad that the Polish-born author all but erased from his famous tale.

References

1. ^ Watt, Ian. Conrad: Nostromo (Landmarks of World Literature), Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988, p. 1.
2. ^ http://interstate76.wikia.com/wiki/Interstate_%2776

External links

• Nostromo, a Tale of the Seaboard at Project Gutenberg
• Essays and annotated text for Nostromo.
• Nostromo at google books
• Analysis and Commentary @ Modernism Lab Essays
• Nostromo Map