Nostromo by Joseph Conrad

First published: 1904

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Psychological realism

Time of plot: Early twentieth century

Locale: Costaguana, on the north coast of South America

Principal Characters

• Charles Gould, manager of the San Tomé silver mine
• Emilia Gould, his wife
• Gian’ “Nostromo” Battista, the Italian leader of the stevedores
• Linda Viola, the woman to whom he proposes
• Giselle Viola, her sister
• Giorgio Viola, father of Linda and Giselle
• Martin Decoud, a newspaper editor
• Dr. Monygham, the town physician and a friend of the Goulds

The Story

The Republic of Costaguana is in a state of revolt. Under the leadership of Pedrito Montero, rebel troops have taken control of the eastern part of the country. When news of the revolt reaches Sulaco, the principal port of the western section, which is separated from the rest of the country by a mountain range, the leaders begin to lay defense plans. The chief interest of the town is the San Tomé silver mine in the nearby mountains, a mine managed by Charles Gould, an Englishman who, although educated in England, was born in Sulaco, his father having been manager before him. Gould has made a great success of the mine. The semiannual shipment of silver has just come down from the mine to the customhouse when the telegraph operator in Esmeralda, on the eastern side of the mountains, sends word that troops have embarked on a transport under the command of General Sotillo and that the rebels plan to capture the silver ingots as well as Sulaco.

Gould decides to load the ingots onto a lighter, a barge used for loading and unloading ships’ cargo, and set it afloat in the gulf pending the arrival of a ship that will take the cargo to the United States. The man to guide the lighter will be Gian’ Battista, known in Sulaco as Nostromo—our man—for he is considered incorruptible. His companion will be Martin Decoud, editor of the local newspaper, who has been drawn from Paris and kept in Sulaco by the European-educated Antonia Avellanos, to whom he has just become engaged. Decoud has incurred the anger of Montero by denouncing the revolutionists in his paper; he has also conceived a plan for making the country around Sulaco an independent state, the Occidental Republic.

When Nostromo and Decoud set out in the black of night, Sotillo’s ship, approaching the port without lights, bumps into their lighter. Nostromo steers the lighter to a nearby uninhabited island, the Great Isabel, where he buries the treasure. He then leaves Decoud behind and rows the lighter to the middle of the harbor, pulls a plug, and sinks it. He swims the remaining mile to the mainland.

Upon discovering that the silver has been spirited away, Sotillo takes possession of the customhouse, where he conducts an inquiry. The next day, Sulaco is seized by Montero, who considers Sotillo of little worth.

When the Europeans and highborn natives who have not fled the town discover that Nostromo is back, they take it for granted that the silver has been lost in the harbor. They ask Nostromo to take a message to Barrios, who commands the loyalist troops on the eastern side of the mountains. After a spectacular engine ride up the side of the mountain and a subsequent six-day horseback journey through the mountain passes, Nostromo succeeds in delivering the message, and Barrios sets out with his troops by boat to relieve the town of Sulaco.

Coming into the harbor with the troops, Nostromo sights a boat that he recognizes as the small craft that had been attached to the lighter that had carried him and Decoud to Great Isabel. He dives overboard and swims to the boat. Barrios goes on to Sulaco and drives the traitors out. Meanwhile, Gould has planted dynamite around the silver mine to destroy it in case of defeat, for he is determined to keep the mine from the revolutionists at any cost.

Nostromo rows the little boat over to Great Isabel, where he discovers that Decoud is gone, as are four of the silver ingots. He sees a bloodstain on the edge of the boat and correctly guesses that Decoud has killed himself. Left to himself when Nostromo returned to the mainland, Decoud had grown more and more lonely with each passing day, until finally he dug up four of the ingots, tied them to himself, went out into the boat, shot himself, and fell overboard, the weight of the ingots carrying him to the bottom of the harbor. Now Nostromo cannot tell Gould where the silver is, for he will be suspected of stealing the four missing ingots himself. Since everyone thinks the treasure is at the bottom of the sea, he decides to let the rumor stand; he plans to sell the ingots one by one, and so become rich slowly.

In gratitude for his many services to the country, the people provide Nostromo with a boat, which he uses to haul cargo as far north as California. Sometimes he is gone for months while he carries out his schemes for disposing of the hidden silver. One day, on returning from a voyage, he sees that a lighthouse is being built on Great Isabel. At first he is panic-stricken, but then he suggests that the lighthouse keeper should be old Giorgio Viola. Nostromo is interested in Viola’s daughter Linda, and he thinks that with the Violas on the island no one will be suspicious about his frequent visits there. Linda has a younger sister, Giselle, for whom the vagabond Ramirez is desperate. Giorgio Viola keeps Giselle under close guard; he will not allow Giselle to receive Ramirez’s attentions, and he will not permit Ramirez to visit the island.

To make his comings and goings on Great Isabel more secure, one day Nostromo asks Linda to be his wife. Almost as soon as he does so, however, he realizes that he is really in love with Giselle. In secret meetings, he and Giselle confess their mutual passion. Linda grows suspicious, and Giselle begs Nostromo to carry her away, but he tells her that he cannot do so for a while. He finally tells her about the silver and how he has to convert it into money before he can take her away.

Obsessed with his hatred of Ramirez, Giorgio Viola begins patrolling the island at night with his gun loaded. One night, as Nostromo is approaching Giselle’s window, old Viola shoots him, thinking he is Ramirez. Hearing her father say that he has shot Ramirez, Linda rushes outside, but Giselle runs past her and reaches the wounded Nostromo first. It is she who accompanies him to the mainland.

In the hospital, Nostromo asks to speak to the kindly Emilia Gould, Charles Gould’s wife. He tells Mrs. Gould that Giselle is innocent and that he alone knows about the hidden treasure. Mrs. Gould, however, will not let him tell her where he has hidden the silver, as it has caused so much sorrow that she does not want it to be brought to light again. Nostromo refuses any aid from Dr. Monygham and dies without revealing the location of the ingots.

Dr. Monygham takes the police galley out to Great Isabel, where he informs Linda of Nostromo’s death. She is thoroughly moved by the news and whispers that she—and she alone—has loved Nostromo and that she will never forget him. As Linda cries out Nostromo’s name in despair, Dr. Monygham observes that, triumphant as Nostromo had been in life, this love of Linda’s was his greatest victory of all.

The region around Sulaco finally does become the Occidental Republic. The San Tomé mine continues to prosper under Gould’s management, the population increases enormously, and the new country flourishes. Although Decoud, the country’s first planner, and Nostromo, the hero of its inception, are dead, life in the new country goes on richly and fully.

Bibliography

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