Ian Laird's review of Typhoon (original) (raw)

Top Horror from the Past Five Years

Discover new books on Goodreads

Meet your next favorite book

Ian Laird's Reviews > Typhoon

Typhoon by Joseph Conrad

Typhoon
by

28547777

This longish short story by Joseph Conrad contains the best description I have ever read of a storm at sea, which I put down to Conrad’s experience as a merchant sailor and his facility with language, astonishingly not his native Polish.

We start with the growing apprehension of the tempest to come. The master Captain McWhirr decides to sail through the turbulence rather than go around it, to the consternation of his officers and crew. Here is a sample of the storm:

The motion of the ship was extravagant. Her lurches had an appalling helplessness: she pitched as if taking a header into a void, and seemed to find a wall to hit every time. When she rolled she fell on her side headlong, and she would be righted back by such a demolishing blow that Jukes [‘Young Jukes, the chief mate’] felt her reeling as a clubbed man reels before he collapses. The gale howled and scuffled about gigantically in the darkness, as though the entire world were one black gully. At certain moments the air streamed against the ship as if sucked through a tunnel with a concentrated solid force of impact that seemed to lift her clean out of the water and keep her up for an instant with only a quiver running through her from end to end. And then she would begin her tumbling again as if dropped back into a boiling cauldron. (p24)

Captain McWhirr’s singular personality is the crux of the story; particularly his qualities of stability, diligence and steadfast resolution, which when applied to his skill and expertise leads to the conviction that he is on the right course both literally and metaphorically. But then he lacks empathy, imagination, light and shade in his thinking.

The result is that the Nan-Shan barely survives, but it does, while most of the crew and the passengers lose their heads.

Captain McWhirr recounts this adventure (he would not call it an adventure himself) in one of his regular lengthy and detailed letters to his wife, far away back home on land. She doesn’t really read it, which is her usual response to her husband’s missives.

A fantastic tale.

Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read_Typhoon_.

Sign In »

Reading Progress

May 11, 2021 –Finished Reading

Comments Showing 1-2 of 2 (2 new)

back to top

Add a reference:

Search for a book to add a reference

add: link cover

Welcome back. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account.

Login animation