Originally Posted by
kev67
I finished it a few days ago ... I wondered whether this book was going to differ from every other Conrad book I have read in that the hero did not die in some futile, meaningless way. There was no need for it. The plot did not demand it. No miserable fate was foreshadowed. Yet just as every Jane Austen book ends in a wedding, every Conrad book ends with the hero dying in some heart-wrenching, pointless manner. It was actually the least realistic part of the plot.
Finishing the book this afternoon, I see it differently. From beginning to end the book revolves around the dreadful allure of silver, divorcing the spellbound from the beauty and truth of human existence. First Henry Gould, then Charles and finally Sotillo, Decoud and the virtuous Nostromo. The ending is exquisite although the book was hard slog before the revolution began.
[Teresa Viola] did not move her head; only her eyes ran into the corners to watch the Capataz standing by the side of her bed. "Would you go to fetch a priest for me now? Think! A dying woman asks you!" …
"You refuse to go?" she gasped. "Ah! you are always yourself, indeed."
"Listen to reason, Padrona," he said. "I am needed to save the silver of the mine. Do you hear? A greater treasure than the one which they say is guarded by ghosts and devils on Azuera. It is true. I am resolved to make this the most desperate affair I was ever engaged on in my whole life." …
She laughed feebly. "Get riches at least for once, you indispensable, admired Gian' Battista, to whom the peace of a dying woman is less than the praise of people who have given you a silly name—and nothing besides—in exchange for your soul and body." …
"They have turned your head with their praises," gasped the sick woman. "They have been paying you with words. Your folly shall betray you into poverty, misery, starvation. The very leperos shall laugh at you—the great Capataz."
Incidentally, I think The Leopard an even greater novel, gripping throughout.