Resumen
Resumen de Juventud
Para quién es
You will love this if you enjoy sea stories told aloud, voyages that go wrong in vivid ways, old ships with a character of their own, and a narrator who looks back on his youth with warmth and humor.
De qué trata este libro
Youth, a Narrative is a short tale by Joseph Conrad, who died in 1924. It draws on the sea years of his own early life, and it is told by the sailor Marlow to four old friends around a dinner table. Each of them began in the merchant service, and each has since found a place on shore. Marlow takes the bottle and tells them about his first voyage to the East, when he was twenty and the second mate of a tired old coal ship.
The voyage is meant to be simple. A small barque must carry coal from the north of England to Bangkok. Instead it meets gales, collisions, leaks, mutinous crews and a fire in the cargo, and every mile costs far more than anyone planned. In this summary you will meet the sixty-year-old captain on his first command, the white-bearded mate, and the ship with its stubborn motto. You will also hear why Marlow still loves the whole mad business. The first key point is a table, a bottle and a tale.
En este resumen
- 1Five old sailors share a bottleFree
- 2The Judea cannot even leave England
- 3A gale tears the ship apart
- 4Months of waiting in Falmouth
- 5Fire hides in the coal
- 6What the tale is really about
Idea clave 1 de 6
Five old sailors share a bottle
The story begins at a polished mahogany table in England. Around it sit a company director, an accountant, a lawyer, a friend who simply listens, and Marlow. All five began their working lives in the merchant service, and that shared start holds them together in a way that weekend yachting never could. The table gleams like still water and reflects the claret glasses and their faces. As the bottle goes round, Marlow offers to tell them about his first voyage to the East.
He says some voyages seem made to illustrate life. You fight, work, sweat and nearly kill yourself to finish a task, and in the end you cannot do it, through no fault of your own. In his case the task is as plain as it sounds, to deliver a cargo of coal to its port. It is also his first trip east, his first as second mate, and the first time his captain has commanded a ship. That last fact matters, because the captain is sixty.
Captain Beard is a small, bent man with a face like a nutcracker and the clear blue eyes of a boy. He has spent his life on coasters and in the West Indies trade and has never rounded the great capes. The mate, Mahon, is another old man, with a Roman nose and a long white beard, who insists his name be said Mann. Good family stands behind him, but his luck has never held. Between the two, young Marlow feels like a boy between his grandfathers.
The ship is the Judea, about four hundred tons, laid up for ages in Shadwell Basin and black with rust, dust and grime. Across her broad stern run worn scrolls of gilding and a coat of arms with a motto, Do or Die. The words fill the twenty-year-old with romance, and he loves the old hulk for them. The plan is to load coal in a northern port and take it to Bangkok, a name he cannot say without a thrill.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Juventud
What is Youth by Joseph Conrad about?
It is the tale of Marlow's first voyage to the East at twenty, aboard an old coal barque named the Judea. Gales, delays and a fire in the cargo test the crew, while the older Marlow looks back with warmth.
Who is Marlow in Youth?
Marlow is the sailor who tells the story to four friends around a table. He was second mate of the Judea at twenty, and he recalls the voyage as an old man.
What does Do or Die mean in Youth?
It is the motto painted on the Judea's stern beneath her name. Marlow hears it as a cry of defiance against storm and fire, and it returns at key moments in the voyage.
Is Youth based on a true story?
Conrad drew on his own early years as a sailor, but the tale is fiction told through Marlow. It reflects the real life of merchant ships in the age of sail and steam.
Is Youth easy to read?
It is short and told in a warm spoken voice, as one man talks to friends over a bottle. The scenes are vivid and clear, and the humor and action keep the story moving.