Summary
Summary of Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard
Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard at a glance
Summary: 7 min to read
- Reading time
- About 11 h 10 min8 h 55 min fast, 13 h 20 min slow
- Length
- 159,800 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1904by Joseph Conrad
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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Key ideas
Key idea 1
Silver puts character to the test
What happens when a man known for his good character is trusted with treasure during a revolution? That question stands at the opening of Nostromo. In Costaguana, an invented South American republic, governments repeatedly fall, and a mountain of silver helps decide the country's fate.
The story brings political struggle together with adventure and the study of character. Wealth is not simply something people want to possess. It becomes a test of what their principles, loyalties and public reputations really mean.
Key idea 2
Treasure keeps its own prisoners
Before introducing its people, the novel gives us Sulaco and the still waters of the Golfo Placido.
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Key idea 3
Nostromo earns the trust of others
Captain Mitchell loves telling how Sulaco nearly fell to a mob.
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Key idea 4
Praise may be Nostromo's true payment
At his inn between harbour and town, Giorgio Viola guards his family with a shotgun as the riot passes.
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Key idea 5
Gould makes the mine his purpose
For Charles Gould, the San Tome mine is an inheritance bound to suffering.
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Key idea 6
The mine creates hope and power
Emilia Gould travels with her husband through a province scarred by civil wars.
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Key idea 7
Love draws Decoud into politics
Martin Decoud returns from Paris doubtful about nearly everything and proud of his detachment.
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Key idea 8
The silver becomes a dangerous burden
With both the mob and the army threatening Sulaco, the silver must be removed from the Custom House.
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Key idea 9
Reputation can rule like wealth
The mine binds together people who hope for stability, seek profit or want power.
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Who it’s for
Readers who love sea stories, political intrigue and richly drawn places will enjoy this book. It suits anyone curious about revolutions, silver, loyalty and reputation.
What this book is
What happens to a good man when a mountain of silver decides the fate of a whole country? Nostromo opens on a calm gulf, a cursed peninsula and a legend of two ghostly treasure hunters who cannot leave their gold. Then it moves into a South American republic where governments fall as often as the weather changes.
Joseph Conrad published this novel in 1904 and set it in Costaguana, an invented republic on the western coast of a vast continent. The spark was a sailors' tale of a man who stole a boatload of silver during a revolution. Conrad wondered what if the thief were a man of character. The result is a political novel, an adventure and a study of character in one.
In this summary
- 1Silver puts character to the testFree
- 2Treasure keeps its own prisoners
- 3Nostromo earns the trust of others
- 4Praise may be Nostromo's true payment
- 5Gould makes the mine his purpose
- 6The mine creates hope and power
- 7Love draws Decoud into politics
- 8The silver becomes a dangerous burden
- 9Reputation can rule like wealth
A calm gulf, a cursed rock, a legend
The book begins with a place before it gives a single person. Sulaco lies on the Golfo Placido, a wide gulf shaped like an enormous roofless temple open to the ocean. High mountains form its walls, draped in clouds like mourning cloth. No strong wind has ever been known to blow across its waters.
At one end the coast runs out in a low cape called Punta Mala. At the other lies the peninsula of Azuera, a wild jumble of sharp rocks with no water and hardly any soil. Poor people say it is cursed, and that heaps of gold lie in its deep precipices. Many adventurers are said to have died looking for it.
Then comes the legend. Two wandering sailors and a shiftless local lad steal a donkey and hack their way into the thorny scrub. Nobody sees the donkey or the lad again. The two gringos, people say, still live among the rocks, rich, hungry and thirsty, their souls unable to leave their bodies, which stand guard over the treasure. Remember the ghosts of Azuera, because the book will.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Check yourself
Why does Charles Gould decide to work the mine?
Right. “The mine, he decides, caused an absurd moral disaster, and its working must become a serious moral success.”Not quite. “The mine, he decides, caused an absurd moral disaster, and its working must become a serious moral success.”
What helps draw Decoud into political action?
Right. “Decoud proves that grand politics can begin in a wish to win one woman.”Not quite. “Decoud proves that grand politics can begin in a wish to win one woman.”
What does Decoud suspect supports Nostromo's incorruptibility?
Right. “Decoud suspects that his incorruptibility rests on vanity.”Not quite. “Decoud suspects that his incorruptibility rests on vanity.”
Go deeper: the whole of Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard
About 11 h 30 min to read.Start freePaperback, hardcover and large print, printed for you at cost, are on their way.Email me when it is printed
Who’s who
- Nostromo
- The Genoese foreman of the Sulaco dockworkers, admired and feared, who wants above all to be well spoken of.
- Charles Gould
- The English-looking Costaguanero who runs the San Tome silver mine and is determined to turn his father's ruin into success.
- Emilia Gould
- His wife, the gracious first lady of Sulaco, who hopes the mine will bring justice and peace.
- Martin Decoud
- A doubting, witty journalist from Paris who is drawn into politics by his love for Antonia.
- Giorgio Viola
- An old Garibaldian who keeps an inn near the harbour and lives for liberty and his daughters.
- Doctor Monygham
- The bitter English physician who is secretly and fiercely loyal to Mrs Gould.
- Captain Mitchell
- The pompous but kindly local steamship superintendent, proud of his discovery of the Capataz.
- Antonia Avellanos
- The serious, learned daughter of a statesman, who believes in her country and in Decoud.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 159,800 words
- Reading timeAbout 11 h 10 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 13 other languages
Questions about Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard
What is Nostromo about?
It tells of a silver mine in the invented South American republic of Costaguana and the people tied to it. Revolution, a railway and a daring boat journey with the silver shape the story of a sailor called Nostromo.
Where does the name Nostromo come from?
It is what the English in Sulaco call the Italian foreman. Captain Mitchell's mispronunciation gave the sailor the name that Sulaco's Europeans habitually use. His own people use his real name, Giovanni Battista.
Is Nostromo a true story?
No. Costaguana and Sulaco are invented, though Conrad drew on real revolutions and a story he heard as a young sailor about a stolen boatload of silver. He published the novel in 1904.
Is Nostromo a hard book to follow?
It has a large cast and moves around in time, but the settings are vivid and each person is clearly drawn. Following the silver and the mine gives a steady thread through the whole story.
What is the main message of Nostromo?
Conrad suggests that material interests shape politics and private life alike. Good ideals can be bent by money, and a public reputation is a fragile thing on which to rest a life.
Cite this edition
Conrad, Joseph. Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard.
Conrad, J. (2026). Nostromo: A tale of the seaboard. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard (Original work published 1904)
Conrad, Joseph. Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard.
@book{conrad2026nostromo,
author = {Conrad, Joseph},
title = {Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/nostromo-a-tale-of-the-seaboard},
note = {First published 1904}
}
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