3 h 28 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What do society’s rules mean to a man who has been driven beyond them by hunger?
A young captain takes his first command on the river at Bangkok, but his sailing ship cannot easily reach the sea without help. Falk owns the steam tug that can take ships to open water. Silent, powerful, and shunned by other captains, he watches the narrator’s ship with unsettling interest.
As a prickly rivalry grows, gossip shapes the young captain’s judgment. Schomberg, the hotel keeper, talks freely; the hospitable Captain Hermann worries about his quiet niece’s future. In Joseph Conrad’s novella, these lives gather around a hidden past and a hard question: how should people judge someone pushed beyond society’s rules by need?
What you’ll discover
- A river that confines Feel the frustration of a captain whose command cannot carry him out to sea.
- Power in quiet hands Meet Falk, whose tug gives him power while his silence keeps others at a distance.
- Gossip against a secret Watch the port’s talk shape judgments before the young narrator can see clearly.
- Hunger against society’s rules Consider what a person owes society after desperate need pushes him beyond its boundaries.
- Youth seen through memory Enjoy an older narrator’s half-amused view of his younger self and his quick judgments.
Who will love it
For readers who love sea stories with a human secret at the core, and anyone drawn to tales of gossip, courtship, survival and the rules of society.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A young captain is stuck in Bangkok
- The town gossips and Falk is shunned
- Falk's silence and a strange stubbornness
- Captain Hermann and his niece
- What the story says about hunger and civilization
- How Conrad tells it
Who’s who
- The narratorA young captain in his first command, stuck on the river at Bangkok, who judges quickly and learns to see more clearly.
- FalkA silent, powerful Scandinavian who owns the steam tug, is shunned by other captains, and hides a heavy secret.
- Captain HermannAn older German shipmaster, loud and hospitable, who lives aboard with his niece and worries about her future.
- Hermann's nieceA healthy, silent young woman aboard her uncle's ship, at the center of what the men want and fear.
- SchombergThe hotel keeper who feeds the captains and gossips freely, shaping what the port thinks of Falk.
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- Audiobook
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Falk
by Joseph Conrad · 1903
Stranded on the river at Bangkok, a young captain encounters a shunned tugboat owner with a secret shaped by hunger.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A young captain is stuck in Bangkok
The story opens with the narrator, who is young and newly in command, taking charge of a sailing barque at Bangkok. The ship lies in the river waiting, and it cannot easily go down to the sea without help. Conrad uses this delay to set the scene. The narrator is proud of his first command, a little anxious, and eager to prove himself to the older men around him.
The river is a small world. Ships of several nations lie along the bank, and their captains meet ashore and compare news. The narrator is the newcomer, so he watches the habits of this community closely. He notices who is welcome at its tables, who is talked about, and who is quietly left out.
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What is Falk by Joseph Conrad about?
It is a novella about a young sea captain waiting in Bangkok, who meets Falk, a silent tugboat owner shunned by the port. The story follows the rumors, a courtship, and the hidden past that explains him.
When was Falk written and is it a true story?
Conrad published it in 1903 in the collection Typhoon and Other Stories. It is fiction, though it draws on his own years as a sailor and his knowledge of Eastern ports.
Who is Falk in the story?
Falk is a strong, quiet Scandinavian who owns a steam tug on the river at Bangkok. The other captains avoid him, and the narrator must deal with him to get his ship downriver.
The author
Joseph Conrad
1857–1924 · Polish-British novelist
Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) was a Polish-British writer born in Berdychiv, then in the Russian Empire and now in Ukraine. He worked at sea before settling in England. He wrote in English. His works include Heart of Darkness (1899), Lord Jim (1900), Nostromo (1904), and The Secret Agent (1907).
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