Reviews for The Brute

The average rating for The Brute based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-04-25 00:00:00 Marcus Arianas This is my second short story that I have read by Conrad, last Christmas one of his short stories was in a Holiday Collection with other authors. I will eventually read one of his novels but I was really wanting to read The Brute, which is one of his set of six short stories. See my shelf set of six above to see the other short stories. Below Joseph Conrad comments on the six stories, 1920 author's note. "The six stories in this volume are the result of some three or four years of occasional work. The dates of their writing are far apart, their origins are various. None of them are connected directly with personal experiences. In all of them the facts are inherently true, by which I mean that they are not only possible but that they have actually happened." Why did I want to read "The Brute" now? Once again I heard an OTR (Old Time Radio) show called "Escape" which originally aired April 11, 1948 and even though I heard this episode before, recently hearing it again I wanted to see how close it played to his story. It was fairly close but the ending was a little different and details of the ship and her history were more detailed. I found both the radio version and the story both excellent but I enjoyed the read better because of some mysterious elements. As you read above and below this story and the other of the "set of six" are "inherently true". Below in Conrad's words a synopsis of The Brute. Why should I summarize when you hear it from the author himself? "The Brute, which is the only sea-story in the volume, is, like Il Conde, associated with a direct narrative and based on a suggestion gathered on warm human lips. I will not disclose the real name of the criminal ship but the first I heard of her homicidal habits was from the late Captain Blake, commanding a London ship in which I served in 1884 as Second Officer. Captain Blake was, of all my commanders, the one I remember with the greatest affection. I have sketched in his personality, without however mentioning his name, in the first paper of The Mirror of the Sea. In his young days he had had a personal experience of the brute and it is perhaps for that reason that I have put the story into the mouth of a young man and made of it what the reader will see. The existence of the brute was a fact." The radio link to listen to, if interested. Parley Baer, is in this one and he is all over OTR, Chester on Radio Gunsmoke and I remember him fondly on TV - The Andy Griffith Show as the second mayor. One of my favorite TV shows of all times. I just had to mention him! 😊

Review # 2 was written on 2018-12-01 00:00:00 Jani Kurki I won't look it up, but this only has part of Conrad's gifts: strange places, an exotic story, but not the depth of development in character or language. A good yarn it is, but that's all.