The Nigger of the Narcissus and Youth

The Nigger of the Narcissus: A Tale of the Forecastle[a] (sometimes subtitled A Tale of the Sea), first published in the United States as The Children of the Sea, is an 1897 novella by Polish-British novelist Joseph Conrad. The central character is an Afro-Caribbean man who is ill at sea while aboard the trading ship Narcissus heading towards London. Due to the offensiveness of the word nigger in the title, it was renamed The Children of the Sea: A Tale of the Forecastle for the 1897 US edition. Because of the novella’s superb quality compared to Conrad’s earlier works, some critics have described it as marking the start of Conrad’s major or middle period; others have placed it as the best work of his early period.