The First Serial Appearance of "The Brute"

Abstract

The First Serial Appearance of "The Brute" Mary Burgoyne (bio) A sad tale's best for winter: I have one of sprites and goblins. —Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale Following the publication of Typhoon and Other Stories in 1903, Conrad did not publish another collection of shorter fiction until the domestic issue A Set of Six in 1908, while publication in the United States was deferred until 1915.1 Despite the seven-year interval, and tentative plans for an alternative American release, both the UK and US editions of A Set of Six feature "Gaspar Ruiz," "The Informer," "The Brute," "An Anarchist," "The Duel," and "Il Conde," all of which appeared serially prior to the volume's first publication.2 Conrad later stated in his 1920 "Author's Note" that the collected stories were "the result of some three or four years of occasional work […]. The dates of their writing are far apart" (Conrad, "Author's Note" ix). Yet he wrote "An Anarchist," "The Informer," and "The Brute" in a concentrated creative flurry between December 1905 and late January 1906. Moreover, as he contemporaneously noted, there was a financial impetus for his choice of literary form: "I write these stories because they bring more money than the sea papers" (CL 3:300).3 The British and American serial rights to "An Anarchist" and "The Informer" were disposed of with relative ease when purchased by Harper's Magazine shortly after completion in December 1905 and January 1906, respectively.4 Although McClure's Magazine acquired the American serial rights for "The Brute" in April 1906, the British serial rights languished unsold for many months prior to the acquisition by the Daily Chronicle for inclusion in their 1906 Christmas number.5 Conrad's tale of a ship with "homicidal habits" that claimed at least one life [End Page 65] every voyage before it ran aground and was destroyed on the rocks had been offered to William Blackwood for inclusion in Blackwood's Magazine, mainly in an effort to discharge the balance on a long overdue personal debt between author and publisher ("Author's Note" ix;CL 2:310; Blackburn 197). Blackwood nevertheless declined the story, citing a perceived similarity between the work and Edward Noble's novel, The Edge of Circumstance, which had been published by the house two years earlier (Blackburn 188-189). Yet, significantly, Blackwood failed to mention that he was preparing to issue Noble's latest volume, Fisherman's Gat. The eponymous gat, located in the Thames estuary, is a gateway, not only to the sea but also to a curse that befalls those who witness the specter of a man "sometimes rowing […] sometimes struggling with a boat" ([2]). With its liberal infusion of the supernatural, misfortune, and loss of human life, Fisherman's Gat has more in common with Conrad's "The Brute" than Noble's earlier novel. Moreover, Conrad and Noble had produced texts that could be read as either tales of the uncanny or as tales of human folly where man is the chief architect of his own misfortune. Blackwood was evidently loath to encourage comparisons between Conrad and Noble, which could potentially undermine the marketing of the latter's forthcoming novel, particularly as such comparisons had been a feature of the critical reception of The Edge of Circumstance.6 The rejection of "The Brute" by Blackwood was, to some extent, mitigated by the purchase of the American serial rights just five days later by McClure's Magazine for £50, where it appeared the following year in November 1907.7 McClure's London office had also intimated that the Windsor Magazine would issue the story in Britain, yet this did not in fact materialise.8 Indeed, the British serial rights remained unsold at least until August 1906, when a story by Conrad, presumed to be "The Brute," was submitted to the Reader, a new penny weekly to be launched on October 25, 1906, by Edward Lloyd, Ltd., the proprietors and publishers of the Daily Chronicle.9 The new journal was placed under the editorial control of Robert Donald, the incumbent editor of the Daily Chronicle, with author and journalist Clarence Rook appointed literary editor.10 Rook had...