Spellbound

You understand I am piecing here bits of disconnected statements. Thus Marlow to the unnamed (so far) interlocuter/narrator who introduces Chance, and listens to Marlow's account of Floral de Barral's isolation and despair - and love affair with Captain Anthony (along with lots of other associated stuff.) And, approaching the end of Part 1 of the two part text, I'm beginning to grasp, I think, why this curious novel was a popular success.

I reckon Conrad's first readers found themselves beguiled by the mystery of Flora - the result of the disconnectedness of the writer's approach to her - and the emotional power of her predicament. He invests the unashamedly romantic centre of the novel with a sense, a suggestion, of some kind of depth that is never quite defined, as if defying clarification.

Part of me suspects that the depth is essentially illusory, that Conrad's magic is that of misdirection. But another part is more than happy to surrender to his spell.