# Author’s Note explained — The Rescue

> Chapter companion for The Rescue by Joseph Conrad.

## What happens

In this Author’s Note, Joseph Conrad reflects on the long interruption of his novel 'The Rescue,' which waited twenty years to be completed. He discusses the reasons for setting it aside, including doubts about his prose and the need to focus on other works like 'The Nigger of the Narcissus.' He describes the eventual return to the story, driven by sentiment and a sense of obligation to the characters who had waited for him.

## Themes in this chapter

### Identity and Self-Doubt

Conrad's doubts about his prose and the adequacy of his expression reflect a crisis of artistic identity.

### Fate and Free Will

Conrad speaks of the 'good pleasure of the Fates' and the 'superior influence' that guided his return to the novel.

## Character check-ins

### Captain Lingard

Mentioned as part of the story's characters who waited for Conrad's return.

### Mrs. Travers

Implied as one of the familiar faces waiting in the abandoned tale.

### Jörgenson

Implied as one of the characters who awaited the author's return.

### Daman

Implied as part of the story's cast that Conrad revisits.

## Key lines

> I laid it aside at the end of the summer of 1898 and it was about the end of the summer of 1918 that I took it up again with the firm determination to see the end of it and helped by the sudden feeling that I might be equal to the task.

I set the novel aside in late summer 1898 and only returned to it in late summer 1918, resolved to finish it, aided by a sudden belief in my ability to do so.

_Conrad describes the long hiatus and his eventual return to writing 'The Rescue.'_

> The truth is that when The Rescue was laid aside it was not laid aside in despair.

Actually, I didn't abandon 'The Rescue' out of hopelessness.

_Conrad clarifies that the abandonment was not due to despair but other reasons._

> I dropped The Rescue not to give myself up to idleness, regrets, or dreaming, but to begin The Nigger of the Narcissus and to go on with it without hesitation and without a pause.

I set aside 'The Rescue' not to waste time, but to start and continue 'The Nigger of the Narcissus' without interruption.

_Conrad explains his immediate shift to another work._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_rescue_se/chapters/author-s-note
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_rescue_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_rescue_se/chapters