A Letter in a Bottle: Conrad, Norwid and the End of the Age of Sailing Ships
A Letter in a Bottle: Conrad, Norwid and the End of the Age of Sailing Ships

Summary/Abstract: A perusal of Conrad’s novels and Norwid’s Civilization easily allows us to discern a similarity of ideas. Both authors analyse the social consequences of technological progress and are particularly disturbed by the illusionary feeling of security that it brings, coming from a conviction that the forces of nature have finally been subdued. Modernity deprives Man of his greatness — it “takes the spell away”. With the disappearance of the common toil that holds people together comes a loosening of social bonds. Norwid wrote his Civilization in reaction to the news of the sinking of the Pacific — a steamship on which he had once returned from America. Conrad for his part was fascinated by the greatest sea disaster of his times: the sinking of the Titanic. The reluctance of both authors to acknowledge progress as an absolute entity may be explained by their shared Romantic view of the world, which was incompatible with any order based solely on “material interests”.

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