Territorial Vision and Revision in “Freya of the Seven Isles”

Abstract

WHILE GENERALLY DEEMED one of Conrad's less successful works, "Freya of the Seven Isles" boasts a memorable ending. Old Nelson may get the last word, relating the death of his daughter, Freya, from a broken heart; but the image that remains in the reader's mind is that of Freya's intended, Jasper Allen, haunting the beach at Makassar and gazing at the sight of his brig, wrecked on a reef outside the town. Just how that hazard got there deserves investigation, for, contrary to his claims about historical accuracy, this reef did not exist as Conrad portrayed it. Exami ning previously neglected nautical sources reveals several important topographical manipulations in this work, alterations that Conrad did not acknowledge but that are nevertheless fundamental to the story's artistic integrity. Setting is far more than a mere backdrop in this tale, whose sources have received scant critical attention. Norman Sherry's influential Conrad's Eastern World (1966) and Jerry Allen's The Sea Years of Joseph Conrad (1965), otherwise so comprehensive, only briefly mention the story. Later scholars tend to accept without question Conrad's version of the historical setting, or decline to analyze the precise function of the fictional landscape, or both. But evidence indicates that Conrad rear ranges certain details of the historical seascape and subjects other aspects to selective description for important symbolic purposes. Conrad's topographical alterations lend this undervalued tale considerably more stylistic subdety and richness than critics have recognized. Only an awareness, first, of the lengths to which Conrad went to create a carefully organized topography out of manipulated historical facts opens our understanding to the crucial links between the story's physical and psychological landscapes.