Joseph Conrad and the Narration of Silence

Reviews / Votes

Peters's book succeeds because his ideas and conclusions serve the actual text. In asserting that Conrad's techniques require active reader participation-including but not limited to the use of imagination-he gives agency to readers, an act of generosity that elevates and intensifies the experience. Joseph Conrad and the Narration of Silence is a welcome addition to the body of Conrad scholarship, and it will serve as a valuable reference well into the foreseeable future. -- Sylvia Weiser Wendel * Joseph Conrad Today * The paramount virtue of the Narration of Silence for this reviewer is that it sensitizes both the critic and teacher to subtleties in Conrad's narratives not always readily apparent. We are shown nuances in narrators' speech and silences, revealing dimensions of their thought and feeling unsaid and easily missed even on close reading. Joseph Conrad and the Narration of Silence is a significant achievement, silently signified in its title. This reviewer regards it as an important working tool for scholars of Conrad's narratology and for teachers of Conrad-yes, especially teachers. Of its author, we need only say, he's done it again. -- G. W. Stephen Brodsky * The Conradian * In this pathbreaking new book, Peters... reads not just what is subtly said but what is subtly unsaid in Conrad's work. [...] Peters thus takes Conrad's narrative evasions beyond technique to a more capacious arena where the gaps of silence can speak volumes.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. -- N. Birns, New York University * CHOICE * In this original and thought-provoking study, John G. Peters, a leading Conrad scholar of his generation, shows how fragments of meaning emerge in the gaps between what is said and what is unsaid in Conrad's fiction. This is an important book on an under-researched yet significant topic in Conrad studies. -- Jakob Lothe, University of Oslo