The Nigger of the Narcissus

Joseph Conrad's The Nigger of the Narcissus (1897) is a work of literary impressionism about the decline and salvation of an inscrutable black sailor, Wait, sailing from Bombay to London on board the merchant ship Narcissus. Wait falls ill with tuberculosis, and his illness arouses sympathies of several of the crew, while some remain indifferent. Portraying sea-life, the book explores the innate morality of the isolated seamen.