- The Rover (novel)
"The Rover" is the last complete novel by
Joseph Conrad , written between 1921 and 1922, The novel was first published in 1923.Plot summary
The story takes place in the south of
France , against the backdrop of theFrench Revolution ,Napoleon 's rise to power and the French/English rivalry in theMediterranean . Peyrol (a master-gunner in the French republican navy, pirate and for nearly fifty years ‘rover of the outer seas’) attempts to find refuge in an isolated farmhouse (Escampobar) on the Giens Peninsular nearHyères .The story is about Peyrol's attempt at withdrawal from an action and blood filled life; his involvement with the pariahs of Escampobar, the struggle for his identity and allegiance which is resolved in his last voyage.
Trivia
Conrad placed the epigraph from
Edmund Spenser 'sThe Faerie Queene :"Sleep after toyle, port after stormie seas,""Ease after warre, death after life, does greatly please."
on the title page. This also became Conrad's epitaph.
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