Amy Foster

"Amy Foster" is a short story by Joseph Conrad written in 1901. It was first published in the "Illustrated London News" (December 1901), and was collected in "Typhoon and Other Stories" (1903).

Yanko Goorall, a Polish immigrant en route for America (his name, in Polish spelled "Janko Góral"," means "Johnny Highlander"), is shipwrecked on the shores of Kent, England. Speaking no English, he is treated as a madman and is whipped, stoned, beaten and imprisoned by the locals. Eventually he is given a job by a Mr. Swaffer, learns to speak English, and falls in love with Amy Foster, an English girl who has shown him kindness. They marry and have a son.

Several months later, Yanko falls ill and begins to rave in his native language. Amy, frightened, takes their child and flees for her life. The following morning, Yanko dies of heart failure. It transpires that he had simply been asking, in his native language, for water.

The character of Yanko Goorall shares some similarities with Conrad himself. Like Yanko, Conrad too is a Pole living in England, far from his native land; in "Amy Foster" he expresses some of his feelings of alienation.

In 1997, "Amy Foster" was made into the film, "Swept from the Sea".

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