"An Outpost of Progress" is a short story written in July 1896 by Joseph Conrad, drawing on his experiences in the Belgian Congo. It was published in 1897 in the magazine Cosmopolis and in 1898 was collected in Tales of Unrest.
The story deals with two European men, named Kayerts and Carlier, who are assigned to a trading post in a remote part of the African jungle. There they take part in ivory trading, seeking financial benefit both for the company and for themselves. With no specific tasks or important things to be done, they both become increasingly isolated and demoralized as time goes by. At one point in the story, the native Makola, serving as Kayerts and Carlier's bookkeeper, initiates an exchange of slaves for ivory. Initially Kayerts and Carlier are stunned and scandalized by the idea, yet eventually they accept the deal and aid Makola for his huge profit. Both men are plagued by disease and grow very weak physically toward the end of the story. Finally, a seemingly trivial matterâÂÂsugarâÂÂsparks an irrational, uncontrolled, and violent conflict between them, which ends tragically as Kayerts accidentally shoots and kills Carlier. At the end of the story, just when the company steamboat approaches the station two months later than it should have, Kayerts hangs himself out of desperation.
Conrad, who favored the journal Cosmopolis to publish his early work, came into conflict with the editors over what they considered the excessive length of âÂÂAn Outpost of Progress.â Conrad wrote a confidant on the matter:
Conrad was placated when he discovered that Cosmopolis was providing a generous fee for the story: ã50.
Conrad served his âÂÂapprenticeshipâ under the influence of the French author Gustave Flaubert and British author Rudyard Kipling.
The two ivory dealers portrayed in âÂÂThe Outpost of Progressâ closely resemble the chief protagonists in FlaubertâÂÂs novel Bouvard et Pécuchet (1881), âÂÂas classic revelation of bourgeois stupidity and pretension.â Literary critic Laurence Graver writes:
Graver also reports that âÂÂAn Outpost of Progressâ is highly derivative of the works of Rudyard Kipling, in particular his âÂÂThe Man Who Would Be Kingâ (1888).â ConradâÂÂs irony is conveyed through âÂÂa playful mixture of the jaunty and macabreâÂÂ, an unmistakable feature of KiplingâÂÂs fiction. Graver observes that âÂÂConrad keeps falling back on humor typical of Kipling, particularly euphemized substitution to mask the ugly facts of life.âÂÂ
Conrad described âÂÂAn Outpost of Progressâ as âÂÂthe lightest part of the [literary] loot that I carried off from Central Africa.âÂÂ
Biographer Joycelyn Baines comments on ConradâÂÂs sojourn in the Belgian Congo during the early 1890s and the misanthropic elements evident in his literature.:
Literary critic Albert J. Guerard notes that âÂÂAn Outpost of Progressâ is of interest chiefly as âÂÂa cold adumbrationâ¦offering a significant variant on âÂÂHeart of Darknessâ and the only stories Conrad based on his experiences in Central Africa. Guerard writes:
As such, âÂÂthe most personal voice of the early Conrad is lacking.â The work is âÂÂperfectly devoid of familiarity between author and readerâ¦âÂÂ
Literary critic Edward W. Said locates the theme of âÂÂAn Outpost of Progressâ in the shame Conrad felt at âÂÂallowing [his] personal ideals to be corruptedâ and in particular, âÂÂthe shame of fear.â Said declares that Conrad experienced a sense of guilt at his renunciation of the âÂÂideals of his Polish heritageâ and âÂÂthe capricious abandonmentâ of his life as a mariner. Said writes:
The full text can be found at Gutenberg