The Idiots (short story)

"The Idiots" is a short story by Joseph Conrad, his first to be published. It first appeared in The Savoy in 1896. The story was included in the Conrad collection Tales of Unrest, published in 1898.^[1]

Set in Britanny, the story describes a couple whose children have intellectual disability; the strain on the family leads eventually to murder.

Background

The story was written during Joseph Conrad's honeymoon; he rented a house on Île-Grande, on the north coast of Brittany, from April to August 1896. His wife Jessie later wrote that "much of our Île-Grande life is in that short story.... The stone-cutters are in it, our landlady is in it, and the feeling of our surroundings, perhaps a little more sombrely than the reality", and explained how the story originated: while being driven from Lannion to Île-Grande, the driver pointed out "the idiots", saying "Four - hein. And all in the same family. That's a little too much. And the priests say it's God's will!"^[2][3]

Conrad had a poor opinion of this story, writing that it was "an obviously derivative piece of work"; he did not name a model, but critics have supposed that it was influenced by Guy de Maupassant.^[3]

Story summary

The reader is introduced to "the idiots" as the narrator is driven near Ploumar in Brittany and they are pointed out on the road by the driver.

The earlier story of the family follows. Jean-Pierre Bacadou, returning from military service, finds his elderly father's farm is in a poor state, and resolves to make improvements. He marries Susan; the celebration of the event at the farm is picturesquely described.

Twins are born; Jean-Pierre notices something is wrong. His wife says, dully, "When they sleep they are like other people's children." A third child is born. "That child, like the other two, never smiled, never stretched its hand to her, never spoke..."

The parish priest calls on the local landowner, the Marquis de Chavanes, to say that Jean-Pierre Bacadou, a republican, has attended Mass, an unheard-of event. The Marquis, a royalist and former mayor, thinks this is significant, and thinks he will win the next communal election, since he regards Jean-Pierre as influential.

A girl is born to the couple; she is like their other children. One evening, driving through Ploumar, Jean-Pierre stops and walks up to the churchyard gates and calls, "Hey there! Come out!" Back in the cart, he says to his wife, "See? Nobody. I've been made a fool." In the autumn he angrily wanders about the fields, aware that there is no one to take over the farm.

Susan's mother, Madame Levaille, is a businesswoman who has a local granite quarry and a shop.

Jean-Pierre angrily approaches Susan, and she kills him with scissors. After telling her mother, who is appalled by her daughter's actions, she goes down to the beach, delirious. One of the seaweed-gatherers there approaches to help her, but she thinks it is Jean-Pierre's ghost. Trying to escape from him, she eventually falls from a cliff and dies.

The Marquis de Chavanes makes arrangements to have Madame Levaille made guardian of the children and administrator of the farm, rather than a member of the republican Bacadous.

References

External links

• Tales of Unrest at Project Gutenberg includes "The Idiots"
• Tales of Unrest public domain audiobook at LibriVox