Captain Whalley's closely guarded secret launches him, literally, on a course that would have been tragic, had not the heroism in the captain's heart already played itself out many years before. Perhaps there is a diluted echo of King Lear in this novella, the old man who wants to retire and pass on his success in life to his daughter but who is betrayed by the greed and ambitions of those around and even above him. Despair dominates. At the end, what is there but to keep putting one foot in front of the other, to last it out.

This novella is somewhat neglected, especially as it appeared alongside Heart of Darkness in an early collection. Yet it is a successful work. Conrad excelled at the long short story/novella form. The psychological reveals are not only modern but universal. ( )

What happens when a man finds himself tethered to a bad situation because of a bad decision, bad luck, bad company, or simply bad fate . . . a situation in which light is described as violent, dazzling, blinding, and wearying? One might expect that then less light would be solace. This emphatically turns out not to be true in Joseph Conrad’s The End of the Tether.

The man so tethered, Captain Henry Whalley, aka Dare-devil Whalley, finds himself with a ship’s command that taps little of what made him special, as if he is now retired, even while active, from what had made him substantial and proud. What’s more, guided by love for a faraway daughter, he finds that to salvage his pride he must, paradoxically, abuse his sense of rectitude—a choice that emphasizes how far down his own rope he is. Meanwhile, others aboard have plans that align imperfectly with his, creating the story’s dramatic tension.

All this plays out in 19th-century Far East settings among men of compromised character, colonial attitudes, and uncertain constancy. The malice of chance in thwarting men’s ambitions is always prominent, and the way things work out can make a pessimist or a misanthrope feel justified.

Conrad’s propensity for extensive description will not be to every reader’s taste but in this short novel I tolerated it better than in some of his other work because he dispenses with the convention of an intermediate narrator. In presenting his settings, or the men in their acts, thoughts, emotions, and apprehensions, this is painterly prose. ( )

this is my favorite of the stories authored by Joseph Conrad so far. It's a sad story, about a sea captain who saved up for retirement, only to have the company he invested in go bankrupt. This could be the story of many older people now. ( )