Joseph Conrad

The Idiots Joseph Conrad

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.