The Nigger of the "Narcissus" A Tale of the Forecastle[a] (sometimes subtitled A Tale of the Sea), first published in the United States as The Children of the Sea, is an 1897 novella by Polish-British novelist Joseph Conrad. The central character is an Afro-Caribbean man who is ill at sea while aboard the trading ship Narcissus heading towards London. Controversy around the use of the word nigger in the title saw the US name changed in 1897 and a 2009 version titled The N-Word of the Narcissus. Because of the novella's superb quality compared to Conrad's earlier works, some critics have described it as marking the start of Conrad's major or middle period, others have placed it as the best work of his early period.