In Great Waters: Four Stories

In Short

These four novellas explore the dark intersection of romantic jealousy and the unforgiving maritime landscape. Set in places as diverse as the Dutch island of Marken, a remote Minnesota point, and the rugged coasts of France and England, the stories follow characters whose intense, singular passions lead them to ruin. Written with a stark, atmospheric focus on the physical and psychological toll of obsession, the collection captures the volatility of human nature. It remains a haunting exploration of how love, when twisted by ownership, transforms into a destructive force.

The Story

Each story functions as a descent into the wreckage of a fractured relationship. In "The Wrath of the Zuyder Zee," Krelis Kess, a bold fisherman, abandons his steady companion for the gentle Marretje. Despite his marriage, he drifts toward Geert Thysen, a woman who mirrors his own volatility. As their affair becomes local scandal, a historic storm surges against the island. In a final act of hubris, Krelis and Geert attempt to traverse the rising water to reach their own village, ignoring the warnings of their community. They push off into the darkness and the fury of the waves, leaving behind a wake of destruction that finally silences the rumors and the lives of those caught in their orbit.

"A Duluth Tragedy" shifts the setting to a desolate American point, where a young man named Maltham finds himself entangled with a local eccentric, Major Ashley, and his daughter, Ulrica. Caught in the Major's delusions of grandeur and the atmospheric intensity of the shoreline, Maltham initially plays at courtship. However, the connection turns perilous during a boating excursion where Ulrica’s reckless bravado mirrors the dangerous, shifting moods of the bay. Maltham’s inability to disentangle himself from the web of their lives leads to a moment of irreversible betrayal, ending in a quiet, haunting finality that leaves the survivors haunted by the weight of their own choices.

"The Death-Fires of Les Martigues" centers on a fierce rivalry in Provence. The narrator, Marius, is consumed by a consuming jealousy toward his friend, Jan, who has won the heart of the radiant Magali. When the three are out on the water, Marius’s internal resentment curdles into a murderous impulse. As a gale rises, he deliberately steers his boat into Jan’s, driven by the belief that he is reclaiming his own life by destroying his rival. He survives, but only to face the hollow victory of his own destructive hand.

Finally, "A Sea Upcast" tells the story of an East Anglian fisherman who finds a young girl, Tess, washed ashore after a wreck. He raises her, but as she grows, she becomes the center of a bitter competition between him and a man named John. The narrator’s stubborn, white-hot love for Tess turns to hatred for his rival. When the sea eventually claims Tess and John during a storm, the narrator finds her body on the shore. He carries her home, claiming her at last in death, a final, grim triumph that reflects the cold, possessive nature of his devotion.

How It Unfolds

The gathering storm Each narrative begins with a calm that masks an underlying turbulence, whether it is a marriage in Marken or a quiet arrival in Duluth. The characters establish their desires, only for those desires to be immediately challenged by the presence of a rival or an internal moral decay.

The turning of the tide As the relationships reach a breaking point, the characters are forced into confrontations that the natural environment mirrors through rising gales and encroaching waters. The tension shifts from social whispers to physical danger, as the protagonists make choices that intentionally ignore the safety of themselves and those they claim to love.

The final wreckage The resolution in each story is marked by a violent, often watery, end. Whether through a literal collision or the metaphorical drowning of a spirit, the cycle of obsession concludes with the total loss of the object of desire. The survivors are left to recount their actions with a mixture of cold satisfaction and lingering, irredeemable grief.

The People

The protagonists are defined by a stubborn, almost pathological need to possess the people they claim to love. Krelis Kess acts on impulse, treating both his wife and his mistress as prizes to be won, ultimately destroying himself in his pursuit of a life that defies the boundaries of his community. Maltham is a study in weakness; he lacks the conviction to leave or the strength to commit, and his lack of clarity results in the ruin of the Major’s household.

Marius, the narrator of the Provence story, is perhaps the most explicit in his malice, viewing his friend Jan not as a person but as an obstacle to his "sunshine." He is a man who knows he owes his life to the friend he eventually kills. The narrator of "A Sea Upcast" is similarly possessive, viewing Tess as a prize he rescued from the sea, which gives him a perceived right to her existence. None of these characters find redemption; they are too consumed by their own narratives of entitlement to recognize the humanity of those they destroy.

In Its Own Voice

"He was a crazed man," the narrator observes of Old Jaap, whose strange, binding curses hang over the islanders like the very storms that eventually swallow them.

"I have loved you with my whole heart," Ulrica tells her father in a moment of intense, desperate sincerity that underscores the emotional stakes of the characters' doomed attachments.

"Then I could use my eyes to look behind me," the narrator of the final story remarks, describing the horrific moment he watches the sea claim the life of his rival and the woman he obsessively sought to possess.

What It's Really About

The book is a meditation on the destructive nature of possessive love. It argues that when love is viewed as a form of ownership—whether it is a wife, a friend, or a young girl washed up by the tide—it ceases to be an act of devotion and becomes a vessel for vanity and ego. The author uses the maritime setting as a constant reminder of the fragility of human life and the indifference of the elements. The "great waters" serve as a mirror for the characters' internal tempests, suggesting that those who cannot master their own desires will inevitably be pulled under by them.

Why Read It Today

Readers who appreciate psychological intensity and atmospheric, rugged prose will find these stories compelling. The writing is precise and unflinching, capturing the raw, often uncomfortable reality of human jealousy without the softening touch of sentimentality. It is a stark experience, characterized by a sense of impending doom that feels earned rather than forced.

However, the reader must be prepared for the period attitudes embedded in the text. The characters possess a fatalistic, often brutal worldview, and the author’s portrayal of gender roles and interpersonal conflict is very much a product of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The dialect and regional descriptions are authentic to their settings but require a bit of patience to navigate. This is not a book that offers easy catharsis or moral clarity; rather, it offers a cold, hard look at the darker currents of the heart. It will stay with you precisely because it refuses to offer the comfort of a happy ending, choosing instead to leave you at the edge of the shore, watching the tide come in over the wreckage.