Embarking in the Tropics, the ship's Captain makes the instant acquaintance of the seemingly genial Mr Jacobus and his irritable brother. One a respectable businessman with a considerable reputation, the other a confessed chancer and entrepreneur with no reputation left to lose, the Captain is at a [...]
On a boat in the Thames estuary, Marlow tells his travelling companions of his reconnaissance expedition for a Belgian trading company to its most remote outpost in central Africa, which brought him on the trail of the elusive Kurtz, a brilliant idealist gone rogue. His account relates not only the [...]
First published in 1900, Lord Jim established Conrad as one of the great storytellers of the twentieth century. Set in the Malay Archipelago, the novel not only provides a gripping account of maritime adventure and romance, but also an exotic tale of the East. Its themes also challenge the conventio[...]
Then the vision of an enormous town prsented itself, of a monstrous town...a cruel devourer of the world's light. There was room enough there to place any story, depth enough for any passion, variety enough there for any setting, darkness enough to bury five millions of lives.' Conrad's 'monstrous t[...]
Nostromo is the only man capable of the decisive action needed to save the silver of the San Tome mine and secure independence for Sulaco, Occidental province of the Latin American state of Costaguana. Is his integrity as unassailable as everyone believes, or will his ideals, like those which have i[...]
Heart of Darkness is a chilling tale of horror which, as the author intended, is capable of many interpretations. Set in the Congo during the period of rapid colonial expansion in the 19th century, the story deals with the highly disturbing effects of economic, social and political exploitation of E[...]
This is a classic story of one man's tragic failure and eventual redemption, told under the circumstances of high adventure at the margins of the known world.[...]
A novel, in which Charles Gould returns to South America determined to make a success of the inheritance left to him by his father, the San Tome mine. But his dreams are thwarted as the country is plunged into revolution.[...]
This is the only novel that Conrad set in London, and it communicates a profoundly ironic view of human affairs. The story is woven around an attack on the Greenwich Observatory in 1894. Verloc, (a Russian spy who is also working for the police) is ostensibly a member of an anarchist group in Soho.[...]
Victory is a sombre study of good and evil i n Conrad''s mature manner. The characteristic theme of a man reaching out from his apparently total solitude in sympathy for another human being is explored through the story of Axe l Heyst. '[...]
In a novella which remains highly controversial to this day, Conrad explores the relations between Africa and Europe. On the surface, this is a horrifying tale of colonial exploitation. The narrator, Marlowe, journeys on business deep into the heart of Africa. But there he encounters Kurtz, an ideal[...]
Each volume in the "Collector's Library" series has a specially commissioned Afterword, brief biography of the author and a further reading list.[...]
In this symbolic story we follow Charles Marlow as he recounts his adventure to a group of men aboard a ship anchored in the Thames Estuary from dusk through to late night. The passage of time and the darkening sky during Marlow's narrative parallels the atmosphere of the events he narrates.[...]
Features the English seaman Marlow who tells the story of his time as a riverboat captain for a trading company on the Congo, specifically his intense interest in investigating the mysterious Kurtz, an ivory-procurement agent with almost godlike status.[...]