Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad's Books and Stories

Chance - A Tale in Two Parts

Literature

5.0

Chance(1914) was the first of Conrad's novels to bring him popular success and it holds a unique place among his works. It tells the story of Flora de Barral, a vulnerable and abandoned young girl who is "like a beggar, without a right to anything but compassion." After her bankrupt father is imprisoned, she learns the harsh fact that a woman in her position "has no resources but in herself." Her only means of action is to be what she is. Flora's long struggle to achieve some dignity and happiness makes her Conrad's most moving female character. Reflecting the contemporary interest in the New Woman and the Suffragette question, Chance also marks the final appearance of Marlow, Conrad's most effective and wise narrator. This revised edition uses the English first edition text and has a new chronology and bibliography.

An Outcast of the Islands

Adventure

5.0

I have been called a writer of the sea, of the tropics, a descriptive writer - and also a realist. But as a matter of fact all my concern has been with the 'ideal' value of things, events and people. That and nothing else - Joseph Conrad When Willems stepped off the straight and narrow path of his own peculiar honesty he thought it would be a short episode - a sentence in brackets, so to speak - in the flowing tale of his life. But Willems was wrong, for he was about to embark on a voyage of discovery and self-discovery that would change, if not destroy, the reset of his life. Marooned by his own people on the shore of a Malayan island, Willems is caught in the grip of his own vulnerability and corruption. An Outcast of the Islands was only Conrad's second novel, but in its theme, in its impressionistic use of scenery, and, and over all, in the enormous richness and power of the writing, it predicts Conrad's position as a literary figure of the highest rank. The cover shows a detail from Old Boathouse and Riverside Vegetation, Sarawak by Marianne North.

Twixt Land & Sea_ Tales

Literature

5.0

New texts of Joseph Conrad's modern classic 'The Secret Sharer' and of two other tales appear in this edition of 'Twixt Land and Sea with numerous words, sentences, and entire paragraphs restored from Conrad's manuscripts and typescripts. Written while he was working on Under Western Eyes, these stories, when collected together in 1912, marked the turning point in Conrad's professional fortunes that Chance would soon confirm. Published for the first time as Conrad meant them to be, these authoritative texts are accompanied by a new Introduction that discusses their sources, composition, and publication, and their reception up to our time. The Notes explain nautical, geographical, and historical references and are supplemented by diagrams, maps, and other illustrations. A textual essay and apparatus examine the revisions, excisions, divisions, and censorship the tales underwent, which till now have been reflected in editions unduly trusted by countless readers.