works

Conrad wrote thirteen novels, two volumes of memoirs and twenty-eight short stories. His most important works are: -Almayer's Folly (1895), the story of a white man, alone in Malaya among Malayans and Arabs, who is finally destroyed by a dream of gold and treasure. - An Outcast of the Islands (1896), once more centred on Almayer (the book should in fact have logically preceded the previous one). Set in an exotic landscape, the novel tells of an ed by the woman he loves. -The Nigger of the Narcissus (1897) outcast white man, destroyed by his moral indolence and eventually kill, about a sick "nigger", who is dying of tuberculosis, and whose presence on board the ship affects the dreams, thoughts and behaviour of the crew. Youth (1902), the report of a long adventurous sea-journey to the East, taken by Conrad in 1883 and narrated by Marlow, Conrad's alter-ego. The journey also symbolizes the passage from youth to maturity. -Heart of Darkness (1902), a short novel about an ivory trader in the Congo, the heart of Africa. -Typhoon (1903) about a clever and brave captain who manages to steer his ship out of a typhoon, Lord Jim (1900), the story of a man's saving the lives of two hundred Chinese coolies on board. dishonour through cowardice, and of his redemption through a heroic death. - Nostromo (1904), a complex political novel against the background of a South-American revolution. - The Secret Agent (1907), the story of a mediocre spy, killed by his wife for having caused the death of her young brother by making him commit an act of terrorism. - Under Western Eyes (1911), on the inner conflict of a Russian refugee in Switzerland, who, after denouncing his best friend to the police, falls in love with his sister, and eventually dies in an accident. -Chance (1913), the unhappy story of a girl who, in order to help her father in prison, marries a man she does not love, and, when she finally falls in love with him, he dies in a shipwreck. -Victory (1915), a melodramatic novel set in the South Seas, ending tragically with the death of the hero. -The Shadow Line (1919), the story of a young man who receives his first command, and makes a difficult voyage with a crew stricken by a tropical fever; when he reaches the port of arrival, he feels that in those few days he has also passed the "shadow line" which divides impulsive youth from conscious maturity. Conrad began writing when he was in his thirties and he felt he had mastered the English language, though his rhetorical style, his fondness for high-flown words and images, his long sentences and the obscurity of some passages sometimes create serious problems for his readers. He always tried to give plasticity, colour and life to "the old, old words, worn thin, defaced by ages of careless usage". [1] He was always an artist, a student of form, and the search for "the perfect blending of form and substance" [1] was his obsession.

early novels

his greatest short novels

novels of the central period

later novels

language