Joseph Conrad Summary
William Kotzwinkle

Biography EssayJoseph Conrad is now widely accepted as one of the modernist masters of serious narrative fiction. Historically placed, he is a major figure in the transition from Victorian fiction to ... Read more

Writing in his The Great Tradition, the respected critic F. R. Leavis noted that Joseph Conrad "is among the greatest novelists in the language--in any language." Indeed, language is at the very heart... Read more

Joseph Conrad is now widely accepted as one of the modernist masters of serious narrative fiction. Historically placed, he is a major figure in the transition from Victorian fiction to the more perpl... Read more

The short fiction of Joseph Conrad is central to his literary achievement. Conrad wrote forty-three works of fiction, of which thirty-one are short, ranging from stories of a few pages to novellas of ... Read more

In the following excerpt, Gurko explores some of Joseph Conrad's writings in the context of his exile from Poland. The tragedy of Poland was not only geographic, but psychological. It was bad e... Read more

In the following essay, Kerr elucidates the themes of age and life transition in three of Conrad's stories. The topos of the three ages of mankind provides a recurring subject in classical pain... Read more

In the following essay, Carabine examines the relationship between form and idea in “The Informer.” In January, 1908, in response to Algernon Methuen's request for “a gener... Read more

In the following essay, Kingsbury investigates the role of self-restraint in “The Return.” Alvan Hervey, protagonist of Conrad's 1897 story “The Return,” tells his e... Read more

In the following essay, Martinière explores how the spatial organization of ships affects individuality and community in “The Secret Sharer,” The Shadow-Line, and The Nigger of th... Read more

In the following essay, Kramer discusses Conrad's story “The Return” as a work of social satire. In “The Return” Joseph Conrad attempted to portray a social context ... Read more

In the following essay, Bonney argues that Conrad's story “The Return” is “a quality work of art.” There is nothing behind the curtain other than that which is in fr... Read more

In the following essay, Levine considers Joseph Conrad's fiction as a form of scientific discourse that subverts Victorian realism and Darwinian gradualism. The word "discourse" i... Read more