Modernist authors of the twentieth century reinvented literature. Instead of placing the main focus of storytelling on the story itself, they went one step further and based their novels on the concepts of truth, and the understanding of self. They explored the ideas of consciousness, alienation, and inner conflict within the mind, and asked important questions of the reader while testing the boundaries of the soul. Henry James, for example, was concerned with the act of thought itself, and his writings transpired mainly within the minds of his characters. Joseph Conrad, who was an admirer of James, created characters that were influenced by their surroundings, and not just their inner thoughts. Everything from the sway of a tree, to the colour of ones shirt played a role in the mental state of Conrad's characters. In Preface to the Nigger of Narcissus, Conrad wrote "My task which I am...