SOURCE: Billy, Ted. “The Short Fiction: Tales of Unrest (1898), A Set of Six (1908), 'Twixt Land and Sea (1912), Within the Tides (1915), and Tales of Hearsay (1925).” In A Joseph Conrad Companion, edited by Leonard Orr and Ted Billy, pp. 281-304. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999.

In the following essay, Billy provides an overview of the major thematic concerns and critical reception of Conrad's short stories.

Although Conrad's critical reputation rests primarily on his five major novels (Lord Jim, Nostromo, The Secret Agent, Under Western Eyes, and Victory) and two long tales (Heart of Darkness and The Shadow-Line), he also distinguished himself as a short-story writer. Among his seven volumes of short fiction are such frequently anthologized tales as “Youth,” “The Secret Sharer,” and “The Lagoon.” The fact that Lord Jim and Nostromo, two of his greatest novels, began as short stories suggests that Conrad seriously applied himself to the art form...