Joseph Conrad, página 8 de 53

This little-known novella from one of the masters of the form is so unusual for Joseph Conrads work in several respects, although not in its exotic maritime setting or its even more exotic proseit is unusual in that it is one of his very few works to feature a woman as a leading character, and to take the form of a romance. Still, its a Conradian romance: a sweeping saga set in the Indian Ocean basin, against a turbulent background of barely suppressed hostilities between Dutch and British merchant navies, told by one of Conrads classically detached narrators. In the end, the unique perspective of the sharply etched character of Freya is one of Conrads most piercing studies of how the lust for power can drive men to greatnessor its opposite.

La novela comienza en Bombay cuando la tripulación del velero Narcissus se embarca para una larga travesía de vuelta al puerto de Londres. Conrad narra con un vívido realismo y gran penetración psico

(Author Note: Ford M. Hueffer a.k.a. Ford Madox Ford

Contents: / Gaspar Ruiz / The Informer / The Brute / An Anarchist / The Duel / Il Conde

"An Outpost of Progress" is a short story written in July 1897 by Joseph Conrad, drawing on his own experience at Congo.The story deals with two European men, named Kayerts and Carlier, who are assigned to a trading post in a remote part of the African Jungle. There they take part in ivory trading, hoping to financially benefit the company as well as themselves. With no specific tasks or important things to be done, they both become increasingly isolated and demoralized as the time goes by. At one point in the story, the native Makola, serving as Kayertss and Carliers bookkeeper, initiates an exchange of slaves for ivory. Initially Kayerts and Carlier are stunned and scandalized by the idea, yet eventually they accept the deal and aid Makola for his huge profit. Both men are continuously plagued by diseases and grow very weak physically towards the end of the story. Finally, a seemingly trivial matter sugar sparks an irrational, uncontrolled and violent conflict between them, and ends tragically as Kayerts accidentally shoots and kills Carlier. At the end of the story, just when the company steamboat approaches the station two months later than it should have, Kayerts hangs himself out of desperation.

Publicada en 1901, "Amy Foster" es una de las novelas cortas más difundidas de Joseph Conrad y también una de las mejores dentro de una obra de extraordinaria calidad y coherencia.Una mirada académica sobre "Amy Foster" indica que no se trata de un cuento de terror, al menos no de uno clasico. Sin embargo, la conclusion del relato no puede ser mas aterradora.Un inmigrante polaco, Yanko Goral (que significa: Juan de las tierras altas), un hombre barrido por las circunstancias, tratado de loco y de vida disoluta, naufraga de camino a EEUU en las costas de Kent, y se "rescata" al casarse con Amy Foster, una inglesa virtuosa y dulce. Este cambio de personalidad viene de la mano con la utilizacion del idioma ingles. Es decir, Yanko se "civiliza" al abandonar el aspero polaco. Al final del cuento, subitamente, Yanko comienza a balbucear unas palabras en polaco en medio de la noche. Amy Foster, creyendo que la verdadera personalidad de su esposo ha retornado, huye...

"The Inn of the Two Witches" is one of the best-known short stories written by Joseph Conrad (1857-1924). First published in 1915, it is an intriguing tale of adventure and mystery. The story comes from an account given by a sixty year old man in the middle of the nineteenth century. An un-named outer narrator discovers a handwritten manuscript in a box of old books he buys. The document has been written by Edgar Byrne, relating to an incident that took place in 1813 when he was a young officer just off the coast of northern Spain...

"The Lagoon" is a short story by Joseph Conrad composed in 1896 and first published in Cornhill Magazine in 1897. The story is about a white man, referred to as "Tuan", who is travelling through an Indonesian rainforest and is forced to stop for the night with a distant Malay friend named Arsat. Upon arriving, he finds Arsat distraught, for his lover is dying. Arsat tells the distant and rather silent white man a story of his past.

"An Anarchist: A Desperate Tale" is one of the best-known short stories written by Joseph Conrad (1857-1924). First published in 1906, the tale is centered around anarchist movement and political violence in nineteenth century England.This edition is enriched with two other Conrads texts: "A Personal Record", an autobiographical work written in 1912, and "Notes on My Books", a 1920 essay on his writings.

Book description *Joseph Conrad wrote many stories and novellas about his sea voyages and adventures. The Nigger of the Narcissus is one of the best works if his early period. The novella is narrated by a dying West Indian black sailor, James Wait, who talks about the dangers he encounters when travelling from Bombay to London on board of a merchant ship Narcissus. Wait is suffering from tuberculosis, as his condition worsens, the sailors fate appears in the hands of ships crew. The author explores many profound questions in this piece among which: the meaning of life, suffering, as well as the humans struggle for survival. Illustrated by Andronum.

"The Planter of Malata" is a novella written by Joseph Conrad (1857-1924). First published in 1914, it is an exotic tale of love and death, set in the Far East.This edition is enriched with two other Conrads texts: "A Personal Record", an autobiographical work written in 1912, and "Notes on My Books", a 1920 essay on his writings.

A good many years ago there were several ships loading at the Jetty, London Dock. I am speaking here of the eighties of the last century, of the time when London had plenty of fine ships in the docks, though not so many fine buildings in its streets. The ships at the Jetty were fine enough; they lay one behind the other; and the __Sapphire__, third from the end, was as good as the rest of them, and nothing more. Each ship at the Jetty had, of course, her chief officer on board. So had every other ship in dock. The policeman at the gates knew them all by sight, without being able to say at once, without thinking, to what ship any particular man belonged. As a matter of fact, the mates of the ships then lying in the London Dock were like the majority of officers in the Merchant Service-a steady, hard-working, staunch, un-romantic-looking set of men, belonging to various classes of society, but with the professional stamp obliterating the personal characteristics, which were not very marked anyhow

A young sea captain tests his mettle off the coast of Siam in this nineteenth-century psychological tale from the author of Heart of Darkness.When his sailing ship is anchored in the Gulf of Siamnow Thailanda first-time sea captain questions his ability to command. Anxious and eager for his crew to like him, he takes the first shift of the night watch. Alone in the dark, he encounters a mysterious man swimming alongside the vessel. The captain allows him to board and learns that the stranger, Leggatt, was first mate on another ship and he claims to have accidentally murdered a man.

The secret agent is arguably one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century. Its brilliant depiction of a terrorist underworld, its ruthless irony and its black satire on a morally corrupt society is the culmination of many influences of conard, including that of dickens and of dostoyevsky.

A Personal Record (1912) both documents and fictionalizes Joseph Conrads early life and the opening stages of his careers as a writer and as a seaman. It is also an artistic and political manifesto. The introduction traces Conrads sources and gives the history of writing and reception. The essay on the text and the apparatus set out the textual history. The notes explain literary and historical references, identify places, and gloss foreign terms. Four maps and a genealogical table supplement this explanatory material.

The Secret Agent is set in London in 1886 and deals with Mr. Adolf Verloc and his work as a spy against Britain. Verloc is also a businessman who owns a shop which sells pornographic material, contraceptives and bric-a-brac. His friends are a group of anarchists of which Comrade Ossipon, Michaelis, and "The Professor" are the most prominent. The group produces anarchist literature in the form of pamphlets entitled F.P. The Future of the Proletariat. Although a member of an anarchist cell, Verloc is also secretly employed by the embassy of a foreign country, but Mr. Vladimir, the new First Secretary in the Embassy is not satisfied with Verlocs contribution. In order to redeem himself, Verloc must carry out an operation the destruction of Greenwich Observatory by a bomb.

Joseph Conrad was a British author who is generally regarded as one of the greatest writers in English literature. Conrads style influenced many of the great authors that followed him. This edition of The Informer includes a table of contents.

The masterpiece of Joseph Conrads later years, the autobiographical short novel The Shadow-Line depicts a young man at a crossroads in his life, facing a desperate crisis that marks the "shadow-line" between youth and maturity.This brief but intense story is a dramatically fictionalized account of Conrads first command as a young sea captain trapped aboard a becalmed, fever-wracked, and seemingly haunted ship. With no wind in sight and his crew disabled by malaria, the narrator discovers that the medicine necessary to save the sick men is missing and its absence has been deliberately concealed. Meanwhile, his increasingly frightened first mate is convinced that the malignant ghost of the previous captain has cursed them. Suspenseful, atmospheric, and deceptively simple, Conrads tale of the sea reflects the complex themes of his most famous novels, Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness.

An enthralling novel of Gaspars inspirational rise from obscurity to light. Remarkable for its irony, it marvellously presents mans capacity for self-deception. Attention-grabbing!