This book traces the literary friendship between Joseph Conrad and H. G. Wells from their early correspondence through to the differences that caused their estrangement, including their respective responses to the First World War. It thus gives an overview of the literary scene in the late Victorian and early Edwardian period.

Through the thwarted dreams and aspirations of his central characters, Linda Dryden argues that Joseph Conrad exposes the empty promises of 19th century imperial romance fiction and challenges assumptions about the superiority of European imperialists and the imperial venture itself.