A poor emigrant from Central Europe sailing from Hamburg to America is shipwrecked off the coast of England. The residents of nearby villages, at first unaware of the sinking, and hence of the possibility of survivors, regard him as a dangerous tramp and madman. He speaks no English; his strange foreign language frightens them, and they offer him no assistance. Eventually "Yanko Goorall" (as rendered in English spelling) is given shelter and employment by an eccentric old local, Mr. Swaffer. Yanko learns a little English. He explains that his given name Yanko means "little John" and that he...

This novel is about one unremarkable steamship captain, pitted against a typhoon of incredible fury. Captain Macwhirr is the captain of the Nan-shan. He has a reputation as a solid, steadfast man. So, when multiple clues start pointing to trouble ahead and his second-in-chief cautions him, he is only moderately concerned and unwilling to change course and lose precious time and money - a decision that may prove fatal for him and his two hundred Chinese workers...

A Set of Six is a collection of six short stories by Joseph Conrad. It was published for the first time in 1908. It includes some long stories such as Gaspar Ruiz and The Duel (inspired by the duels of General Fournier Sarloveze) and four shorter stories: The Informer, The Brute, An anarchist, and Il Conde."

The Shadow-Line depicts the development of a young man upon taking a captaincy in the Orient, with the shadow line of the title representing the threshold of this development. The ironic constructions following from the conflict between the 'young' protagonist (who is never named) and the 'old' drive much of the underlying points of this novel, namely the nature of wisdom, experience and maturity. Conrad also extensively uses irony by comparison in the work, with characters such as Captain Giles and the ship's 'factotum' Ransome used to emphasise strengths and weaknesses of the protagonist.

Jim (his surname is never disclosed), a young British seaman, becomes first mate on the Patna, a ship full of pilgrims travelling to Mecca for the hajj. When the ship starts rapidly taking on water and disaster seems imminent, Jim joins his captain and other crew members in abandoning the ship and its passengers. A few days later, they are picked up by a French ship. However, the Patna and its passengers are later also saved, and the reprehensible actions of the crew are exposed. The other participants evade the judicial court of inquiry, leaving Jim to face the court alone. The court strips...

This adventure novel is a colorful tale of capitalist exploitation and rebellion. Set in the fictitious South American republic of "Costaguana," it features an extremely realistic world where the lure of silver provokes greed, corruption and destruction. Nostromo is often regarded as Conrad's best novel.

Through a business misadventure, the European Axel Heyst ends up living on an island in what is now Indonesia, with a Chinese assistant Wang. Heyst visits a nearby island when a female band is playing at a hotel owned by Mr. Schomberg. Schomberg attempts to force himself sexually on one of the band members, Alma, later called Lena. She flees with Heyst back to his island and they become lovers. Schomberg seeks revenge by attempting to frame Heyst for the "murder" of a man who had died of natural causes and later by sending three desperadoes (Pedro, Martin Ricardo and Mr. Jones) to Heyst's...

The Mirror of the Sea is a collection of articles that were published in different periodicals between 1904 and 1906. It was published as an autobiographical memoir in 1906. Conrad refers to the book as "a very intimate revelation... I have attempted here to lay bare with the unreserve of a last hour's confession the terms of my relation with the sea, which beginning mysteriously, like any great passion the inscrutable Gods send to mortals, went on unreasoning and invincible, surviving the test of disillusion, defying the disenchantment that lurks in every day of a strenuous life; went on...

"Youth" is an autobiographical short story by Joseph Conrad. Written in 1898, it was first published in Blackwood's Magazine, and included as the first story in the 1902 volume Youth, a Narrative, and Two Other Stories. "Youth" depicts a young man's first journey to the East. It is narrated by Charles Marlow who is also the narrator of Lord Jim, Chance, and Heart of Darkness. The narrator's introduction suggests this is the first time, chronologically, the character Marlow appears in Conrad's works (the Author comments that he thinks Marlow spells his name this way).

Sulaco a thriving port in the Occidental Province of Costaguana in South America is home to Charles Gould, operator of a prospering silver mine and his most trusted man, the expatriate Italian Nostromo. When revolution threatens Costaguana, Gould entrusts his future and prosperity to the incorruptible Nostromo. But opportunity, temptation and tragedy ask if anyone is really incorruptible... Widely considered to be Joseph Conrad's finest novel, Nostromo is acclaimed as one of the Twentieth Century's greatest novels.