Joseph Conrad: The Masterworks (Vol. III): Contains The Duel, The Secret Agent, and The Shadow-Line

Joseph Conrad: The Masterworks #3

by Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad still stands as one of the undisputed titans of English literature. Sadly, today Conrad has largely disappeared from the high place in literary criticism and school curricula that he used to occupy. The Masterworks series aims to remedy this by introducing the joys of Joseph Conrad's works to a new generation of readers. Volume I covered his legendary short stories, including Heart of Darkness and Typhoon, while Volume II contained his most renowned novels, Lord Jim and Nostromo.

Volume III represents a more eclectic collection of Conrad's work. It opens with The Duel, a wonderful (and true) short story about the deadly rivalry between two proud Napoleonic Era officers. Then follows The Secret Agent, Conrad's eternal study of terrorism and terrorists. Finally, the book closes with The Shadow-Line, a little-known but masterful story about a Captain's first voyage.

Together, these works offer readers a deeper look at Conrad and the brilliant, unsentimental worlds he created, worlds we must still navigate today.

356 pages, Paperback

Published March 29, 2023

About the author

Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British novelist and story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language and, although he did not speak English fluently until his twenties, he became a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature. He wrote novels and stories, many in nautical settings, that depict crises of human individuality in the midst of what he saw as an indifferent, inscrutable, and amoral world.
Conrad is considered a literary impressionist by some and an early modernist by others, though his works also contain elements of 19th-century realism. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters, as in Lord Jim, for example, have influenced numerous authors. Many dramatic films have been adapted from and inspired by his works. Numerous writers and critics have commented that his fictional works, written largely in the first two decades of the 20th century, seem to have anticipated later world events.
Writing near the peak of the British Empire, Conrad drew on the national experiences of his native Poland—during nearly all his life, parceled out among three occupying empires—and on his own experiences in the French and British merchant navies, to create short stories and novels that reflect aspects of a European-dominated world—including imperialism and colonialism—and that profoundly explore the human psyche.