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The Complete Short Stories of Joseph Conrad
This carefully edited collection of "The Complete Short Stories of Joseph Conrad” has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices.
Table of Contents:
Short Stories
Point of Honor: A Military Tale
Falk: A Reminiscence
Amy Foster
To-morrow
Tales of Unrest:
Karain, A Memory
The Idiots
The Outpost of Progress
The Return
Youth: A Narrative
Heart of Darkness
The End of the Tether
'Twixt Land and Sea:
A Smile of Fortune
The Secret Sharer
Freya of the Seven Isles
A Set of Six:
Gaspar Ruiz
The Informer
The Brute
An Anarchist
The Duel
Il Conde
Tales of Hearsay:
The Warrior's Soul
Prince Roman
The Tale
The Black Mate
Within the Tides Tales:
The Planter of Malata
The Partner
The Inn of the Two Witches
Because of the Dollars
Memoirs, Letters and Articles
A Personal Record; or Some Reminiscences
The Mirror of the Sea
Notes On Life And Letters
Autocracy And War
The Crime Of Partition
A Note On The Polish Problem
Poland Revisited
First News
Well Done
Tradition
Confidence
Flight
Some Reflections On The Loss Of The Titanic
Certain Aspects Of The Admirable Inquiry Into The Loss Of The Titanic
Protection Of Ocean Liners
A Friendly Place
On Red Badge of Courage
Biography & Critical Essays
Joseph Conrad (A Biography) by Hugh Walpole
Joseph Conrad by John Albert Macy
A Conrad Miscellany by John Albert Macy
Joseph Conrad & The Athenæum by Arnold Bennett
...
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), was a Polish author who wrote in English after settling in England. Conrad is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in English, though he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties. He wrote stories and novels, often with a nautical setting, that depict trials of the human spirit in the midst of an indifferent universe. He was a master prose stylist who brought a distinctly non-English tragic sensibility into English literature.
Table of Contents:
Short Stories
Point of Honor: A Military Tale
Falk: A Reminiscence
Amy Foster
To-morrow
Tales of Unrest:
Karain, A Memory
The Idiots
The Outpost of Progress
The Return
Youth: A Narrative
Heart of Darkness
The End of the Tether
'Twixt Land and Sea:
A Smile of Fortune
The Secret Sharer
Freya of the Seven Isles
A Set of Six:
Gaspar Ruiz
The Informer
The Brute
An Anarchist
The Duel
Il Conde
Tales of Hearsay:
The Warrior's Soul
Prince Roman
The Tale
The Black Mate
Within the Tides Tales:
The Planter of Malata
The Partner
The Inn of the Two Witches
Because of the Dollars
Memoirs, Letters and Articles
A Personal Record; or Some Reminiscences
The Mirror of the Sea
Notes On Life And Letters
Autocracy And War
The Crime Of Partition
A Note On The Polish Problem
Poland Revisited
First News
Well Done
Tradition
Confidence
Flight
Some Reflections On The Loss Of The Titanic
Certain Aspects Of The Admirable Inquiry Into The Loss Of The Titanic
Protection Of Ocean Liners
A Friendly Place
On Red Badge of Courage
Biography & Critical Essays
Joseph Conrad (A Biography) by Hugh Walpole
Joseph Conrad by John Albert Macy
A Conrad Miscellany by John Albert Macy
Joseph Conrad & The Athenæum by Arnold Bennett
...
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), was a Polish author who wrote in English after settling in England. Conrad is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in English, though he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties. He wrote stories and novels, often with a nautical setting, that depict trials of the human spirit in the midst of an indifferent universe. He was a master prose stylist who brought a distinctly non-English tragic sensibility into English literature.
1661 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1991
63 people are currently reading
608 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Conrad
3,087 books4,850 followersJoseph 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
August 18, 2010
Conrad should be known for more than 'Heart of Darkness'. As good a book as it is, it shows only a minute glimpse of what he is capable of. The delicacy, humor, wit, and sheer beauty he shows in this collection marks him as one of the most talented writers of his time, and with one of the most unique voices.
I at once compared him to Chekhov, for he shares with Chekhov a remarkable psychological insight, and hence is capable of constructing characters by merely hinting at notions and moods, or by what he doesn't show us. It is this deft characterization that allows realism to equal the strange vitality of truth, recalling that 'fiction' need not mean 'falsehood'.
But then it shouldn't surprise that Conrad has something reminiscent of Chekhov, as he was born in the Ukraine, and was familiar with the same tradition of stories, and storytellers, as well as the bittersweet, resigned humor of Eastern Europe. But that is not all there is to Conrad.
Along with the patented despair of the great Russian authors, Conrad possesses a lightness, a bawdy, earthy amusement, something that approaches wit, picking up the story and bearing it along, without crudely driving it, like some French oxen. Like Dumas, pere, Conrad is capable of writing an adventure, a story which ties together the improbable, the unfortunate, the miraculous, and the disastrous into something grand and amusing and ridiculous, but not without a touch of humanity and pain. But then, Conrad left the Ukraine at 18 to join the French merchant marine, so it should hardly surprise us that he picked up something there of wit and joie de vivre, even as he picked up the Gallic tongue.
Yet he wrote his stories in English, and his stories were not without an English touch. After all, he bears comparison to Haggard, Stevenson, and Melville, but more than them, Kipling. There is something often small and precise, undaunted about his characters that is British, and he writes of Horror like a Victorian, of the overawing force of the sublime.
But why should that surprise us? After all, he left France to join the English merchant marine, picked up a new language, and sailed up the Congo river in Africa for them, and by this point, he was a man of forty who hadn't written as much as a short story.
In Africa, he experienced a kind of Hell on Earth, a place of true demons, of suffering, of things unimaginable. Like Dante, he descended, ever on, and saw for the first time the terrible depths of the human heart. And he emerged.
Yet never the same, he had gained some insight, or lost some ideal there, and in all the future, could only see the world as a strange, tinted place, a satire, a place where pains and joys were small, yet refused to be overshadowed.
Perhaps it was here that he found his greatest talent: the ability to feel great beauty and great terror in every thing, every man, every sunset, every gust of wind and gesture. Conrad will surprise you. Not merely with his amusing, fraught characters, eccentric, varied stories, and moments of amusement, but with sudden, poignant, insightful visions of the world, visions both unerring and vast.
In a moment and a turn of phrase, Conrad suddenly opens the soul, and a deep sigh flows from the page like the breath of the Earth, a sigh of love that has seen love die, and a thousand times. There is something in his voice, something that is not merely Russian, or French, or English, but which moves between them, and rises above him, and is his voice, and his alone, and forever.
It is not ungainly, or unfamiliar, and yet it is not quite like anything else. It is not merely the English of the unpracticed man, or the knowledgeable foreigner, but of the man who has come to terms with his new language late, and comfortably, and who saw it for the first time with lined eyes.
They meet as two old people meet, already grown, already whole, and become lovers because it is easy, and it is pleasant. The laughs they share, for there is no reason not to, the pains they do not need to share, because they both know them well, already. He does not forget his past loves, nor does he pine for them. He loves now his new love, yet not simply because she is new.
I at once compared him to Chekhov, for he shares with Chekhov a remarkable psychological insight, and hence is capable of constructing characters by merely hinting at notions and moods, or by what he doesn't show us. It is this deft characterization that allows realism to equal the strange vitality of truth, recalling that 'fiction' need not mean 'falsehood'.
But then it shouldn't surprise that Conrad has something reminiscent of Chekhov, as he was born in the Ukraine, and was familiar with the same tradition of stories, and storytellers, as well as the bittersweet, resigned humor of Eastern Europe. But that is not all there is to Conrad.
Along with the patented despair of the great Russian authors, Conrad possesses a lightness, a bawdy, earthy amusement, something that approaches wit, picking up the story and bearing it along, without crudely driving it, like some French oxen. Like Dumas, pere, Conrad is capable of writing an adventure, a story which ties together the improbable, the unfortunate, the miraculous, and the disastrous into something grand and amusing and ridiculous, but not without a touch of humanity and pain. But then, Conrad left the Ukraine at 18 to join the French merchant marine, so it should hardly surprise us that he picked up something there of wit and joie de vivre, even as he picked up the Gallic tongue.
Yet he wrote his stories in English, and his stories were not without an English touch. After all, he bears comparison to Haggard, Stevenson, and Melville, but more than them, Kipling. There is something often small and precise, undaunted about his characters that is British, and he writes of Horror like a Victorian, of the overawing force of the sublime.
But why should that surprise us? After all, he left France to join the English merchant marine, picked up a new language, and sailed up the Congo river in Africa for them, and by this point, he was a man of forty who hadn't written as much as a short story.
In Africa, he experienced a kind of Hell on Earth, a place of true demons, of suffering, of things unimaginable. Like Dante, he descended, ever on, and saw for the first time the terrible depths of the human heart. And he emerged.
Yet never the same, he had gained some insight, or lost some ideal there, and in all the future, could only see the world as a strange, tinted place, a satire, a place where pains and joys were small, yet refused to be overshadowed.
Perhaps it was here that he found his greatest talent: the ability to feel great beauty and great terror in every thing, every man, every sunset, every gust of wind and gesture. Conrad will surprise you. Not merely with his amusing, fraught characters, eccentric, varied stories, and moments of amusement, but with sudden, poignant, insightful visions of the world, visions both unerring and vast.
In a moment and a turn of phrase, Conrad suddenly opens the soul, and a deep sigh flows from the page like the breath of the Earth, a sigh of love that has seen love die, and a thousand times. There is something in his voice, something that is not merely Russian, or French, or English, but which moves between them, and rises above him, and is his voice, and his alone, and forever.
It is not ungainly, or unfamiliar, and yet it is not quite like anything else. It is not merely the English of the unpracticed man, or the knowledgeable foreigner, but of the man who has come to terms with his new language late, and comfortably, and who saw it for the first time with lined eyes.
They meet as two old people meet, already grown, already whole, and become lovers because it is easy, and it is pleasant. The laughs they share, for there is no reason not to, the pains they do not need to share, because they both know them well, already. He does not forget his past loves, nor does he pine for them. He loves now his new love, yet not simply because she is new.
April 25, 2018
I will come back here when I want to read Joseph Conrad's short stories. I tried to find a combination with short stories and novels but they lacked a large amount of his short stories. I found this fairly good navigational wise and so far no errors in this Kindle edition. I plan on reading here and highlighting and taking notes when I read his stories but the reviews on the stories themselves will be listed under the title.
November 20, 2022
Dviejų anglų autorių (nors Dž. Konrado šaknys lenkiškos), neoromantikų apysakos ir apsakymai.
Dž. Konradas (tikroji pavardė Koženiovskis) jungos, jūreivio ir kapitono patirtį perkelia į marinistinę prozą, bet joje gausu ir filosofinių įžvalgų. Neatsisakydamas klasikinių Flobero, Mopasano, Balzako tradicijų, Dž. Konradas ieškojo ir rado naujų pasakojimo formų, jo kūriniai modernesnio stiliaus ir formos.
R. Kiplingas patirties sėmėsi Indijoje, kur gimė, dirbo ir tik gyvenimo pabaigoje grįžo į Angliją. Jo kūryboje keliama dorovinio įstatymo doktrina, nepakantumas estetų hedonizmui, pasiaukojimo ir darbo romantizavimas pelnė jam Nobelio premiją (1907 m.).
Mėgstantiems trumpąją prozą tai puiki knyga.
Dž. Konradas (tikroji pavardė Koženiovskis) jungos, jūreivio ir kapitono patirtį perkelia į marinistinę prozą, bet joje gausu ir filosofinių įžvalgų. Neatsisakydamas klasikinių Flobero, Mopasano, Balzako tradicijų, Dž. Konradas ieškojo ir rado naujų pasakojimo formų, jo kūriniai modernesnio stiliaus ir formos.
R. Kiplingas patirties sėmėsi Indijoje, kur gimė, dirbo ir tik gyvenimo pabaigoje grįžo į Angliją. Jo kūryboje keliama dorovinio įstatymo doktrina, nepakantumas estetų hedonizmui, pasiaukojimo ir darbo romantizavimas pelnė jam Nobelio premiją (1907 m.).
Mėgstantiems trumpąją prozą tai puiki knyga.
Want to read
November 3, 2013The Return -- In the year 1900 an affluent London man returns home from his job in the City to find note from his wife. She has left him for the editor of literary magazine, a "fat ass" according to the husband, whose publication the husband himself supports. The story renders the husband's inner torment exquisitely. It's an oddly bombastic story for Conrad, who I usually think of as this master of the subtly modulated voice. I suspect the influence of Henry James.
December 22, 2022
Conrad is a surf-and-turf writer, as at home on land as he is at sea. The breadth of his fiction is astounding. He writes about everywhere in the world, from Africa to South America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the seat of empire to its farthest fringes. There is no reason he should not, having been everywhere, seen everything, and regretted it all.
His style represents one of the few truly unique voices in English prose, and it does so because it is not a truly English voice. He is not an author who can be read aloud in comfort. He cannot always be read comfortably even in one’s own mind. Willing to take the jarring, jangling leaps that we expect from fiction in translation, Conrad baffles us with the irregularity of his adjectives, punctuation, and sentence length. But few are the writers who could as skillfully evoke the melancholy beauty of “Karain” or the miserable yet romantic warfare of “The Duel.” Yes, Conrad is an acquired taste—so are all the best.
In any other writer, incessant framing devices would be a cliché. Yet Conrad’s are artful, ironic, and elliptical. “Gaspar Ruiz,” split intermittently between two narrators, reflects the distortion of a harrowing tragedy into a charming yarn. “The Warrior’s Soul,” told by a nameless veteran to a nameless audience, reads like a story both with and without a frame. Others, likewise, shatter the tranquility of the drawing room with the chaos of the jungle, the colony, or the ship deck. You are never safe in a Conrad story. You are never outside of it either.
Though he loathed Dostoyevsky, Conrad agreed with him more than he knew. The terrorists and nihilists that inhabit “The Informer” and “An Anarchist” parallel those that his Russian counterpart simultaneously ridicules and pities. Indeed, he perceived before many that the revolutionaries trying to overthrow the upper class often hailed from its highest echelons. But his politics are as conservative as they are ambivalent; he acknowledges the horrors of unfettered capitalism and imperialism, yet he scorns any movement that would try to undermine them.
While he rejected Marx, he would have embraced Freud. Conrad’s heroes—if you can call them that—are case studies in guilt, repression, and delusion. In “The Secret Sharer,” Conrad practically invents the Uncanny Double on his own in the form of a doppelgänger drawn from the ocean, and in “The Tale,” he crafts a paranoia so intense that it leads a naval captain to mass murder. His own fear of isolation informs “Amy Foster,” in which a Polish castaway dies alone and misunderstood. Conrad the psychologist is no less painful and astute than Conrad the author, who inspects himself as much as his creations.
I must stress, however, that Conrad is not altogether dour or humorless. His pessimism flirts with youthful nostalgia, romantic sentimentality, and adventurous spirit. And he is not averse to a happy ending. “The Duel” in particular stands out almost unbelievably from the rest of his work for, of all things, its slapstick comedy. Conrad might want to frighten you, but he still wants to entertain you.
If they had been written by a lesser pen, Conrad’s stories would have belonged in boy’s magazines or penny dreadfuls. Written by Conrad, the world-wandering sailor, exile, and adventurer, they belong beside the realists, who inspired him, and the modernists, whom he prefigured. They belong on our bookshelves, to be read thoughtfully but also to be enjoyed plentifully.
His style represents one of the few truly unique voices in English prose, and it does so because it is not a truly English voice. He is not an author who can be read aloud in comfort. He cannot always be read comfortably even in one’s own mind. Willing to take the jarring, jangling leaps that we expect from fiction in translation, Conrad baffles us with the irregularity of his adjectives, punctuation, and sentence length. But few are the writers who could as skillfully evoke the melancholy beauty of “Karain” or the miserable yet romantic warfare of “The Duel.” Yes, Conrad is an acquired taste—so are all the best.
In any other writer, incessant framing devices would be a cliché. Yet Conrad’s are artful, ironic, and elliptical. “Gaspar Ruiz,” split intermittently between two narrators, reflects the distortion of a harrowing tragedy into a charming yarn. “The Warrior’s Soul,” told by a nameless veteran to a nameless audience, reads like a story both with and without a frame. Others, likewise, shatter the tranquility of the drawing room with the chaos of the jungle, the colony, or the ship deck. You are never safe in a Conrad story. You are never outside of it either.
Though he loathed Dostoyevsky, Conrad agreed with him more than he knew. The terrorists and nihilists that inhabit “The Informer” and “An Anarchist” parallel those that his Russian counterpart simultaneously ridicules and pities. Indeed, he perceived before many that the revolutionaries trying to overthrow the upper class often hailed from its highest echelons. But his politics are as conservative as they are ambivalent; he acknowledges the horrors of unfettered capitalism and imperialism, yet he scorns any movement that would try to undermine them.
While he rejected Marx, he would have embraced Freud. Conrad’s heroes—if you can call them that—are case studies in guilt, repression, and delusion. In “The Secret Sharer,” Conrad practically invents the Uncanny Double on his own in the form of a doppelgänger drawn from the ocean, and in “The Tale,” he crafts a paranoia so intense that it leads a naval captain to mass murder. His own fear of isolation informs “Amy Foster,” in which a Polish castaway dies alone and misunderstood. Conrad the psychologist is no less painful and astute than Conrad the author, who inspects himself as much as his creations.
I must stress, however, that Conrad is not altogether dour or humorless. His pessimism flirts with youthful nostalgia, romantic sentimentality, and adventurous spirit. And he is not averse to a happy ending. “The Duel” in particular stands out almost unbelievably from the rest of his work for, of all things, its slapstick comedy. Conrad might want to frighten you, but he still wants to entertain you.
If they had been written by a lesser pen, Conrad’s stories would have belonged in boy’s magazines or penny dreadfuls. Written by Conrad, the world-wandering sailor, exile, and adventurer, they belong beside the realists, who inspired him, and the modernists, whom he prefigured. They belong on our bookshelves, to be read thoughtfully but also to be enjoyed plentifully.
May 6, 2021
Conrad is one of the best author of all times concerning the descriptions of the darkest and deepest human feelings and behaviors. You never finish a Conrad’s short story unchanged. Heart of darkness is the most famous but Kairan or To-morrow are must-reads.
September 9, 2009
This is not the exact book I am reading. I bought an old Modern Book of his stories. I read his story titled "Youth" and was dazzled. I love sea stories that are not all horror but are about a journey. I loved Kon Tiki, such an adventure! So here is this short story, told to the reader by someone listening to an old salt named Marlow who tells a story about a sailing trip he took when he was young (Joseph Conrad spent his first 18 years of young adulthood sailing in the early 1800s). It just GOT me! The edges to which people have to go in order to survive a storm or fire at sea. The descriptions left me breathless. He is an amazing writer.
Want to read
December 15, 2023Read so far:
*The idiots --
The lagoon --3
An outpost of progress --4
Karain : a memory --
The return --
Youth : a narrative --2
Amy Foster --3
To-morrow --
*Gaspar Ruiz : a romantic tale --
An anarchist : a desperate tale --3
The informer : an ironic tale --3
The brute : an indignant tale --3
The black mate --3
Il conde : a pathetic tale --3
The secret sharer : an episode from the coast --3
Prince Roman --
The partner --
The inn of the two witches : a find --3
Because of the dollars --
The warrior's soul --
The tale --2
The sisters--not read, unfinished
***
*The duel--
*The idiots --
The lagoon --3
An outpost of progress --4
Karain : a memory --
The return --
Youth : a narrative --2
Amy Foster --3
To-morrow --
*Gaspar Ruiz : a romantic tale --
An anarchist : a desperate tale --3
The informer : an ironic tale --3
The brute : an indignant tale --3
The black mate --3
Il conde : a pathetic tale --3
The secret sharer : an episode from the coast --3
Prince Roman --
The partner --
The inn of the two witches : a find --3
Because of the dollars --
The warrior's soul --
The tale --2
The sisters--not read, unfinished
***
*The duel--
January 23, 2016
Conrad's mastery of the short story form is as great as his mastery of the novel form. This is a rich and imaginative collection of varied gems that help one to see the organizing principles of Conrad's longer work more clearly.
October 18, 2016
You must read "The end of the tether" - well, really and the rest of it, too. The whole thing is beautiful. Nobody reads anything but "The Heart of Darkness" - and if you ask me, that's not nearly as good.
March 31, 2023
It took me 14 years of reading a story here and there between other books, but I finally finished this. I really like Joseph Conrad's writing style and interesting stories, usually taking place in some exotic location. It's great literature and he's a genius at writing characters.
March 30, 2009
The Collected Stories of Joseph Conrad (Ecco Companions) by Joseph Conrad (1996)
collecting-dust
May 9, 2009The Laurel Conrad - Dell Publishing - 1960 - TM 674623
Read
June 21, 2009Fiction,Classic,Anthology
May 30, 2014
One of the great writers. Love reading his writing. Never read "the idiots" before. Very intense.
June 14, 2014
Have only read "Heart of Darkness" from this collection.
April 28, 2016
Heart of Darkness, the inspirtion for Apocalypse Now, is a wonderful novel of Colonialism and the forces that drive humankind.
Currently reading
September 3, 20258/??/2023-The Idiots
8/??- The Lagoon
9/??- An Outpost of Progress
9/24-25–Karain: A Memory
11/30-12/2-The Return
4/23-24/2024–Youth: A Narrative
7/30-To-Morrow
9/30-Gaspar Ruiz
9/2/2025-An Anarchist
8/??- The Lagoon
9/??- An Outpost of Progress
9/24-25–Karain: A Memory
11/30-12/2-The Return
4/23-24/2024–Youth: A Narrative
7/30-To-Morrow
9/30-Gaspar Ruiz
9/2/2025-An Anarchist
Currently reading
February 14, 2011Read "the nigger of the 'narcissus'" for the first time.
December 5, 2014
Some of the best, and some of the clunkers, and an fantastic unfinished novel, "The Sisters."
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews