Probably all readers have noted a distinct shift in Conrad's work that appeared after Under Western Eyes. Early assessments, such as that of Thomas C. Moser, Douglas Hewitt, and Albert J. Guerard, regarded this shift to be a decline in literary quality. Most readers would cite The Shadow-Line as a notable exception to any view of the differences between Conrad's later works and his earlier works. Victory is also cited as an exception at times, although opinion is much more widely divided over it. In addition, Chance has its supporters. For many years, most commentators on Conrad's works have tended to agree with the assessments of Moser, Guerard and others. Some notable exceptions were John A. Palmer, Daniel R. Schwarz, and Gary Geddes, who, in different ways, argued for a re-assessment of Conrad's later works, as have, more recently, Robert Hampson and Susan Jones, for example. Regardless of whether one sees Conrad's later works (excepting The Shadow-Line and perhaps Victory) as representing a decline in quality or whether one sees them as representing a shift in direction, it is impossible not to recognize that a difference exists between these works and those of his earlier periods.

Chance

Chance was Conrad's first financially successful novel and was generally well received by the critics and public when it was first published.