This book is intended as a general overview of the life, works, and context of Joseph Conrad. I hope that this study will be of use to both students and scholars of Conrad, as well as to the interested non-specialist. The book begins with Conrad's life (particularly in relation to his writings), then moves to the context in which he wrote, then considers Conrad's fiction, and concludes with the critical reception of Conrad's works. In the process, I have necessarily had to narrow my discussion to the most essential points. I would have liked to have discussed Conrad's non-fiction prose, but there simply was not space enough to do so. In my discussion of Conrad's works, I have included, of course, my own thoughts on them, but I have also included standard views of these works so that the newcomer to Conrad's works will have access to a wide-ranging discussion.

Unlike most overviews I have considered all of Conrad's published fiction except The Sisters, the novel fragment that he abandoned some twenty-five years or more before his death. I have also not considered the three works upon which Conrad collaborated with Ford Madox Ford (The Inheritors, Romance, and The Nature of the Crime) because these books were largely Ford's work. On the other hand, I have commented on every other fictional work Conrad wrote, including the stories collected in the posthumous Tales of Hearsay, all of which were finished during Conrad's lifetime, and the posthumous unfinished novel Suspense.