The series "Cambridge Companions" is somewhat uneven. Some titles are excellent, and others are inaccesible, tedious and really not "Companions" at all. This "Companion", however, to Joseph Conrad is probably one of the best in the series.

Beginning with a short biography of Conrad's life, there follow chapters on the short fiction, and several on most of the important of Conrad's works, such as "Heart of Darkness", "Lord Jim", "Nostromo" and "The Secret Agent". These are followed by sections on his late novels, Conradian narrative, his influence, and others. All of the Chapters are written in closed essay form by leading Conrad scholars, are easy to read, and well documented with footnotes. The final chapter includes a fairly comprehensive bibliography that wil be most helpful for students and scholars alike. It will provide a good starting point for further research.

If you are interested in Joseph Conrad, beyond reading his novels and short stories, then this book will be very helpful. I recommend it highly.

Joseph Conrad is not only a Great Master of English literature, but also a man who wandered all over the world, by sea and land, producing for our delight a treasure of short stories as intense as novels, as well as a dozen novels as engaging as fairy tales. For some readers he is above all a writer of "sea stories", for others a creator of fabulous adventures; for many, an intuitive connoisseur of the human soul who gave birth to unforgettable characters. But there is more: Joseph Conrad inhabits his books, he is a friend who shows us a path, gently spelling out about a period in human history. He talks to the intelligence and the emotions. The bunch of essays of this wonderful companion, by the Cambridge fellows, gives us precious hints for travelling with Captain Conrad through the labyrinths and waves of the physical and virtual planet in which chance has placed us to live and die.

This book is just perfect. It's very well written. Conrad shows an understanding of the predicament of women of his time. Conrad advances the plot though the voice of the characters, who tell a story, which involves another character telling a story, etc. At one point the tale is six levels deep; but such is the skill of Conrad that you do not notice and are never lost. One of Conrad's two or three best. A book I was sad to end because I was enjoying it so much.

I cannot believe that there are no customer reviews already for this spectacular novel - full of intruiging situations and wonderful characters - certainly the best Conrad female character I have read. Conrad is a wonderful writer in style and the manner in which he tells a yarn - how then has this novel become so 'lost'? It has wonderful lines ('Don't be in a hurry to thank me,' says he. 'The voyage isn't finished yet.' p22 Oxford World Classics), great insights (women respond to the smallest things, which immediately had me nodding in agreement from my own experience), spectacular descriptions ('Yes, I gave up the walk [along a cliff top with the intention of killing herself],' she said slowly before raising her downcast eyes. When she did so it was with an extraordinary effect. It was like catching sight of a piece of clear blue sky, of a stretch of open water. And for a moment I understood the desire of that man to whom the sea ans sky of his solitary life had appeared suddenly incomplete without that glance which seemed to belong to both of them. p231). The characters are admirable in behaviour sometimes, victims sometimes, regrettable in behaviour sometimes, or just plain confused - just like real people. But one thing I really like is the way the narrator of the story is an observer, barely a participant of the events being described.

This may not be the perfect novel, but I urge you not to miss it. The chapter 'On the Pavement' by itself is worth the read!

The only thing missing is "the nigger of the Narcisscus", but you can't have everything. As complex as "the heart of Darkness" is, you may be better served by starting this book with "The end of the Tether", it is great in its apparent simplicity, yet it has its own complexity.

I first read "Youth" in my own youth, over 25 years ago. It has haunted me ever since. That it is difficult to describe why is, I believe, more a testament to Conrad's subtle skills than to my own undoubted incompetance as an expositor. On one level, "Youth" is little more than a tale of a ill-fated sea voyage, but its poignancy is unmatched by any work of short fiction I've ever come across. Good or bad, pleasant or horrific, our youth is what we all miss. The inclusion of this great novella and the magically exotic "End of the Tether" ought to be more than justification enough to buy this book--even if it didn't also include the justly famous, if sometimes obscure, "Heart of Darkness". No one should think he or she is familiar with Joseph Conrad who has not read all of these three wonderful tales. (If you can find a collection that also includes "The Nigger of Narcissus," even better.)

The reviewer below got it right....this is a beautiful, inexpensive edition that houses two fine, fine novels.

This is a truly excellent edition (and compilation). It may seem like a small point, but I really love the typeset used. And the prefatory material, especially that of Robert Kaplan, is particularly good. The selection of Lord Jim and Nostromo was also well done, for it juxtaposes two of Conrad's best and, perhaps, most representative works. On the one hand, there's Lord Jim, largely psychological and personal, in which the title character struggles with, and constantly returns to, a trying moment in which he acted questionably. On the other, while no less psychological, there's Nostromo, which enters the realm of politics, revolution, and ideology--a more mature Conrad and certainly much more complex, stylistically and thematically. The works themselves, of course, deserve five stars, but so, too, does this stunning Modern Library edition.

I highly recommend this Book to both readers and reseachers interested in Joseph Conrad's Early Works. After a brief Biographical introduction, Watt disccuses the following four works only: "Almayer's Folly", "The Nigger of the Narcissus", "Heart of Darkness" and "Lord Jim". The Novel "An Outcast of the Islands" (1896), as well as the five (three of them important) Stories of the Collection "Tales of Unrest" (1898) are not discussed. This matters little to the purpose of the book, but I did want to point it out, because the Title of the Book is a little misleading.

Each of the four Chapters is an Analysis of its own, and can be read as a seperate Essay. Together they show Conrad's development as a writer which is the Thesis of the Book. For "Almayer's Folly", the emphasis is on Conrad's experiences in the Dutch East Indies. In the "Nigger of the Narcissus", Watt shows how Conrad through his own writing and reading was able to begin to develop his own Style. "Heart of Darkness", shows the beginnings of Conrad's use of literary devices, such as Symbolism and Impressionism. "Lord Jim" is the culmination of Conrad as a writer in the 19th Century, and shows such developments as Delayed Decoding and Symbolic Deciphering in the Narrative. Interestingly, even Watt, and Conrad's Biographers can only guess how Conrad developed some of these narrative devices, or whether he did do so himself, or through outside reading.

Several factors make this book work very well: Watt's impeccable research and knowledge of not only Conrad, but of Literature and its narrative devices, the careful organization and plan of the book, and his excellent writing which makes this book flow extremely well. My only criticism is that the book lacks a Bibliography. However, Watt's sources can be gleaned through the excellent footnotes.

If I were to teach a course on Conrad. I would use this book as a Text. Unfortunately, a second projected Volume, presumably a Study of Conrad's work in the 20th Century, was never published.

I could not stand reading or watching anything about Vietnam for about 10 years. I eventually watched the movie " Apocalypse Now" I found it interesting but it did not relate to anything in the central highlands. Later I saw "Pork Lips Now" and could relate this to the movie. Finally someone told me that the whole thing was based on "Heart of Darkness " ISBN: 0486264645. So I decided to read the book. I found it fascinating and much better than the movie. However I could not see the forest of the trees and needed some help in showing me what I was looking at. Because I was not in some school class, I turned to the "Cliffs Notes" Of course my views don't match the notes exactly but they gave me some questions to ask and showed me the forest. The notes include:

· Life of the Author

· Introductions to the Novel

· Lists of Characters

· Brief Plot Synopses

· Summaries & Critical Commentaries

· Critical Essay

· Suggested Essay Topics

· Selected Bibliography

Later I found a movie that was much closer to the original story,

"Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death" (1988)

I read this book for a course on the sociology of deviance, andfound it a valuable resource. It traces the historical developement of deviant 'sicknesses' such as opiate addictions, mental illness, homosexuality, and attention deficit disorder. The book examines how these forms of deviance were understood historically, and how they came they came to be understood as forms of 'sickness.' Conrad and Schneider examine medical model of understanding deviance, which is currently standard, from a removed and critical perspective. In the forward (of my edition) Joseph Gusfield puts it thusly, "They treat the medical model as something strange, not as something that is 'taken for granted' as 'normal.' When a body a body of thought or phenomemon is taken as problematic, as something to be explained, its naturalness, its claim to 'reality,' is called to account." This book does an excellent job at calling the claims of the medical model into account. This book offers new perspectives on hot-topics, is well organized, and is extremely well-researched. I would warn people that it is dense reading, and some people may find it hard to get through. I would especially recommend this book to any who would form a stance on any of the following issues: drug use/abuse, mental illness, juvenile delinquency, homosexuality, and medicine as a means of social control.

These are not Conrad's most famous stories: Until I read the book, I had not heard of any of them. Nonetheless, this is one author whose worst work is better than most others' best. On a recent plane trip to Seattle, I found two of the four stories merely diverting, and the other two equal to his best.

"The Partner" is a grim tale of human weakness spiralling down to a predictable horror; whereas his humorously baroque "The Inn of the Two Witches" reminds me in its tone of Washington Irving in LEGENDS OF THE ALHAMBRA, though set in a later time period.

What happens when you fall so deeply in love so fast that you can't act to save your life? Conrad gives his answer in "The Planter of Malata," in which a successful loner named Renouard confronts the yawning vastness of an empty life. Felicia Moorsom is a bit two-dimensional and a prim and proper Victorian to the nth degree. This tale is a psychological thriller that does not let you breathe until the last line.

The final tale -- "Because of the Dollars" -- is my favorite. It reminds me of ALMAYER'S FOLLY and OUTPOST OF THE ISLANDS with its shallow-draft vessels penetrating into the heart of remote islands. Captain Davidson is a classic Conrad hero caught in a trap: How he manages to escape it at the cost of a wife who doesn't love him and, by the way, his ability to smile is one of the author's most perfectly taut stories.

It is amusing to read Conrad's preface to the stories: He seems to be wincing excessively in response to early criticism after circulating the stories to his friends. Needless to say, his friends were over-critical: WITHIN THE TIDES struck me as a treasure that I had somehow overlooked all these years.

"Rich in allusions to the scholarly context and well annotated, this book is recommended for graduate students." --Choice

"Drawing on an impressive array of recent theoretical writing about sociology, history, and psychoanalysis, and a wide range of hermeneutical technologies, Ash's study of Conrad's psychosical dilemmas attempts to show how Conrad as an individual responds in his writings to the historical processes and socio-psychological crises engendered by industrialism, imperialism, and the political tensions, latent and manifest, of Edwardian society...Ambitious, original and engaging." --English Literature in Transition

Joseph Conrad was a master of language. In a brief but classic book, you will experience the incredible power of a typhoon while on a steamer as if you were there. Especially real is the scene in the chart room after the initial damage. It is very dark, and Captain MacWhirr lights matches to see his surroundings. Conrad's concise descriptions make you feel even the flame of the match as it burns down. If only this book were longer! I would have loved to know more about Captain MacWhirr's adventures. I HIGHLY recommend this book, as well as Conrad's "Heart of Darkness."

Well, my review title isn't very interesting but I suppose what I am trying to get at is that this story is a sort of metaphysical pornography, and squeezes in a great part of the thoughts Conrad was interested in conveying. Curtcow wrote that the audio tape is prone toward placing one in "dreamland" and this is true, and probably not at all good for the conveyance of a violent story. However, the accents give something to the personalities that I am sure I would have missed had I read this first, especially given the fact that I am an american and the story is 100 years old, written in english, and more importantly,of course, there is the sailors'slang. My own internal linguistic set-up would have had Mac Whirr speaking as I might speak, and that wouldn't have been good. Following this, I guess all americans reading Conrad might want to listen to some of his tales. It is also nice to hear Conrad's smooth sentences, which for the most part remain incredibly unaffected, given his use of metaphor and analogy and simile and the possible fact that he is using metaphor, analogy, and simile all at once. (Either that or I simply can't tell when a particular image described is one of the three.)

I don't agree with the idea that Conrad wrote this with the idea that his readers might ponder how they would react. To me it is more like a Quentin Tarentino thing - entertainment before anything. After all, this story, when compared to the very difficult, time-consuming, and at times simply burdensome Nostromo, is quite simple. (Not in any way to deny the extreme fear the story inspires) I guess at times I would have liked to hear more arguing between the sailors, but, come to think of it, the confusion of the typhoon necessarily renders that impossible.

Still, the cover to cover classics edition was quite expensive, and unlike other audio tapes I have (Middlemarch or the Odyssey especially)I doubt one year down the road I will want to listen, as opposed to read, this novella.

Taking maximum advantage from his long years at sea, and from his innate insight into the human soul, Conrad tells an outright and direct story about a huge typhoon in the midst of the Yellow Sea. But the book is not so much about the storm in itself, but about the human character and how it reacts to disaster.

Captain MacWhirr is famous for being an efficient, calm, dull and silent man, someone you would trust but not like. He seems to be rather unbrilliant, though, never understanding why people talk so much. The other characters are also interesting, especially Jukes, the "young Turk", vivid and dynamic; Solomon the head engineer, another wise man from the sea, and the disgusting and repugnant "second officer", the type of coward you don't want to be with in this kind of drama.

Human character, then, is revealed by limit-situations much more than at any other time, as war literature fans know, and this tale will leave you wondering how YOU would react if you had to make decisions in the midst of a horrible, and wonderfully depicted, typhoon.