Within the Tides (1915) was the last volume of short stories published during Conrad's lifetime. In this book, the stories are published for the first time in a critical edition based upon a thorough analysis of the original documents, and the critical texts have been emended so as to include Conrad's later revisions. The introduction discusses Conrad's main sources and influences, places the stories in their contemporary contexts and traces the volume's contemporary reception. The essay on the texts and the 'Apparatus' document the history of composition and publication and detail the revisions that the texts underwent, demonstrating as well how editors and compositors shaped their presentation in serial form. Also included are explanatory notes glossing literary and historical allusions. Two glossaries - of nautical terms and of foreign words and phrases - further enrich the explanatory matter, as do a map and six illustrations.

Bringing together work composed from 1890 to 1924, the nineteen pieces collected in the posthumously published Last Essays (1926) serve as a primer to Conrad's wide interests and to the varieties of his style. This edition, supported by an extensive textual apparatus, brings together various prose pieces, including reminiscences, reviews, essays on the sea and politics, as well as several miscellaneous items, including his 'Congo Diary' and the other notebook he kept in Africa in 1890. The introduction situates these writings in Conrad's career, offers new perspectives on Conrad in the marketplace and as a writer of occasional prose and traces the contemporary reception of the volume. The notes explain literary and historical references, identify real-life places and indicate Conrad's main sources. Early drafts and notes for several essays are published here for the first time, making this authoritative critical edition a major contribution to Conrad studies.

Set in the South of France during the waning days of the French Revolution and the early years of Napoleonic rule, The Rover (1923) is the last novel that Conrad completed in his lifetime. A popular success on its publication, it explores, against the backdrop of dramatic political change and the Anglo-French hostilities leading up to the Battle of Trafalgar, the themes of personal and national identity, loyalty and love. The 'Introduction' situates the novel in Conrad's career and traces its sources and contemporary reception. Explanatory notes illuminate literary and historical references and indicate Conrad's sources. The essay on the text and the apparatus lay out the history of the work's composition and publication, detail the interventions in the text by Conrad's typists, compositors and editors and explain editorial policy. This edition of The Rover, established through modern textual scholarship, presents the novel in a form more authoritative than any so far printed.

Published in 1915, Victory: An Island Tale holds a special place in Conrad's later writings as a bold experiment in genre. The novel variously draws upon realism, allegory and melodrama to explore large themes: commitment and solidarity, the individual's relationship to society and the power of love. The Introduction situates the novel in Conrad's career and traces its sources and contemporary reception. The essay on the text and the apparatus lay out the history of the work's composition and publication, and detail the extensive interventions by Conrad's typists, compositors and editors. Also included are notes explaining literary and historical references, a glossary of nautical terms, illustrations including pictures of early drafts, and appendixes. Established through modern textual scholarship, this edition of Victory presents the novel in a form more authoritative than any so far printed, and restores a text that has circulated in highly defective forms since its original publication.

This is the 11th volume of Variants: the Journal of the European Society for Textual Scholarship. Founded in 2002, Variants provides an international, interdisciplinary and comparative forum for the theory and practice of textual scholarship without restriction as to language, region or period. With its traditionally strong focus on textual editing in the electronic era, this issue has no less than four articles on the frameworks, principles and aspects of state of the art digital editions and best practice in the use of computers in scholarly editing. Other contributions are devoted to the sociology of texts, authorial agency, modern codicology, and the problems of editing large text traditions in English, German, Lithuanian, Portuguese and Spanish literature and history.

This volume is the 10th issue of "Variants." In keeping with the mission of the European Society for Textual Scholarship, the articles are richly interdisciplinary and transnational. They bring to bear a wide range of topics and disciplines on the field of textual scholarship: historical linguistics, digital scholarly editing, classical philology, Dutch, English, Finnish and Swedish Literature, publishing traditions in Japan, book history, cultural history and folklore. The questions that are explored - what texts are worth editing? what is the nature of the relationship between text, work, document and book? what is a critical digital edition? - all return to fundamental issues that have been at the heart of the editorial discipline for decades. With refreshing insight they assess the increasingly hybrid nature of the theoretical considerations and practical methodologies employed by textual scholars, while reasserting the relevance and need for producing scholarly editions, whether in print or digital, and continuing advanced research in bibliographical codes, textual transmissions, genetic dossiers, the fluidity of texts and other such subjects that connect textual scholarship with broader investigations into our nations' literary culture and written heritage.