Joseph Conrad's Nostromo (1904) is widely considered his modernist masterpiece. The first of his major political novels, it depicts the effects of repeated revolution in a fictional South American state under the growing influence of the United States of America. It is an enduring portrait of global economics and politics during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This first comprehensive and authoritative critical edition offers an introduction clarifying the novel's origins and sources, while explanatory notes detail literary and historical references. An accompanying essay lays out the history of composition and publication, detailing interventions made by Conrad's editors. Also included are appendices of Conrad's source material; glossaries of nautical and foreign terms; a map; and reproductions of early drafts. By returning to (and respecting) Conrad's own early manuscript and typescript forms, this edition presents the novel and its preface in a form more authoritative than any so far.

This book reads the highly descriptive impressionist writings of Hardy and Conrad together in the light of a shared attention to sight and sound. With a focus on nature and the environment, Hugh Epstein analyses thirteen of these powerful works in the historical company of contemporary discussions in Victorian science. He re-frames their 'Victorian' and 'Modernist' labels to show how vivid and urgent these novels are for the modern reader.

With an Introduction and Notes by Hugh Epstein, Secretary of the Joseph Conrad Society of Great Britain. 'Then the vision of an enormous town presented itself, of a monstrous town...a cruel devourer of the world's light. There was room enough there to place any story, depth enough for any passion, variety enough there for any setting, darkness enough to bury five millions of lives.' Conrad's 'monstrous town' is London, and his story of espionage and counter-espionage, anarchists and embassies, is a detective story that becomes the story of Winnie Verloc's tenacity in maintaining her devotion to her peculiar and simple-minded brother, Stevie, as they pursue their very ordinary lives above a rather dubious shop in the back streets of Soho. However, far from offering any sentimental picture, The Secret Agent is Conrad's funniest novel. Its savagely witty picture of human absurdity and misunderstanding is written in an ironic style that provokes laughter and unease at the same time, and that continues to provide one of the most disturbing visions of aspiration and futility in twentieth century literature.

Explores 'scenic realism' in the major novels of Thomas Hardy and Joseph Conrad Offers the first book-length study of connections between these two major authors bringing new approaches to bear on often-taught works Provides an understanding of impressionist styles of writing that is drawn from contemporary empirical science Tells a progressive chronological story of both authors' use of the senses in their fiction Argues for a distinctive place for Hardy and Conrad in late-Victorian fiction which challenges the narrative of a modernist rupture with Victorian realism Supported by wide reading in nineteenth-century science and letters, and comprehensive knowledge of twentieth century criticism of the two novelists This book reads the highly descriptive impressionist writings of Hardy and Conrad together in the light of a shared attention to sight and sound. With a focus on nature and the environment, Hugh Epstein analyses thirteen of these powerful works in the historical company of contemporary discussions in Victorian science. He takes them beyond their 'Victorian' and 'Modernist' labels to show how vivid and urgent these novels are for the modern reader.