JOSEPH CONRAD A short study of his intellectual and his novels BY WILSON FOLLETT 川 New York RUSSELL & RUSSELL 1966 Copyright, 1915, by REISSUED, 1966, BY RUSSELL & RUSSELL A DIVISION OF ATHENEUM HOUSE INC. BY ARRANGEMENT WITH DOUBLEDAY & CO. INC. L.C. CATALOG CARD NO: 66—24691 REPRINTED FROM A COPY IN THE COLLECTIONS OF THE PRINCETON UNIVERSITY LIBRARY PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FOREWORD PR 6005 04Z F6 1915 a WHAT I have recklessly undertaken to supply, in the narrow space of the essay which follows, is an account in general terms of Mr. Conrad's intellectual and emotional attitude toward his work and of the most striking characteristics of that work. Other matters of importance-his life and its relation to his work, his growth in proficiency, stage by stage, his special contribution to the body and permanency of the short story as a form, his style in the more limited sense of verbal fitness and phrasal beauty, his humor (most often grim, ironical, or sardonic, but once at least, in "The Duel," airily frivolous), his treatment of character and of places and things, his assimilation of French and Russian influences, and his probable importance to modern realism-I have had to relinquish to a still more reckless occasion, and probably to a much braver pen. Any one of these matters is enough for a larger essay than the present. I have referred in every case to the American editions of Mr. Conrad's books. The Nigger of |