PART ONE:THE WRITER AND HIS SETTINGChronological table 2
1 BIOGRAPHIGAL BACKGROUND 7
The double man 7
Poland 8
Marseille 17
England and the Merchant Navy 20
The Congo and its aftermath 25
The second career:Conrad the novelist 28
2 CULTURAL BACKGROUND 42
The tensions 42
Conrad's pessimism 44
Religious matters 47
Poland and Conrad's political outlook 51
Imperialism 55
Science and determinism 64
The Superfluous Man 65
The Hamlet/Don Quixote dichotomy 67
Anti-rational primitivism 74
Determinism and solipsism 79
Darkness and the dying sun 82
Darwinism 85
Darwinism and psychology 88
Atavism and doubles 90
Evolution,Aestheticism and sex 93
Literary influences 99
PART TWO:THE ART OF CONRAD 111
3 CONRAD ON HIS ART 111
4 THE PRESSURE TOWARDS PARADOX 114
5 THE COVERT PLOT:THREE EXAMPLES 119
1．Abdulla's defeat of Almayer in Almayer's Folly 119
2．The conspiracy against Kurtz in'Heart of Darkness' 119
3．The attempt to defraud the hero in The Shadow-Line 120
6 TEXTUAL COMMENTARIES 122
The opening of Almayer's Folly(1895) 122
The ending of'An Outpost of Progress'(1897) 124
A passage from'Heart of Darkness'(1899) 126
Jim's jump:Lord Jim(1900) 131
The ending of'The Secret Sharer'(1910) 133
Two Conradian cruces 135
7 NOSTROMO 140
Genesis and production 140
Sources 140
Nostromo and the meanings of its techniques 150
Critical challenges 163
Chronology and topography 169
8 HEROES,HEROINES,GENDER AND FEMINISM 176
Models of conduct 176
A type-list 178
Feminist criticisms of Conrad 180
9 CONRAD's PLACE IN LITERARY HISTORY 184
PART THREE:REFERENCE SECTION 193
A list of symbolic or allegoric names in Conrad's fiction 193
Gazetteer 198
Short biographies 200
Further reading 207
INDEXES 211
General Index 211
Index to Conrad's Works 217