The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad

This volume presents all known Conrad letters from the years 1917-1919 in a framework which highlights their literary, historical, cultural, and biographical significance. Like its predecessors, this volume includes a high proportion of previously unpublished letters, and many of those already published have appeared only in small-circulation journals. Again like its predecessors, this volume is full of surprises that require us to remould our understanding of Conrad's writings. His correspondence for these years reveals his state of mind as he and his family dealt with the constant anxieties of the war-time years, and the return to a fragile peace. During this time, Conrad published three novels - The Shadow-Line, The Arrow of Gold, and The Rescue - together with a considerable amount of shorter work, was preparing for the publication of his collected works on both sides of the Atlantic, and was engaged in a critical rereading of his earlier books.