Nostromo: (A Tale of the Seaboard)

Publisher Marketing: "So foul a sky clears not without a storm." -SHAKESPEARE "Nostromo" is the most anxiously meditated of the longer novels which belong to the period following upon the publication of the "Typhoon" volume of short stories. I don't mean to say that I became then conscious of any im-pending change in my mentality and in my attitude towards the tasks of my writing life. And perhaps there was never any change, except in that mysterious, extraneous thing which has nothing to do with the theories of art; a subtle change in the nature of the inspiration; a phenomenon for which I can not in any way be held responsible. What, however, did cause me some concern was that after finishing the last story of the "Typhoon" volume it seemed somehow that there was nothing more in the world to write about. This so strangely negative but disturbing mood lasted some lit-tle time; and then, as with many of my longer stories, the first hint for "Nostromo" came to me in the shape of a vagrant anecdote completely destitute of valuable details. As a matter of fact in 1875 or '6, when very young, in the West Indies or rather in the Gulf of Mexico, for my contacts with land were short, few, and fleeting, I heard the story of some man who was supposed to have stolen single-handed a whole lighter-full of silver, somewhere on the Tierra Firme seaboard during the trou-bles of a revolution. Review Citations: Library Journal 10/01/1997 (EAN 9780786111251, Analog Audio Cassette) Wilson Fiction Catalog 01/01/2000 pg. 136 (EAN 9780679409908, Hardcover) Wilson Fiction Catalog 01/01/2006 pg. 193 (EAN 9780679409908, Hardcover) Wilson Fiction Catalog 01/01/2010 pg. 121 (EAN 9780679409908, Hardcover) Wilson Fiction Catalog 01/01/2014 pg. 161 (EAN 9780679409908, Hardcover) Audio File 08/01/2011 pg. 35 (EAN 9781441750518, Compact Disc) Contributor Bio:  Conrad, Joseph Polish author Joseph Conrad is considered to be one of the greatest English-language novelists, a remarkable achievement considering English was not his first language. Conrad s literary works often featured a nautical setting, reflecting the influences of his early career in the Merchant Navy, and his depictions of the struggles of the human spirit in a cold, indifferent world are best exemplified in such seminal works as Heart of Darkness, Lord JimM, The Secret Agent, Nostromo, and Typhoon. Regarded as a forerunner of modernist literature, Conrad s writing style and characters have influenced such distinguished writers as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William S. Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson, and George Orwell, among many others. Many of Conrad s novels have been adapted for film, most notably Heart of Darkness, which served as the inspiration and foundation for Francis Ford Coppola s 1979 film Apocalypse Now.