A Dutch clerk, fired for embezzlement and abandoned by his wife, gets a second chance at work and love in this atmospheric tale of greed and lust. Rich in evocative details, Conrad's second novel provides a cynical view of colonialism in 19th-century Indonesia. It constitutes the middle volume of the Lingard Trilogy, which began with Almayer's Folly and concluded in The Rescue.

Joseph Conrad (1857?1924) was fluent from birth in French as well as his native Polish. He learned his third language, English, as an adult, and it was in English that he wrote his evocative stories and novels. Conrad drew upon his experiences in the British and French navies to portray the struggles of humanity amid the world's vast indifference.