The Nature of a Crime by Joseph Conrad (Illustrated)

By Joseph Conrad

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘The Nature of a Crime’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Complete Works of Joseph Conrad’.

Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Conrad includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

eBook features:
* The complete unabridged text of ‘The Nature of a Crime’
* Beautifully illustrated with images related to Conrad’s works
* Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook
* Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Jul 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781786565341

Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) was a Polish-British writer, regarded as one of the greatest novelists in the English language. Though he was not fluent in English until the age of twenty, Conrad mastered the language and was known for his exceptional command of stylistic prose. Inspiring a reoccurring nautical setting, Conrad’s literary work was heavily influenced by his experience as a ship’s apprentice. Conrad’s style and practice of creating anti-heroic protagonists is admired and often imitated by other authors and artists, immortalizing his innovation and genius.

Book preview

The Complete Works of

JOSEPH CONRAD

VOLUME 17 OF 51

The Nature of a Crime

Parts Edition

By Delphi Classics, 2013

Version 4

COPYRIGHT

‘The Nature of a Crime’

Joseph Conrad: Parts Edition (in 51 parts)

First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2017.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78656 534 1

Delphi Classics

is an imprint of

Delphi Publishing Ltd

Hastings, East Sussex

United Kingdom

Contact: [e-mail]

www.delphiclassics.com

Joseph Conrad: Parts Edition

This eBook is Part 17 of the Delphi Classics edition of Joseph Conrad in 51 Parts. It features the unabridged text of The Nature of a Crime from the bestselling edition of the author’s Complete Works. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. Our Parts Editions feature original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of Joseph Conrad, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

Visit here to buy the entire Parts Edition of Joseph Conrad or the Complete Works of Joseph Conrad in a single eBook.

Learn more about our Parts Edition, with free downloads, via this link or browse our most popular Parts here.

JOSEPH CONRAD

IN 51 VOLUMES

Parts Edition Contents

The Novels and Novellas

1, Almayer’s Folly

2, An Outcast of the Islands

3, The Nigger of the Narcissus

4, Lord Jim

5, The Inheritors

6, Typhoon

7, Heart of Darkness

8, Romance

9, Nostromo

10, The Secret Agent

11, Under Western Eyes

12, Chance

13, Victory

14, The Shadow-Line

15, The Arrow of Gold

16, The Rescue

17, The Nature of a Crime

18, The Rover

19, Suspense

The Short Stories

20, The Black Mate

21, The Idiots

22, The Lagoon

23, An Outpost of Progress

24, The Return

25, Karain: A Memory

26, Youth

27, Falk

28, Amy Foster

29, To-Morrow

30, The End of the Tether

31, Gaspar Ruiz

32, The Informer

33, The Brute

34, An Anarchist

35, The Duel

36, Il Conde

37, A Smile of Fortune

38, The Secret Sharer

39, Freya of the Seven Isles

40, Prince Roman

41, The Planter of Malata

42, The Partner

43, The Inn of the Two Witches

44, Because of the Dollars

45, The Warrior’s Soul

46, The Tale

The Essays

47, Notes on Life and Letters

48, Last Essays

The Memoirs

49, The Mirror of the Sea

50, A Personal Record

The Criticism

51, The Criticism

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The Nature of a Crime

By Joseph Conrad and Ford Maddox Ford

This novel was the third collaborative effort between Conrad and Ford Maddox Ford. It was serialised in the English Review in 1909 and eventually published in book form by Duckworth in 1924. Sometimes seen as a thinly-disguised fictionalisation of Ford’s life hitherto, Conrad appears to have been keen to distance himself from the book. Unlike his previous collaborations with Ford, he did not include it in the list of titles intended for the collected edition of his works. Indeed, both men claim, in the novel’s preface, to have forgotten all about the novel until its serial publication was recalled to them years later.

The novel is a dark exploration of human psychology, making effective use of the unreliable narration so powerfully employed in Ford’s masterpiece, The Good Soldier. The novel mostly concerns an unnamed middle-aged man writing to his lover, threatening to commit suicide.  During the course of his letters, he reveals his shady actions of embezzling funds from an estate of which is a trustee.  Now that the heir of the estate is about to be married, the narrator is terrified that the books will be audited and his crime discovered.  The letters then take on a philosophical air, reflecting on generalities of life and cynical thoughts on the deceit of mankind.

The rushed ending, lack of narration and the unsatisfying conclusion of the novel all testify to Conrad’s foresight, explaining his reasons for finishing the collaboration as quickly as possible.

Cover of the first edition

CONTENTS

PREFACE BY JOSEPH CONRAD

PREFACE BY FORD MADOX FORD

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

Title page of the first edition

PREFACE BY JOSEPH CONRAD

FOR years my consciousness of this small piece of collaboration has been very vague, almost impalpable, like the fleeting visits from a ghost. If I ever thought of it, and I must confess that I can hardly remember ever doing it on purpose till it was brought definitely to my notice by my collaborator, I always regarded it as something in the nature of a fragment. I was surprised and even shocked to discover that it was rounded. But I need not have been. Rounded as it is in form, using the word form in its simplest sense — printed form — it remains yet a fragment from its very nature and also from necessity. It