Tales of Unrest is a collection of five works of short fiction by Polish-British author

Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in t ...

. Four of the five works were previously published as serials in literary journals before appearing in the volume, published in 1898 by

T. Fisher Unwin T. Fisher Unwin was the London publishing house founded by Thomas Fisher Unwin, husband of British Liberal politician Jane Cobden in 1882. Unwin was a co-founder of the Johnson Club, formed 13 September 1884, to mark the hundred years since the ...

Stories

All of the works in Tales of Unrest, except "The Return" were published as serials before being collected in 1898. The name of the literary journal and date appears after each title. “

The Idiots ''The Idiots'' ( da, Idioterne) is a 1998 Danish dark comedy-drama film written and directed by Lars von Trier. It is his first film made in compliance with the Dogme 95 Manifesto, and is also known as Dogme #2. It is the second film in von Tr ...

” ( The Savoy, October 1896)
“

An Outpost of Progress "An Outpost of Progress" is a short story written in July 1896 by Joseph Conrad, drawing on his own experience in Belgian Congo. It was published in the magazine Cosmopolis in 1897 and was later collected in Tales of Unrest in 1898. Plot The s ...

” (

Cosmopolis Cosmopolis may refer to: Arts Film * ''Cosmopolis'' (film), a 2012 film by David Cronenberg based on the DeLillo novel * Cosmopolis, a fictional city in the ''Speed Racer'' film adaptation Literature * ''Cosmopolis'' (novel), a 2003 nove ...

, June–July 1897)
“ The Lagoon” (

The Cornhill Magazine ''The Cornhill Magazine'' (1860–1975) was a monthly Victorian magazine and literary journal named after the street address of the founding publisher Smith, Elder & Co. at 65 Cornhill in London.Laurel Brake and Marysa Demoor, ''Dictionary ...

, January 1897)
"Karain" (

Blackwood’s Magazine ''Blackwood's Magazine'' was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by the publisher William Blackwood and was originally called the ''Edinburgh Monthly Magazine''. The first number appeared in April 1817 ...

, November 1897)
“ The Return” (never appeared as a serial)

Critical Assessment

When Conrad’s first collection of short fiction appeared in 1898, he was already regarded "a writer of considerable standing and achievement" among critics, though "his popular appeal was limited". Literary critic Albert J. Guerard places ''The Tales of Unrest'' among Conrad’s outstanding works produced between 1897 and 1907, and "the most astounding periods of creative energy in the career of any novelist".

Theme

Of the five stories that compose ''Tales of Unrest'', four are concerned with destructive illusions, in which the protagonists suffer "the crippling nature of moral blindness". Literary critic Laurence Graver notes that while the word "return" appears at key moments in the stories, "no return, physical or metaphorical, is possible".Graver, 1969 p. 28

Footnotes

Sources

*Baines, Jocelyn. 1960. ''Joseph Conrad: A Critical Biography'',

McGraw-Hill Book Company McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referenc ...

, New York. *Graver, Laurence. 1969. ''Conrad’s Short Fiction.''

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

, Berkeley, California. * Guerard, Albert J. 1965. ''Conrad: The Novelist''.

Press Press may refer to: Media * Print media or news media, commonly called "the press" * Printing press, commonly called "the press" * Press (newspaper), a list of newspapers * Press TV, an Iranian television network People * Press (surname), a fam ...

, Cambridge, Massachusetts. LOC Catalog Card Number 58-8995. * J.H. Stape, ed. ''The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad'', Cambridge University Press, 2006. * Project Gutenberg (plain text and HTML)

External links

* * {{librivox book , title=Tales of Unrest , author=Conrad, Joseph Short stories by Joseph Conrad 1898 short stories