Tales of Unrest: Joseph Conrad

These five stories were collected and published as Tales of Unrest in 1898, shortly before Heart of Darkness, the first of Conrad`s major novels. Ranging from the faraway and unfamiliar, where the acquisitiveness of colonial adventure is damningly exposed, to an ostensibly ordinary London household, these disparate tales display Conrad`s ability to explore and lay bare human nature.
Set in Central Africa, `An Outpost of Progress` is suffused with irony and represents a ruthlessly mocking view of European imperialism. `Karain` and `The Lagoon` are exotic tales of the Malay Archipelago, with the former telling of disharmony and discord between Western traders and the indigenous inhabitants. `The Return` recounts the story of, in the author`s own words, "a desirable middle-class town residence which somehow manages to produce a sinister effect". The collection also includes `The Idiots`, the first of Conrad`s short stories to be serialized in an English magazine.