Like most people, my familiarity with Conrad began and ended with 'The Heart of Darkness'. a famously dark, brooding, visceral dredging up of human flaws. While I certainly enjoyed the moral explorations and stylistic form of the work, I didn't feel the call I feel after reading some authors that leads me to seek out their other works. 'Heart of Darkness' had plunged fully into its themes, it touched the murky bottom of the human soul, and returned with a handful of black silt for the reader to bear with them through life. Not only was the book complete, but it was a rather emotionally overwhelming experience, providing a lifetime of retrospect. What is gained by taking the plunge again, under a new title?

Little enough, I thought. Other than his magnum opus, Conrad is rarely shown the light of day, having been grouped with other 'colonial' writers like Haggard and Kipling. Yet after watching Ridley Scott's film adaptation of this story, my imagination was piqued. It is extremely true to the original story, and though there are some grim glimpses of war, it is by and large a humorous (if somewhat sardonic) story of the Napoleonic wars.

His historical romp feels much like a simplified 'Three Musketeers', and shows off Conrad's excellent pacing and sense of place. Like Melville, he also gives us a rather unique and precise historical view, replete with details and mood. It still retains much of the realism and grit of 'Heart of Darkness', but while that presents a failed adventure that soon spirals out of control, 'The Duel' takes a more romantic tack.

It's surprising to see such a delicate and varied hand from Conrad, especially as he rarely gets credit for it in literary discussion. 'Heart of Darkness' is such a powerful and contentious book that it seems to have taken over Conrad's reputation. He is so often the touchpoint of post-colonial, post-feminist, multicultural debates that he becomes merely a symbol. It is unfortunate that he is not looked on more often as simply a writer, and not a bad one, at that. ( )

Volume 4 of The Complete Short Fiction of Joseph Conrad.

Some of these stories are available as free audiobooks from https://librivox.org/ ( )