Joseph Conrads first novel charts the decline of a Dutch merchant in Malaya. Refusing to accept the financial ruin that he has precipitated, Almayer devolves into fantasies of wealth and renewed youth.

Joseph Conrad's multilayered masterpiece tells of one nation's violent revolution and one hero's moral degeneration. Conrad convincingly invents an entire country, Costaguana, and sets it afire as warlords compete for power and a fort...