The Theme of Betrayal in Joseph Conrad's Nostromo
Graduation Date
Summer 1958
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Degree Granting Institution
Catholic University of America
Program Name
Humanities
Abstract
Nostromo, Joseph Conrad's seventh novel, appeared in 1904.. The period in Conrad's career preceding its publication was one during which he could think of nothing to write, but the book itself emerged, in Conrad's words, as "the most anxiously meditated of the longer novels" and "an intensive, creative effort on what, I suppose, will always remain my largest canvas." Nevertheless, until the present time Nostromo has remained one of the least read and least discussed of Conrad's novels. The reason the book has been ignored by many readers and critics seems to lie in the fact of its acknowledged complexity and difficulty. What little critical debate has occurred has arisen over the point of whether this complex structure helps or hinders the novel. Of the few critics who have studied Nostromo, the greater number consider it to be the finest of all Conrad's novels, indeed one of the finest novels in English literature, but some feel that Conrad has attempted too much and that the significance of the book has thus been lost.