Foreword: Frank Kermode -- Joseph Conrad: alienation and commitment -- Almayer's Folly: introduction -- Conrad criticism and The Nigger of the 'Narcissus' -- Conrad's Heart of Darkness and the critics -- Comedy and humour in Typhoon -- Political and social background of The Secret Agent -- The Secret Sharer: introduction -- Conrad, James and Chance -- Story and idea in The Shadow-Line -- The decline of the decline: notes on Conrad's reputation -- Around Conrad's grave -- 'The Bridge over the River Kwai' as myth
Watt's work, Conrad in the Nineteenth Century, was to have been followed by a volume addressing Conrad's later work, but the material for this second volume remained in essay form. It is these essays which form the nucleus of Essays on Conrad
