Joseph Conrad: The Complete Collection 5 Books Victory, The Secret Agent, Nostromo & more

Joseph Conrad: The Complete Collection 5 Books brings together five works by Joseph Conrad: Victory, The Secret Agent, Nostromo, Lord Jim and Heart of Darkness. The set spans novels and shorter fiction, moving from remote islands in the Malay Archipelago to London, and from the sea to the Congo during the 19th century.

Across these titles, Conrad explores characters shaped by isolation, political intrigue and moral pressure. The collection includes a London-set novel centred on an attack on the Greenwich Observatory in 1894, a sea-based story of an English boy drawn into a sailor’s life, and a shorter work set amid rapid colonial expansion, examining the effects of exploitation on European and African societies.

Included titles

• Victory
• The Secret Agent
• Nostromo
• Lord Jim
• Heart of Darkness

Key details

• Collection of five books by Joseph Conrad
• Includes novels and shorter fiction
• The Secret Agent is set in London
• Nostromo was published in 1904
• Lord Jim was completed in 1900

Synopses

Victory

Axel Heyst, a restless drifter, believes he can avoid suffering by cutting himself off from others. After becoming involved with a coal company on a remote island in the Malay Archipelago, he withdraws again when it fails. His life changes when he rescues a young English girl, Lena, from Zangiacomo’s Ladies’ Orchestra and the innkeeper Schomberg, bringing her to his island retreat, where their relationship develops as she struggles against his detachment.

The Secret Agent

In the only novel Conrad set in London, the story centres on an attack on the Greenwich Observatory in 1894. It is masterminded by Verloc, a Russian spy working for the police and posing as a member of an anarchist group in Soho. Ordered to discredit the anarchists, he sets a plan in motion that goes disastrously wrong, leaving him to face the consequences.

Nostromo

Published in 1904, this novel presents an insurrectionary society and the opportunities it creates for moral corruption. The narrative is described as insistently dramatic, with a vivid recreation of a subtropical landscape and a sharply observant intelligence.

Lord Jim

Completed in 1900, this compact novel is, at its baseline, a book of the sea. An English boy from a simple town dreams of a larger life and enters the sailor’s world at an early age. Through the waters he travels, the story becomes an exploration of the human spirit and a portrait of a character who reaches the status of a literary hero.

Heart of Darkness

Generally regarded as the pre-eminent work of Conrad’s shorter fiction, this tale is set in the Congo during the period of rapid colonial expansion in the 19th century. It examines the disturbing effects of economic, social and political exploitation on European and African societies, and the extreme behaviour this can induce in individuals.