Nostromo

Joseph Conrad
With an Introduction and Notes by Robert Hampson, Royal Holloway College, University of London

Nostromo is the only man capable of the decisive action needed to save silver of the San Tome mine and secure independence for Sulaco, Occidental Province of the Latin American state of Costaguana. Is his integrity as unassailable as everyone believes, or will his ideals, like those which have inspired the struggling state itself, buckle under economic and political pressures?

Nostromo is an extraordinary illustration of the impact of foreign commercial exploits on a young developing nation, and of the problenms of reconciling individual idenity with a social role. Conrad peoples his imaginary Latin American state with a multi-national cast of fully-rounded characters to achieve strikling realism and create a novel that he called 'my largest canvas'.