This wide-ranging collection comprises the following six short stories by Joseph Conrad:

• Youth: A Narrative (1902)
• Karain: A Memory (1898)
• An Outpost of Progress (1898)
• The Lagoon (1898)
• Amy Foster (1909)
• The Anarchist - A Desperate Tale (1903)

Youth: A Narrative is an epic tale of a perilous voyage under sail to Bangkok, with a cargo of coal, narrated by Charles Marlow.

An Outpost of Progress, a darkly comic tale, set in an African ivory-trading station, is very much a prelude to Heart of Darkness.

Amy Foster is about a Polish man shipwrecked on the English coast and his subsequent alienation, loneliness and love.

The Lagoon and Karain: A Memory are gripping tales from the Malay archipelago.

The Anarchist charts the journey of a skilled mechanic from Paris to a desolate cattle station in South America, via Devil's Island.