'Nostromo' is good, but it is a difficult read. The thematic focus is uniformly dark and unpleasant. Every single character of the large cast is defeated. Conrad must have been depressed out of his mind when he wrote this work. The language is heavy but strong. On a technical level a very impressive novel. ( )

I took grade 12 English in High School from 1979 to 1980. During that year our teacher introduced Joseph Conrad and I read Lord Jim. I began a Joseph Conrad mania for the next while and ended up buying all of his books that I could find and read them all, including Nostromo, shortly after that. (I still haven't got around to the ones that he did with Ford Maddox Ford, although I have read that author's The March of Literature.)

All of the Penguins were being published with the light green covers, which I came to love, and I have 10 or 11 volumes in that style. Then they switched to orange, black and white, which I am not fond of at all. (As if it makes any difference to the text.)

In 2004 I realized that it had been about 25 years since I had read an appreciable amount of Joseph Conrad, so at that time, I selected Nostromo as the work that I would reread.

So it was very interesting to compare what I remembered of it after such a long interval. I am happy to say that I was able to remember quite a bit and that it was not just a complete blank. I had been fearful that the novel would have been erased from my memory since with my advancing age, there are some recent things that I don't recall as easily as I would like. However, since I was only about 19 or 20 when I originally read it, my youthful mental powers may have been able to create a more indelible record, retrievable even after 25 years. Perhaps it is only the recent records in my memory, created in my forties, that are too weak to begin with to then be retrievable even after an interval as short as a year or two.

Anyway, all of this has not too much to do with the actual book.

I am fascinated with learning of second languages, and am constantly amazed by Joseph Conrad's language and syntax in English, given that this was at least his third language (after Polish and French, apparently.)

If I can ever get as good at German, French, or Russian (all of which I have dabbled in to some degree) as Joseph Contrad was in English, then I will truly have accomplished something.

Hard to follow at times but still very good. ( )

Like all Conrad books, the reader has to concentrate to fully appreciate it. The ending could be accused of being melodramatic but the best thing about the novel is the vast array of characters. As a political-historical novel, it is excellent. ( )

I had a hard time connecting with the characters. It was well into the book that I felt it got interesting. ( )