Thirteen contributors from a variety of backgrounds tackle the use of irony, contrast, narrative, themes of belonging, Englishness, imperialism, portrayals of women, and conceptions of truth and evil as they were expressed in the work of Joseph Conrad.

Wieslaw Krajka expands Conrad criticism to explore the modernist's mastery of literary technique and his contribution to visions of humanity. Krajka's collection opens with two essays that explore the identity of Conrad, his characters, and his narrators, and then engages with the ideology, philosophy, and ethics of Conrad's fiction, especially the balance he strikes between literary technique and the meanings those techniques convey.