By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
F. Scott Fitzgerald left behind one of the most perfect novels ever written, The Great Gatsby: at least, that is the version of many critics. But even Fitzgerald once said, ‘I’d rather have written Conrad’s Nostromo than any other novel.’
Yet Nostromo is a challenging and multi-layered novel, demanding much of its readers, even when compared with the high demand Conrad places on his other fiction. What is Nostromo about, and how should we analyse this classic modernist novel about South American mining, capitalism, and revolution?