Freya of the Seven Isles

· Melville House
4.0
1 review
Ebook
128
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

There is a degree of bliss too intense for elation.

This little-known novella from one of the masters of the form is so unusual for Joseph Conrad's work in several respects, although not in its exotic maritime setting or its even more exotic prose—it is unusual in that it is one of his very few works to feature a woman as a leading character, and to take the form of a romance.

Still, it's a Conradian romance: a sweeping saga set in the Indian Ocean basin, against a turbulent background of barely suppressed hostilities between Dutch and British merchant navies, told by one of Conrad's classically detached narrators. In the end, the unique perspective of the sharply etched character of Freya is one of Conrad's most piercing studies of how the lust for power can drive men to greatness—or its opposite.

The Art of The Novella Series

Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.

Ratings and reviews

4.0
1 review

About the author

Jósef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski was born in Russian-controlled Ukraine to landless aristocratic Polish parents in 1857. His father, a translator of French literature, was convicted of revolutionary activities for Polish independence in 1861 and the family was exiled to Russia, where both parents soon contracted Tuberculosis and died. Raised by relatives, Jósef joined the French Merchant Marines at age 16, and spent the next two decades sailing the world, including stints with the British Merchant marines and as a gun-runner for Carlist revolutionaries in Spain. He didn't learn English until in his twenties, but at 36 he settled in London, married, and, changing his name to Joseph Conrad, commenced writing tales based on his life at sea, becoming famous for novels such as Lord Jim and Nostromo, and novellas such as Heart of Darkness and Victory. He died of a heart attack in England in 1924.

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.