PODCAST · arts

Chance (version 2) by Joseph Conrad

by Loyal Books

"You are the expert in the psychological wilderness," the nominal narrator of this engaging tale says at one point to Marlow, who in practice serves as this novel's chief discoverer of hidden events, and commentator on the vagaries of human behaviour. In "Chance", these are notable chiefly in the actions of various parties — some well-meaning, some blinded by their own lofty idealism, and others frankly exploitative — who in various ways meddle in the fate of Flora de Barrall, an innocent young woman who just happens to be the only child of a fascinatingly bland and self-deluded fraudster who proves to be a very nasty piece of work indeed. Marlow's ruminations on the actions of the various players whose paths cross Flora's are always dry, and often very droll. 'Chance' was Conrad's first truly popular novel, and even today it's not hard to see why. This is Conrad at his most accessible. - Summary by Peter Dann