The Theme of Betrayal in Joseph Conrad\u27s Nostromo

Nostromo, Joseph Conrad\u27s seventh novel, appeared in 1904.. The period in Conrad\u27s career preceding its publication was one during which he could think of nothing to write, but the book itself emerged, in Conrad\u27s words, as the most anxiously meditated of the longer novels and an intensive, creative effort on what, I suppose, will always remain my largest canvas. Nevertheless, until the present time Nostromo has remained one of the least read and least discussed of Conrad\u27s novels. The reason the book has been ignored by many readers and critics seems to lie in the fact of its acknow­ledged complexity and difficulty. What little critical debate has occurred has arisen over the point of whether this complex structure helps or hinders the novel. Of the few critics who have studied Nostromo, the greater number consider it to be the finest of all Conrad\u27s novels, indeed one of the finest novels in English literature, but some feel that Conrad has attempted too much and that the significance of the book has thus been lost