Nostromo Introduction by Tony Tanner

"One of the greatest political novels in any language, Nostromo enacts the establishment of modern capitalism in a remote South American province locked between the Andes and the Pacific. In the harbour town of Sulaco, a vivid cast of characters is caught up in a civil war to decide whether its fabulously wealthy silver mine, funded by American money but owned by a third-generation English immigrant, can be preserved from the hands of venal politicians. Greed and corruption seep into the lives of everyone, and Nostromo, the principled Capataz, is tested to the limit. Conrad's evocation of the great Latin-American landscapes, the ferocity of its politics, and individuals swept up in imperial ambitions has never been bettered. This edition offers new insights into Conrad's masterpiece."--BOOK JACKET.

Tony Tanner is Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and author of Adultery in the Novel, The Reign of Wonder, Venice Desired (forthcoming) and Studies of James, Bellow, Pynchon and Jane Austen.