A Century of "Nostromo"

Najder examines Nostromo, a century-old novel that many considered as Joseph Conrad's "masterwork." He argues that one of the strongest impressions left by Nostromo is the contrast between nature--imposing, silent, physically dominating, changeless nature--and the fragility of human arrangements, of any political setup. The easiness of passage from order to chaos, from normalcy to turmoil and upheaval, from stability to violence is a recurrent, if not specified, motif of this novel.