The author attempts to apply developments in critical theory and practice to the entire canon of Conrad's works. Using a broadly structuralist approach, the book aims to further the reader's understanding of Conrad's fiction by analyzing his narrative method and focusing on its devices, functions, variations and thematic effects or implications.

"Heart of Darkness" contrasted with "Chance" - narrative success and narrative failure; "An Outpost of Progress" - distanced authorial narrative as textual concentration; "The Secret Sharer" - economical personal narrative; "The Tale" - epistemological uncertainty dramatized through three concentric tales; "The Nigger of the "Narcissus"" - problematic but effective combination of authorial and personal narrative; "Typhoon" - thematically productive narrative simplicity; "The Shadow-Line" - ultimate, intense personal narrative; "Lord Jim" - authorial narrative as diverse, edited personal narration; "Nostromo" - panoramic, all-inclusive authorial narrative; "The Secret Agent" - ironic and disillusioned authorial narrative; "Under Western Eyes" - modulation of simplistic personal narrative through authorial irony.

`Lothe's analyses of Conrad's narrative method and thematics use previous criticism extensively ... and carefully. Lothe is a very sensitive reader, even aware of minor bibliographical differences in the various states of given texts. His descriptions of Conrad's narrative schemes are models of clarity ... and his explanations of how information comes to the reader and how this information affects interpretation are carefully grounded on specific detail.' Review of English Studies

`Lothe's analyses of Conrad's narrative method and thematics use previous criticism extensively ... and carefully. Lothe is a very sensitive reader, even aware of minor bibliographical differences in the various states of given texts. His descriptions of Conrad's narrative schemes are models of clarity ... and his explanations of how information comes to the reader and how this information affects interpretation are carefully grounded on specific detail.' Review of English Studies