This little-known novella from one of the masters of the form is unusual for Joseph Conrad´s work in several respects. Although not in its exotic maritime setting or its even more exotic prose -it is unusual in that it is one of his very few works to feature a woman as a leading character, and to take the form of a romance.
Still, it´s a Conradian romance: a sweeping saga set in the Indian Ocean basin, against a turbulent background of barely suppressed hostilities between Dutch and British merchant navies, told by one of Conrad´s classically detached narrators. In the end, the unique perspective of the sharply etched character of Freya is one of Conrad´s most piercing studies of how the lust for power can drive men to greatness—or its opposite.