Last Essays

First edition

Last Essays is a volume of essays by Joseph Conrad, edited with an introduction by Richard Curle, and published posthumously in 1926 (London & Toronto: J. M. Dent & Sons).

The volume includes nineteen shorter pieces, mainly written by Conrad for various newspapers and magazines after the publication of Notes on Life and Letters in 1921. Together with the 1978 volume The Congo Diary and Other Uncollected Pieces, edited by Zdzislaw Najder, they contain all of Conrad's miscellaneous writing.

The essays in Last Essays are mainly about sea travel or literature. Apart from the first essay, "Geography and Some Explorers", they are not of any great consequence, but contain many passages of interest to the enthusiast. The volume also contains "Legends", the unfinished essay Conrad was working on when he died, and "The Congo Diary", Conrad's first known writing, since often reprinted, and of great interest to the student of Heart of Darkness.

List of contents