This fifth of eight volumes comprising all the surviving letters of Joseph Conrad covers a notable period in Conrad's life and work, and in twentieth-century history. Suffragette campaigns, the Easter Rising in Dublin, the latest in French literature, the antics of the young John Conrad, and the loss of the Titanic are all discussed. But much of this volume is dominated by the 1914-18 War. Letters from the last days of peace show Conrad finishing Chance and Victory. Later correspondence tells of the Conrads' flight from Cracow at the outbreak of war, the sight and sound of zeppelins over England, Conrad's expeditions with the Royal Naval Reserve, and the writing of The Shadow-Line, in which Conrad's memories of his own first command converge with the experience of his son Borys and other young soldiers.
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