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Audiobook edition · 7 h 1 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a settled life meets a fear that will not let it rest?
In Tales of Unrest, Joseph Conrad brings together five dark stories of people whose sense of order begins to crack. A chief cannot escape his past. Two clerks trust the habits of civilization at a remote African trading station. A prosperous London man discovers how little his comfortable home protects him from inner turmoil.
The stories move from the Malay islands and African interior to Brittany and London. Karain carries a secret fear, Jean-Pierre Bacadou longs for an heir, and Arsat tells a traveler about the choice that brings him to a lonely lagoon. Across these different lives, Conrad explores guilt, empire, grief, and the strain beneath a calm face.
What you’ll discover
- Karain: A Memory Meet a proud chief whose power offers no shelter from the fear that follows him.
- The Idiots Enter rural Brittany, where a farmer’s hopes for his land collide with family tragedy.
- An Outpost of Progress Watch two clerks cling to their assumptions as colonial trade exposes their moral emptiness.
- The Return Step inside Alvan Hervey’s respectable home, where polite phrases cannot contain the strain of marriage.
- The Lagoon Follow a boat through the forest toward Arsat’s haunting story of loyalty, loss, and regret.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy tales of the sea and the tropics, moral puzzles, and strange nighttime confessions will love this collection. It suits lovers of atmospheric short fiction and close portraits of people under pressure.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Karain rules a bay like a stage
- A fugitive confesses his haunting
- Two idiots stand on a Breton road
- Jean-Pierre bargains with heaven and loses
- Two clerks are left at the end of the river
- Idleness and ivory wear down their scruples
- Alvan Hervey lives among mirrors
- A letter, a return, and a night of talk
- A white traveler stops at the lagoon
- Arsat tells how love set him against his world
Who’s who
- KarainA Bugis war chief who rules a bay in Mindanao in splendid dress and hides a haunting from his people.
- HollisThe youngest of the three white traders, who listens to Karain's confession and wants to help him.
- Jean-Pierre BacadouA Breton farmer who wants strong sons to work his land and bargains with fate to get them.
- KayertsThe fat chief of a trading post, a former telegraph clerk who misses the safe routines of home.
- CarlierKayerts's assistant, an ex-army man who is lazy, boastful and bitter at being sent to Africa.
- MakolaThe clerk of the trading station, quiet and watchful, who turns the white men's helplessness to his own use.
- Alvan HerveyA rich, proper Londoner who values reputation and reads a letter from his wife that unsettles his world.
- ArsatA Malay man who lives on a haunted lagoon and tells a white friend the story of his love.
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Tales of Unrest
by Joseph Conrad · 1898
A chief swims through a storm to a schooner, chased by a voice that only he can hear.
Easy read5–10 hours to readDeutsch
Excellent
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In short
What happens to a person when the rules that held them up are taken away? Joseph Conrad asks this again and again in Tales of Unrest, five short stories from the 1890s, early in his writing life.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Karain rules a bay like a stage
The first story opens on a bay in Mindanao in the Philippines, seen through the eyes of white traders who run guns there. They meet Karain, a war chief who rules three villages on a narrow plain. His people call themselves his slaves and read their thoughts in his eyes.
Conrad paints the place like a stage. The hills are purple, the sands yellow, the sun fierce. Karain plays his part with perfect dignity, wrapped in silks, swinging a staff with a gold head. The narrator says he is like an actor, and no one can tell what void the show might hide.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1898
- Language
- Deutsch
- Reading time
- 4 h 30 min
- Level
- Easy read
Cite this edition
Conrad, Joseph. Tales of Unrest. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/tales-of-unrest.
Conrad, J. (2026). Tales of unrest. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/tales-of-unrest (Original work published 1898)
Conrad, Joseph. Tales of Unrest. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/tales-of-unrest.
@book{conrad2026tales,
author = {Conrad, Joseph},
title = {Tales of Unrest},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/tales-of-unrest},
note = {First published 1898}
}
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What is Tales of Unrest about?
It collects five stories by Joseph Conrad about people whose settled lives are shaken, in the Philippines, Brittany, Africa, London and Malaya. Each character faces fear, guilt or desire that old habits and beliefs cannot contain.
Which stories are in Tales of Unrest?
The book has five stories in this order: Karain, The Idiots, An Outpost of Progress, The Return and The Lagoon. Conrad wrote The Lagoon first, and it stands last in the volume.
Why did Conrad call the book Tales of Unrest?
Each story shows a restless mind. Karain cannot find peace from a haunting, and Jean-Pierre cannot settle his grief. Kayerts and Carlier grow uneasy in the wilderness, and Alvan Hervey cannot rest after his wife's letter.
The author
Joseph Conrad
1857–1924 · Polish-British novelist
Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) was a Polish-British writer born in Berdychiv, then in the Russian Empire and now in Ukraine. He worked at sea before settling in England. He wrote in English. His works include Heart of Darkness (1899), Lord Jim (1900), Nostromo (1904), and The Secret Agent (1907).
More by Joseph Conrad
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