The Polish years : 1857-1874. Soundings

Birth

Surviving

Breaking away

The French interlude : 1874-1878. Bearings

On the edge

"Don Quixote"

The English mariner : 1878-1889. Sailing on English ships

The first test

Moving toward the Narcissus

The master mariner and the apprentice writer

In Leopold's Congo : 1889-1890. Embarking

Journey to the end of the night

The writer : 1891-1899. Limbo

Turning to shore

Toward the self

Marriage and rescue

Holding on

"Into the mouth of hell"

The Novelist : 1899-1904

The major career : 1899-1910. Racing into print

Pinker and Jim

Ford and romance

Nostromo

Nostromo's epigone

"The pit of Babel"

Sailing close

Burrowing in

The English review

"Dreams, hags, magic sleights"

Through Victory : 1911-1915. Enter John Quinn and André Gide

"I fear not death, but dying gives me pause"

Craft or courage, which?

Fortune, not wisdom, rules the life of man

Final things : 1916-1924. "This age is broken down, the earth outworn"

"A little dust, a ghost, a gossip's tale"

A dubious rescue

"Idle days breed wandering thoughts"

"Sleep after toyle, port after stormie seas".